Over the last few seasons, Andrew Molleur has been a force in the SK Modified ranks in Connecticut.
Molleur was the 2024 SK Modified champion at Stafford Speedway. In 2025 he won an SK Modified championship at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
But in 2026 the focus will shift for the Shelton driver.
Molleur had previously announced he would run full-time in 2026 on the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series for the Petty Cash Motorsports team.
Now Molleur will be adding to those Tour Type Modified efforts with another full-time ride.
Molleur will compete full-time for team owner Danny Watts Jr. on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in 2026.
The team will make its debut with Molleur in the driver’s seat at Martinsville Speedway on March 27 for the second Whelen Modified Tour event of the 2026 season. The division opened its season on Feb. 7 at New Smyrna Speedway.
“It means the world to me,” Molleur told RaceDayCT. “I grew up with my dad racing on the [Whelen Modified] Tour and my earliest racing memories are my dad’s Whelen Modified Tour car in our garage. At that time I was three years old, he was racing in 2006.
“Growing up racing Quarter Midgets, racing Bandolero’s at Waterford, racing Legend Cars, the end goal for all of us racers in New England is to make it to the [Whelen] Modified Tour for Modified drivers. That’s kind of like our New England ‘Cup Series’. If you can make it to the Tour then you kind of made it. To make it to that level and to do it with someone like Danny Watts, who has had success on the Tour, who is dedicated to the sport and loved by many in the garage – I’m sure a lot of people are very excited to see him back in the garage area against – I’m just very excited to do it with him.”
The 22-year old Molleur has made six career Whelen Modified Tour starts, with the last coming in 2021. He has never competed at Martinsville, a facility he calls one of his favorite in all of motorsports.
“I think when you talk about racing and you talk about trophies, all of us racers, we all love our trophies and one of the most coveted trophies in all of racing is the Martinsville grandfather clock right?” Molleur said. “To be able to go race at Martinsville, that’s one of my favorite races on the Cup Series schedule every year. … To be able to go to that race track, my first time ever going to the race track to race is even cooler. To be able to go there and race is going to be something I’ll never forget.
“When it comes to Martinsville, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks watching every Modified race that I could find on YouTube from Martinsville. I’ve probably run about 2,500 laps on iRacing at this point. Ive been doing that on a daily basis.”
Watts, who has been involved with the Whelen Modified Tour as a driver and team owner since the late 1980’s, announced after the 2023 season that he was retiring from full-time competition on the Whelen Modified Tour. Watts fielded cars for Woody Pitkat in five Whelen Modified Tour events in 2024 and in four events in 2025.
The Watts ride will mean double-duty for Molleur for Ice Breaker weekend at Thompson Speedway. He’ll run the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series season opener on April 11 at Thompson for Petty Cash Motorsports and then the Whelen Modified Tour event at Thompson on April 12.
It’s a new beginning for the Petty Cash Motorsports team, which established itself as a force in the SK Modified pits at Stafford in recent years and celebrated a championship with Molleur in 2024.
“I think at this point they’ve kind of accomplished what they wanted to accomplish in SK [Modified] racing and I think they’re looking forward to kind of moving on to doing some [Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series] racing and Open Modified racing,” Molleur said. “Our plan is to run the full schedule on the Tri-Track and take a shot at some Open Modified shows. We’re building a brand new car for that. It will look completely different than when it was at Stafford as an SK [Modified]. Just a new beginning with that.”
Molleur said he also expects to run select SK Modified events at Stafford and Waterford with his family owned team.
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Congrats to Andrew. Danny Watts deserves good results with all the hard work and dedication he puts into the team and ownership. Best of luck to the 82 this year.