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.

Renee's top-ten run ends in this multi-car accident. Accident courtesy of James Civali; Photo courtesy of Howie Hodge.

On Thursday, September 3 the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returned to Thompson International Speedway for the running of the Budweiser 150.

The 33 teams assembled in the pit area began the afternoon with an hour long practice session. The No. 90 team concluded the session posting mid-pack times – but were confident they had a better than mid-pack car.

Despite an early draw (the car went out 9^th for qualifying) Renee topped the leader board – maintaining the pole for some time. When it was all said and done, she posted the 8^th fastest time of the day.

Following time trials, Renee – along with the rest of the starting lineup – participated in an autograph session on the track’s midway.

When the green flag dropped, the No. 90 team started the race from the 6^th spot (the top-ten cars redraw for starting position). Renee ran inside the top-ten for the first 72 laps – and was running in the 7^th position when the caution flew on lap 72. Pitting along with the rest of the leaders, the car came to pit road for tires and no adjustments.

“The guys did an excellent job in the pits – getting us back out onto the track in 7^th,” recalls Renee.  “They did a great job all day long – the pit stop was just something else that went right for us today.”

When the track went green again, the No. 90 car continued to race in the top-ten. On a lap-91 restart Renee was in the 8^th position – behind the No. 1 (Rob Summers) car and outside the No. 17 car (Glen Reen). Coming off of turn two, James Civali (car 79) pulled the pin and attempted a three-wide move on the bottom that ended up putting Summers in the wall. With absolutely nowhere to go, Renee became airborne over the 1 car – riding the top of the wall and narrowly missing the catch fence. When the cars came to rest – Renee’s left front was literally sitting on Summer’s carburetor. With the racing surface almost completely blocked, an extended red flag period ensued.

“I’m actually sick. We had a great run going and we flat out got wrecked by Civali’s stupidity. He wasn’t faster than us…he had been running behind us prior to the restart…he just threw it in there and wrecked a lot of good cars in the process. We ran strong all day long, we were running a smart, competitive race and we have zero to show for it. Actually, it’s less than zero because we’ll have to shell out the money to put the car back together.”

“On the bright side, we’ve been running really strong. Ed has been giving us great set-ups in the cars, the fresh Billy the Kid engine we have in there has some serious power, our tire guy (Don Clifford) is hitting the stagger just perfect and our crew guys have had excellent stops. Things have really come together in those areas and I’m thankful to everyone involved for all their efforts.”

Next up, the team will compete in the September 19^th event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway during the Sylvania 300 Sprint Cup weekend.