Today, NASCAR announced the ‘UNOH Perfect Storm 150′ at Bristol Motor Speedway will be broadcast live on SPEED. The NASCAR Whelen Modified and Southern Modified Tour combination race will be carried live starting at 6 PM ET on Wednesday, August 18.

The UNOH Perfect Storm 150 will run just prior to NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series ‘O’Reilly 200′ – which will also air on SPEED.

As it turns out, it will be a big week for the Whelen Modified Tour on SPEED: A day after the Bristol telecast, the New England 100 – which was contested back on June 26 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway – will premier on Thursday, August 19 at 6 PM ET.

Looking forward, on Saturday, September 18 SPEED will also carry same-day broadcast coverage of the Whelen Modified Tour ‘F.W. Webb 100‘ at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The No. 90 UNION Insurance Group Chevrolet comes off turn four at Monadnock. Hodge Photo.

On Saturday (July 17) NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour returned to Monadnock Speedway (Winchester, NH) for the first time in 20 years. The trip to ‘Mad Dog’ – as the .25-mile facility has been nicknamed – marks the halfway point in the 2010 season.

Following registration and inspection, two 45-minute practice sessions were held. With some radio assistance from Dale Evonsion, the team picked up the pace in the second session.

“When I saw Carol (our spotter) chatting with Dale – I thought ‘he has a ton of laps here, maybe he can help me figure this place out.’ The two of them helped tremendously,” recalled Renee.

After practice, came qualifying. In qualifying, Renee timed 17^th – and, as a result, had to run a 25-lap heat race. She finished third.

At about 9 PM, the green flag dropped on the 175-lap feature. The team struggled with an ill handling race car for most of the race.

“We pitted for adjustments several times and the guys did an excellent job in the pits. Running on .25-mile tracks requires super fast pit stops – if you don’t want to lose laps. The guys made all the changes we called for while keeping us on the lead lap. The pit stops are the best thing that happened all night.”

On lap 135 several cars got together in front of Renee, while she slowed to avoid the wreck, she got shoved into the accident from behind. It took two laps to pull away from the pile-up and another three laps in the pits while the crew repaired the front end.

In the end, Renee finished 18^th – and is now ranked 17^th in the points standings.

Next up, on Saturday, July 31 the Tour will compete at Long Island’s .25-mile Riverhead Raceway in another 175-lap feature. The race at Riverhead will be broadcast in primetime on Versus on Wednesday, August 4 at 8 PM.

On Wednesday, NASCAR and VERSUS announced the broadcast schedule for NASCAR’s 2010 Whelen Modified Tour season.

Versus will package each of the five events it will cover into one-hour, high definition broadcasts which will air at 7 PM on the Wednesday following each race. All races will re-air on the Sunday following the initial broadcast.

With this announcement, it now means that 10 of the 14 MWT events scheduled for 2010 will be nationally broadcast – between Versus and SPEED coverage.

As previously announced, SPEED will broadcast WMT events from Martinsville Speedway (June 6), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (June 26), Lime Rock Park (July 3), Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 18) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 18).

“We are so excited about the television package NASCAR is bringing to the table this season,” commented Renee. “Our primary sponsor – UNION Insurance Group – is based out of Chicago, so nationally broadcast events are a real home run for them. Regardless of location, this type of media attention is going to be a huge bonus to all our supporters. This is a really big deal – we couldn’t be happier. As competitors, we’ve been asking NASCAR for expanded TV coverage for years – so we really owe a debt of gratitude to them for coming through for us.”

Versus Modified Broadcast Schedule

Riverhead Raceway – Race date: July 31
Air date: Aug 4, 7 p.m.; Re-air: Aug. 8, 11 p.m.
Stafford Motor Speedway – Race date: Aug. 6
Air date: Aug. 11, 7 p.m.; Re-air: Aug. 15, 11 p.m.
Thompson International Speedway – Race date: Aug. 12
Air date: Aug. 25, 7 p.m.; Re-air: Aug. 29, midnight
Stafford Motor Speedway – Race date: Oct. 3
Air date: Oct. 6, 7 p.m.; Re-air: Oct. 10, 11 p.m.
Thompson International Speedway – Race date: Oct. 17
Air date: Oct. 20, 7 p.m.; Re-air: Oct. 24, 11 p.m.

NASCAR recently announced the television schedule for its developmental series for the 2010 season. The expanded calendar includes five events on SPEED for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. The Martinsville, Lime Rock, Bristol and two New Hampshire races are included in SPEED’s coverage.

In addition, NASCAR will expand its relationship with the sports cable television network Versus to include coverage of an additional nine events combined between the NASCAR Whelen Modified and Southern Modified Tours. The Versus programming schedules are currently being finalized and details will be announced shortly.

“Our NASCAR Developmental Series all have a strong and passionate fan base, and we saw the results in the viewership of last year’s,” said George Silbermann, NASCAR managing director of racing operations. “Our fans spoke, and we listened. We are thrilled to be able to work with our television partners to provide extensive coverage of the talented drivers and tracks that help form the foundation of this sport.”

While the team is hard at work preparing the cars for the fast approaching season, we figured we’d fill you in on some recent happenings.

First, thanks go out to UNION Insurance Group for incorporating a picture of our team on the home page of their newly designed (and just released) website. Based in Chicago, UNION Insurance Group is the largest 100% union organized property and casualty insurance agency in the country. Our team is excited to be associated with such a fine organization and hope to do them proud during the 2010 season.

Second, the team would also like to thank Lime Rock Park for continuing to display a picture of our car on the homepage of their website too. A few weeks back we participated in the Frank Marratta Auto & Cycle Show with Lime Rock. And, looking ahead, we look forward to continuing to work with Lime Rock to promote our Tour’s only road course appearance – on July 3 – at their world renowned facility.

Lastly, Renee recently took part in an on-line radio interview on RaceFanRadio.com with Theresa Earnheart of Track Chic Live. Renee joined fellow ‘Five Women Wrenching’ teammates Deb & Lauren Cooper, Heather DesRochers, Erica Santos and Renea Topp in a lengthy discussion on each individual’s role in the world of motorsports. The interview aired on February 11 at 7 PM, but for those that missed the interview, archive downloads are available online.

Special thanks go out to Mark Hann of Victory Motorsports Marketing Services for arranging all the details for the interview – and for putting together the all-women pit crew team that made the interview possible!

NASCAR’s Whelen Modified Tour made the second of two stops to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Loudon, NH) on Saturday, September 19^th. The 100-lap race aired from 1-2:30 PM on SPEED (garnering a .5 rating; meaning 349,000 total households – or 442,000 viewers – tuned in).

A field of 40 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour cars take the green at NHMS. Dupuis Photo.

Long before the cameras rolled, after arriving at the Speedway on Wednesday evening, for the WMT faithful, the extended event began at the crack of dawn on Thursday; after registration and inspection, an early afternoon practice session was followed by qualifying. In the end, Renee qualified the No. 90 UNION Insurance Group/SpaceFitters Chevrolet to the 17^th position (in total, 40 cars participated in time trials).

With no WMT activity scheduled for Friday, the team returned to the track on Saturday – for an 8:30 AM practice and 12:45 PM green flag. The No. 90 machine started the caution-filled race from the inside of the ninth row. When the caution flew on lap 35, the No. 90 was scored in the 13^th position. On lap 50, when some of the leaders pitted, they restarted from the 9^th spot.

“After the caution we started to get loose and began dropping like a stone,” explained Renee. “There had been so many cautions, I figured we would quickly catch another and pit for tires. However, the race went green for 20 laps.”

When the caution finally flew on lap 70 the team brought the No. 90 car into the pits for a three tire change and fuel. During the caution just a few cars pitted so, despite a great stop by the pit crew, the car returned to the track all the way back in the 28^th position.

The crew enjoyed a traditional New England treat - courtesy of Crew Chief Jason and City Fish (Wethersfield, CT) - on Friday.

“Donnie (Clifford – the team’s tire expert) came across the radio and told me that – with just 8½ pounds in the left rear – we clearly had a tire going down. As a result, the stagger had drastically opened up to 4¼ inches. I guess we got lucky because, in my opinion, losing a tire here would be catastrophic. Regardless, the 4¼ inches made it pretty clear why we had gotten so loose.”

With their problem solved, Renee began to pick off spots and by the time the caution waved again on lap 87 she had made it back to the 16^th position. When the checkered flag was unfurled Ronnie Silk was credited with the win, with Renee crossing the line 14^th.

“There were three or four really big wrecks that happened right in front of us today and I have to hand it to Brian (Kingsbury – the team’s spotter) – for keeping us out of those accidents. I had a pretty good seat to see all the action, but I’m looking forward to watching the SPEED coverage to see just how close some of those actually were.”

While the WMT will next be in action at Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, VA) on Sunday, September 27, the No. 90 team will return to action on Sunday, October 4 for Stafford Motor Speedway’s (Stafford Springs, CT) annual Fall Final event.

In the meantime, please be sure to visit our gallery for photos from the New Hampshire event.

When the Whelen Modified Tour returns to New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Loudon, NH), on Saturday, September 19^th, the cameras from SPEED will again be rolling.

SPEED will air the race from the ‘Magic Mile’ on a slight tape-delay. The race, which is scheduled to go green at 12:50 PM, will air at 1:30 PM – with the ever-knowledgeable Mike Joy and Dick Berggren calling the action from the NHMS booth.

For those that can’t make it to the track, SPEED will provide an excellent opportunity for viewers to catch all the action from the always entertaining race.

As per a recent release from NASCAR, Modified fans everywhere will be able to follow all the race action from New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 27. Those not able to make it to the track will be able to listen to play-by-play audio for the New England 100 as it will be streamed live on www.nascarhometracks.com (the official site for NASCAR’s touring and weekly series).

Loudon, NH's 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Matt Carey and Jay Coffey, hosts of the “Carey & Coffey Show,” and Kyle Rickey will handle the broadcast of the New England 100 on Saturday, June 27 from Loudon, NH.

In addition to the online coverage, fans will be able to tune into the New England 100 on ESPN Radio 940 WINE or 1510 WPUT, the flagship stations of the “Carey & Coffey Show.”

The New England 100, which produced the closest race in NASCAR history last year when Chuck Hossfeld edged Ted Christopher by 0.001 seconds, is set to take the green flag at 1 PM on June 27. The live broadcast will begin with pre-race at 12:30PM and conclude with the post-race press conference.

The New England 100 is the fourth race on the 2009 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule, and the first of two dates for the Tour at New Hampshire. For event and ticket information, please visit New Hampshire’s official Web site, www.nhms.com.