Summer Heat: Mikey Flynn Tops Dramatic Battle For Win In SK Modified At Stafford

STAFFORD – On July 26, 2024 Mikey Flynn scored his long awaited first SK Modified victory at Stafford Speedway. 

Friday the Hampden, Mass. veteran found the July goodness once again. 

Flynn held off Jon Puleo on the final lap to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford. 

It was the second career SK Modified victory for Flynn, who held off Troy Talman for the lead on a lap 34 restart and then defended the charges of Puleo and Andrew Molleur over the closing stages. 

“It was good racing with those guys,” Flynn said. “We had a really good piece tonight. This thing was a rocket ship. I knew right from the green flag that we had something contend for the win. I was able to get to the front kind of early in the first half of the race and then I was able to pick off the first three, get around [Talman for the lead] and hold off [Molleur] and [Puleo].” 

Puleo, of Branford, was second. 

If it’s going to be anybody I’m happy it’s [Flynn] and Andrew [Molleur] up here,” Puleo said. “We have a really good group of guys, we work pretty good.” 

Molleur, the reigning SK Modified division champion at Stafford, got his first podium of 2025. 

“This is like a win for us after the season we’ve had,” said Molleur, of Shelton. “… Just thanks to everybody at Petty Cash Motorsports for not giving up. It’s just been a pretty rough year for us after the great season we had last year. You’ll have that, you’ll have your good years and you’ll have your bad years. … It’s been a tough one but hopefully it continues to get better from here.” 

Molleur controlled at the front of the field on the opening lap with Todd Owen slotting into second place. 

On lap three Owen got under Molleur into turn three. The pair came off turn four side-by-side with Owen leading at the start-finish line to complete lap three. 

On lap four Alexander Pearl found a lane under Molleur to move into second. The first caution flew on lap five for the slowed car of Curt Brainard. 

Following the lap five restart Molleur got a run under Owen off of turn two and regained the lead through turns three and four. Troy Talman followed Molleur to move into second. 

On lap six contact from Alexander Pearl nearly put Owen in the backstretch wall, but Owen made a huge save on a sideways slide to keep things going straight. 

Talman got by Molleur for the lead on lap eight. A lap later Pearl got under Molleur off of turn two to move to second with Flynn following the lane into third. 

Pearl stalked all over the bumper of Talman at the front. On lap 16 Pearl gave Talman a tap through turn one. Talman slowed through turn two. Pearl tried to go to the high lane, but it was Flynn jumping to the low lane to move from third to the lead. Molleur got by Pearl to move to third. 

On lap 18 Talman found the route back by Flynn to regain the top spot. 

Flynn continued challenging Talman and on lap 23 Flynn was able to get to the low lane through turns three and four and move back to the front. 

With Flynn leading, Talman in second and Molleur third, the second caution of the race flew on lap 34 for the spun car of David Arute in turn four. 

On the restart Molleur looked to make it three wide through turn one, but backed out of the move off of turn two. Behind the leaders sixth place running Keith Rocco made contact with fifth place Pearl which led to Rocco getting into the backstretch wall and setting off a wreck that would also collect eighth place Mike Christopher Jr. 

Flynn and Talman went side-by-side for three quarters of a lap following the restart before Flynn took control once again through turn four. 

On lap 36 Molleur was able to get under Talman to move into second with Puleo following to third. Puleo then got by Molleur out of turn four on lap 37 to move to second. 

Puleo closed to Flynn’s bumper off of turn two on the final lap, but Flynn deftly defended the top spot through the final two corners to hang on to the checkered flag. 

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