Ken Allen Captures Win At Scorching Hot Spring Sizzler

Ken Allen's Tour Modified stock car

It was a scorching hot afternoon in Stafford Springs, Connecticut with the air temperature hovering at 86 degrees Fahrenheit and a track temperature over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This made for an incredibly slick Stafford Motor Speedway half-mile oval where drivers raced 200 laps with only one extra set of tires at their disposal. Round #5 of the YesterYear Racing™ League Tour Modified series was set to be an interesting one. When the checkered flag flew, it was Kenny Allen winning his first YesterYear Racing™ League event. "I was very careful to save my tires throughout the race as I knew that would be critical. I also have to thank fellow driver Brian Bianchi. I know that he knows this track very well. I noticed a couple of years ago that Brian drove a unique racing line around this track. I wanted to learn it, so I did. I ran into some trouble at last year's race, but was able to stay clean this year and fortunately things worked out," Allen said in his post-race interview. Allen also started from the pole position with a lap time of 18.899. With the victory, Allen moved into fourth place in the overall season standings.

The season standings point leader coming into the Spring Sizzler was the "Iceman," James Lowe. He was 60 points clear of Luke Logan Allen in second place. Lowe had his typical no-fills, no-mistakes run going and looked like a lock to get second place behind Kenny Allen as the checkered flag neared. But a mistake coming out of turn 2 with only a couple of laps remaining got his car loose and allowed Eric Stout to make the pass to claim the second spot on the podium. "I was pretty much resigned to the fact I would get third place in the race. Kenny had checked out and it looked like James was not going to catch him, but was fast enough where I could not get around. But then he suddenly got loose and slid up the track out of turn 2 and I was able to make the pass," said Stout after the race .For his part, Lowe noted the mistake, but said he would gladly take a top three finish here and move on to Irwindale.

The race saw four cautions for thirteen laps. Numerous drivers got caught with black flags midway through the race which put them a lap or more down. Only nine of the nineteen cars that took the grid finished on the lead lap.

The Series takes a month-long break before coming back on Tuesday, May 26 to race the YesterYear Classic at Irwindale Speedway. The YesterYear Classic was run at Martinsville Speedway in both 2024 and 2025, but heads to the "Golden state" this year for the 225-lap event. That race will be the first time the YesterYear Racing™ League Tour Modifieds will have been to the half-mile oval in California.

When asked about the month-long break, YesterYear Racing™ League Founder and co-owner Allen Wannamaker said, "We have several breaks during our year-long season. Because we essentially re-race an actual NASCAR Whelen Tour Modified schedule, which usually consists of 14-16 races, we have breaks. In reality, the Tour Mods cannot run every week like NASCAR Cup, O'Reilley, or the trucks. They simply do not have the sponsorship money in the series, nor do they have car owners with deep pockets. This is a working man, blue collar series in real life. Most Tour Modified drivers have full-time jobs outside of racing. We usually break for a month around this time of year. We are a third of the way through our 15-race season and I'm pretty optimistic about how the season is going. We have visited a couple of new tracks the Series has not run before, are averaging 24 cars on the grid, and the racing has been good. In addition, we have had four different winners in five races. If you were to have given me those stats prior to the start of the season, I would have taken them."