EPISODE 13 – MY COUSIN VINNY

Your Modified journey starts right here on this week's edition of The Modified Minute Podcast!

This week, you'll hear from a young driver who etched his name into the history books by becoming the 102nd different driver to win an SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl — Nicholas Hovey. Nicholas joins the show to discuss his racing career, his breakthrough victory, and what lies ahead as he continues to climb the Modified racing ladder.

Also stopping by is Cory DiMatteo, who explains why he has scaled back his own driving schedule this season. Cory shares how his focus has shifted toward helping his cousin, Vinny Rappoccio, as crew chief in their pursuit of success at the Waterford Speedbowl.

Plus, you'll meet one of the most inspirational competitors in Modified racing, Bryan Narducci. Bryan opens up about the challenges of competing with cerebral palsy and why he refuses to let anything stand in the way of achieving his racing dreams. His determination and passion for the sport are truly remarkable.

Three great stories. Three passionate racers. One destination for everything Modified racing.

🏁 Subscribe, like, and share to help us grow the Modified racing community.

#ModifiedMinute #ModifiedRacing #SKModified #WaterfordSpeedbowl #NicholasHovey #CoryDiMatteo #VinnyRappoccio #BryanNarducci #WhelenModifiedTour #ShortTrackRacing #RacingPodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:04

This week on the modified minute.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Obviously, with this terrible palsy, I knew that you know, playing soccer or football or basketball probably wasn't gonna be in the cards.

SPEAKER_09 0:15

And you weren't gonna be on uh dancing with the stars.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Definitely not. So I felt like you know, racing was my best shot of doing something that I love to do.

SPEAKER_08 0:24

So I actually enjoy it, you know, like proof keeping for Vinny and proof keeping for my brother a handful of times, and my girlfriend there. I think I get more satisfaction working on the car and winning than you do driving because you could see the whole picture.

SPEAKER_06 0:39

Um, you know, obviously I would have liked to won the championship, but uh I would consider it a failure. But, you know, if somebody asked me, I think it was this spring, whether I would have rather had the one win that she had, the championship, or whether I would have had the six wins and everything else that came along with it. You know, the six wins are hard to give up.

SPEAKER_10 0:58

All that plus hot dog of the week, radio replay, and either or. So tighten those belts because this week's modified minute is next. They're called the Mod Squad. Ground pounders, the men that live by the grace of God and 600 horsepower. Expert plumbing contractors, you can trust by time pro. Exceeding your expectations. And by Ferguson Contractors, building excellent since 1925. Here's Jack.

SPEAKER_09 2:30

It's nice to see you again. Now, on your modified journey this week, you'll hear from a young driver that became the 102nd different SK modified winner at the Waterford Speed Bowl. Nicholas Hovey is his name, and he's quite the character. Corey DiMateo joins me and explains why he's reduced his driving schedule this season so he can crew chief for his cousin Vinny Rapocio at the Waterford Speed Bowl. And Brian Narducci stops by and explains why, despite cerebral palsy, he will not give up on his driving dreams. So let's not delay any longer, shall we? Let's unpack things, starting with getting you up to speed.

SPEAKER_10 3:23

Mid-state safety, knowledge, and innovation.

SPEAKER_09 3:28

There was no racing at Stafford as the track hosted their first ever Formula Drift event. Meanwhile, at Waterford Saturday night, it was Kevin Cormier who took the 25 Lab main event for S Day Life, over Greg Dognet and Robert Flox in the third. It was Jonathan Julio who typed out his first. And now, you are 15.

SPEAKER_10 4:46

Here's a look at the championship cases. Brought to you by time, bro, exceeding your expectations.

SPEAKER_09 5:18

Next up is a second stop at the Seacon Speedway on July 1st. Round two of the Time Pro Triple Crown takes place at the end of July at the Stafford Motor Speedway, while the Smart Modified Tour ranks back up on July 4th at the Caraway Speedway. You know they always say that blood is thicker than water. Well, that's the case with Corey DiMateo. While he still races in the Monaco Modified Tri-Track series, Saturday nights, you can find this winner of more than a dozen SK modified races serving as the crew chief for his cousin Vinny at the Waterford Speedbowl.

SPEAKER_10 5:59

Time to drop in at the race shop and get the inside dope from the guys who twist the wrenches. It's crew call, brought to you by Ferguson Contractors, building excellence since 1925.

SPEAKER_09 6:12

Hey Corey, it's good to see you. Before we get to your work with my cousin Vinny, as I like to call it, uh, I want to go back and talk a little bit with you about your racing career because it it's you and your brother Dana kind of burst on the scene with bandoleros and with legends cars, and the next thing you know, you guys are tearing up the racetracks in the SK Light Division, and then you moved up into the SKs. Was was it a steep learning curve for you or did it come natural to you?

SPEAKER_08 6:46

Uh probably a little bit of both. It definitely was the legend cards were hard to figure out. The modified came easier than the legend cards I thought, but um, it definitely took a lot of learning and uh a lot of hard work. You know, it's nothing came easy from that perspective.

SPEAKER_09 7:04

And yet you had a great deal of success. And one of the things that I don't think people realize is as much as you and your brother and everybody else in the family loved the Stafford Motor Speedway, Waterford was your home. It was close to where y'all lived, it was close to where y'all went down to the beach every weekend, and uh that was where you got your first SK modified victory back in 2020. What was that like, Core?

SPEAKER_08 7:30

That was awesome. Um, so my uncle, who uh uh unfortunately passed away, but he was the car owner at that point, he lived in Saybrook, so he wanted to run Waterford so he could go show up right before the feature, watch the racing go home, and then go home an hour and a half. Um it was cool that Waterford's always been home. Um always loved the racetrack. Feels more like a driver's track, but um yeah, that's that's where we grew up racing.

SPEAKER_09 7:55

Well what what makes it like your driver's track?

SPEAKER_08 7:58

There's two ways you know you can really move around and and use the racetrack to your advantage, but I always tell like I was telling Vinny and I tell my girlfriend all the time, if you're two, three tents off in practice, don't sweat it, because you can make up for it in a race. Stafford, once you get strong, if you're two or three tents off, you're pretty well screwed if you don't have a lot of good luck on your side. But Waterford, it seems like you can make your own luck a lot of nights.

SPEAKER_09 8:23

Well you moved up into uh John Hummel's number eleven and uh some some pretty good success. In fact, I remember when you won, you know, back to back reach, but then oh my god, 2025 was basically the first few months was it was a horror show for you guys. The wheels fell off the wagon.

SPEAKER_08 8:46

Yeah, they um they bought a brand new car from um Billy Bear Goligio. John ended up purchasing the car and you know, newer's not always better. The car we were winning our races with was a ninety-seven and the new one just I don't know if we never found a sweet spot for it or Yeah, I don't really know, but we definitely struggled the beginning of the year there.

SPEAKER_09 9:09

Well, there was a moment, and I and I know, you know, uh John passed away. Uh your uncle John Manafort passed away in early December, and I know from the spring sizzler on what you desperately wanted to do, and it finally clicked and happened in a really tight race with you and Michael Christopher uh on August 8th, 2025.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

They are bumper to bumper! White flag is up. Here comes Christopher to the bottom, and there's contact! One lap to go. They bang and they beat on each other. It upsets Christopher's car just a bit. It works to the advantage of Corey DiMateo. Bottom of turn three. Here they come back to the swipe. Corey DiMateo has done it. He'll take down the win.

SPEAKER_09 9:53

It was a pretty emotional time for you in Victory Lane.

SPEAKER_07 9:57

I'm gonna get in trouble for this, but I gotta say it. I lost my uncle this uh offseason. He was a huge support of ours, and every time we had a race like that, I would come home to a text that said, Fucking A. So here's to him, and I know he's looking down on us, and he's he's proud, but uh Yeah, I never really got choked up like that before.

SPEAKER_08 10:16

Ever racing. Um just never happened to me, but something about that race. You know, my my uncle loved beating Mike, I think, more than anybody else. He was extra happy when we beat him. So it was cool that that first win after he passed came like a ri on a race like that, and he he would have been happy, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_09 10:37

Well, I'm sure he is. I'm sure looking down he saw it, and I'm sure he's smiling an awful lot with what you're doing with your cousin uh as he uh enters his rookie season at the Waterford Speedbowl in the SK Lights. What about you? You got any driving schedule for the season?

SPEAKER_08 10:54

Yeah, so we're actually working on a car right now. Me, Pete, uh Joey, and uh Steve Lombardi were down here, hopefully gonna make it Saturday for the SK show down at Waterford, and then we have a couple open modified shows on the schedule, so it's gonna pick up a little bit more here than it was at the beginning of the year for us.

SPEAKER_09 11:12

But you got the headset on, you got the wrenches out, and you're tutoring a young guy uh that is related to you. And when we had him on the show, I thought he paid you and your brother a great compliment. He said, Look, I grew up with these guys, so I understand what they're trying to tell me. And I you know, and I I thought when I visited with you guys at last weekend down at Waterford, he is like a sponge. He's the kid's got the talent, but uh you've got the ability to kind of rein him in and show him the ropes. Where do you see his strongest suit being?

SPEAKER_08 11:48

He's not scared. It it's way way easier to slow him down than it is to speed him up. And he definitely wants to go fast. He's not worried about getting hurt, which is huge. Um and he listens real well, you know. He if you tell him to do this or do that, he makes the adjustments and he doesn't go three or four weeks trying to learn.

SPEAKER_09 12:09

What about you serving as a crew chief? I mean, it's one thing to work on your own stuff, it's another thing to be the go-to guy for someone else, and that's basically what you're doing there on uh on Saturday nights with uh with Vinny.

SPEAKER_08 12:25

I actually enjoy it, you know, like crew keeping for Vinny and crew keeping for my brother a handful of times, and my girlfriend there. I think I get more satisfaction working on the car and winning than you do driving because you could see the whole picture and the whole day come together, you know? It's not just going out there and running twenty-five or thirty laps. But it it's definitely a lot of fun. It's fun to uh bust the shops and get them wound up at times, but you know, it's it's been good, it's been a lot of fun, and I I really truly enjoy it.

SPEAKER_09 12:56

Is it giving you a different perspective?

SPEAKER_08 12:59

It is you know the last couple years reason for the people for I know you hear that a lot, but it's like I went to Waterford last weekend with our open car and we unloaded your content bracket. And no fault to my guys, but we're we're a young team and you know experience kind of bit and I'm learning more and more the better you surround yourself with better people, the better off you are with your result.

SPEAKER_09 13:31

How about Vincent? What do you think lies ahead for him? Is he gonna follow in your and Dana's footsteps and move from SK lights and and move on up to the to the big time quote unquote New England racing? Or how long do you think how long is crew chief, okay, Corey DiMateo, do you want to see your driver stay in the SK lights?

SPEAKER_08 13:55

Ideally I'd like to see him stay a couple years because I don't want to race against him. But uh no, he you know, I I think a lot of people make the mistake today to jump right to the SK. And then, you know, after three, four years, that's that's all you're going. You're only going SK, you might run open car. You know, it's there's a huge rush to get to the SK modify division. I think if he takes a couple years and really craft in the SKY, he's just gonna make that SK transition that much easier for What do you think his strongest race craft is right now?

SPEAKER_09 14:32

I think going fast. Really? I think you could make a joke.

SPEAKER_08 14:39

He doesn't know how any better, so he doesn't get in his own head about, you know, oh my god, I have this much stagger or I don't have enough stagger. He just goes out there and he drives and Some days I wish I was like that because if you miss or if you're worried about something, he just doesn't worry about anything. He just goes out there and races. And I think that's a huge asset to have.

SPEAKER_09 15:01

Well, I think it's a huge asset to have you and your brother too in his corner. And uh, you know, I'm sure people have made the joke before, you know, from the movie My Cousin Vizzy Vinny. And that took you realize that turns out to be you you and Dana are the two youths.

SPEAKER_08 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 15:16

You don't remember that movie, do you?

SPEAKER_08 15:18

I do. That's one of my favorite movies. The two youths.

SPEAKER_09 15:22

Hey, listen, it's always a pleasure. Look forward to uh you getting back behind the wheel, and uh most importantly, tutoring and bringing along a kid that I said it when I watched him, and I think I mentioned it to you. He's got a lot of talent.

SPEAKER_08 15:36

Really, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_09 15:39

Yeah. Nothing's that's something you and I didn't have. Oh no.

SPEAKER_08 15:43

No, not that. That's true.

SPEAKER_09 15:46

Corey, it's a pleasure. Thanks for joining us here on the Modified Minute.

SPEAKER_08 15:50

Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_09 15:52

It was difficult to select a hot dog of the week for this episode. Quite frankly, there were few, if any, outstanding performances on the modified circuit. So we ventured off the board just a little bit.

SPEAKER_10 16:06

It's now time to reveal this week's Modified Minute Hot Dog of the Week. Someone who stood above the rest. Brought to you by Hummel Brothers, Quality Meets. The top dog in modified racing. 100% quality since 1933.

SPEAKER_09 16:26

At Thanksgiving dinner at his girlfriend's last year, her dad offered Riley O'Keefe a chance to wheel his SK modifier. O'Keefe, who's considered an Inex Legends car icon on Long Island, jumped at the chance and has been a regular this season on Friday nights at Stafford Motor Speedway. But his notoriety exploded when we captured his reaction to avoiding a major crash on last week's throttle down.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

We're good, we're good.

SPEAKER_10 17:08

Nice day, nice day.

SPEAKER_11 17:29

We're out of turn for win number four of the year for Riley O'Keefe.

SPEAKER_07 17:33

He thought he knew all my tricks, and next week thought I left early on and wanted and drove right into himself.

SPEAKER_09 17:38

Well, it wasn't in a modified. Riley Streak of 5 for 6 in his legends car has earned him this week's Hot Dog of the Week. You know, when Carl Edwards first started his racing career, he used to hand out business cards with his name and a slogan that said, Have helmet will travel. And maybe my next guest should look into that option. You see, despite winning two national titles and more than twenty races in four different types of cars, Brian Narducci is still looking for a home.

SPEAKER_10 18:15

It's racer spotlight time. Brought to you by Riverhead Building Supply. Build better. Build stronger.

SPEAKER_09 18:24

For Brian, to prepare for this interview, I decided to type into the chat GPT. Brian Narducci. Let me read for you the bottom line after they listed all of your accomplishments. And I quote, Narducci is widely regarded as one of the strongest young modified races to emerge from Connecticut in recent years, progressing from SK Lights to SK modifieds and even occasional appearances in the NASCAR Wheel and Modified tour. So right off the bat, the hard question for me to you is why don't you have a regular ride?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

I think all in uh this day and age it's all about money, and unfortunately that's something that I lack a little bit of. So I think that's the main reason, to be honest.

SPEAKER_09 19:16

So you go out and you beat the bushes, how do you put together these deals?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, over the last couple years I've tried to come connect with all the loyal sponsors that I've had over the years, like uh Chris Chris Hour and Tommy Baldwin, and just people like that that I know have had my back through the times, the good times, and uh they've helped me out a little bit to come back and run a couple times this year, but it's uh definitely especially after Waterford, like that was just an expensive day to race one time. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_09 19:49

Yeah, yeah. You you you don't lack affordability. Certainly with the number of wins and with the two national championships uh with the SK Lights and everything that you have ever strapped yourself into, Brian, you've adapted to very quickly. What is the critical part of a driver's race crap that allows him to do that?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I mean, I think uh I've heard I listened to Alexander's interview with you uh last week. And I think a lot of it has to do with just coming up through the ranks and driving different types of cars. I feel like that's that's one of the biggest things that's helped me is just the wide array of cars I've driven in the 10 years I've been racing big cars. I think that's uh I think that's something that helps a lot of the kids coming up nowadays is running the wild pink cars and going to legends or something of that nature and then moving up instead of just going straight to the big cars.

SPEAKER_09 20:48

You've had success in all the different divisions, including limited late models, late models. Full-fendered cars, they just strike me as being totally different than running an open-wheel modified.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Uh yeah, and I think I think that helped me when I started with the limited. That was the first car I drove for actually for your nephew for David. And I think running two years of that kind of prepared me. It got me, because those are like the heaviest cars, you know, the race in staff, or they're 3,100 pounds. So you gotta wrestle that thing around. So I think running that prepared me to run an SK Lite and that kind of stepped me up to the modified ranks. Just getting my feet wet and something where you can feel the weight, you feel the nose move, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_09 21:36

Tell me about your feelings for the night that you captured your first ever SK modified win.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Double checkers are out, and Brian Darducci wins at Stafford! It's actually really funny because it was uh it was five years ago yesterday, and it's been popping up on all my uh my memories on Facebook and stuff. It was amazing. I mean uh the week I had that week went up with bear. I think I want to say that was on Sunday. So up until Thursday I wasn't gonna race. And then we put together a deal with Keith Rocco. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_09 22:21

You also spend a lot of time in this modern has that made you a better race car driver.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

In some ways, yeah, just seeing how races play out, especially the longer races. I've done a lot of tour stuff in the last couple years. Um I think that helps me just seeing how everything plays out, especially when it comes to like pit stop stuff, because I had never done much of that stuff myself. So now I have better understanding of just the longer race playouts, and then you know, I like spotting in Stafford on a Friday night. It's just it's fun to come back and help out.

SPEAKER_09 22:59

You know, throughout your career, one of your probably best benefactors, maybe not financially, has been Todd Owen and Chassis Pro. Uh you hooked up with them early in your career, and in many ways, when we had Todd on, he actually talked about the need to pay it forward, the need to take young talent like you and help you better understand how important has that relationship with Todd been to Brian Narducci.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Oh tremendously the word ethic, the work ethic from him and his guys. Just uh second and none. Everything from the start till now. I can't even really put it into words, to be honest.

SPEAKER_09 23:54

A lot of people may or may not know uh that uh I say you were a golden child. And it is, quite honestly, because you know you were born as a premature baby, spent more than a month in in the hospital as uh over the course of the first year or so. Dude, you died three times, okay? And yet I'm sure you don't remember that, but what you but what you do remember is you you decided to push through cerebral palsy. And uh not saying you raced with a handicap, but you didn't let that stop you from pursuing your dream. How dedicated did you have to be to overcome that handicap?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Pretty dedicated. I mean, when I wanted to start racing, I think I wanted to start when I was like, I don't know, seven, eight years old, and my parents wouldn't let me here first. Then I had to, you know, practice getting out of the go-kart a bunch of times before they would even let me race, or even I think even let me let me try it. Like hours of getting in and getting out, just making sure I could do it. And then uh same with the limited lay model. It was just my mom made me do that the whole winter leading up to the first year. Just getting in and out, making sure if something ever happened, I could do it. And uh yeah, it's it's been a tough road, but we're here and I'd like to stay in the racing world and just keep it going.

SPEAKER_09 25:28

And I only bring it up because I think that that gives you an inner drive that may be lacking with others, because you just do not let no, or you can't, or you know, you better think of doing something else, ever get in your way for what your goals are.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yeah, I try not to, for sure. And uh obviously with the cerebral palsy, I knew that you know, playing soccer or football or basketball probably wasn't gonna be in the cart.

SPEAKER_09 25:57

So you weren't gonna be on uh dancing with the stars.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Definitely not. So I felt like you know, racing was my best shot at doing something that I love to do, so decided to keep pursuing it and keep trying to make it.

SPEAKER_09 26:11

Do you ever get frustrated?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

In what aspect?

SPEAKER_09 26:15

In in this pursuit, because as I said, the you know everybody sees the talent that you have, but you're right. This game is fueled even at this level by cubic dollars. And unless you have a golden briefcase or a very rich, successful businessman as a father, uh you you're basically already two strikes at the plate.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, yeah, you're right. It's definitely frustrating. Um you see a lot some some guys that have, you know, they're not very good, but they have a lot of money, so they move up. But then you see some people that are just stuck where they are because they don't have the financial backing, even though the talent screw the roof. So it's definitely frustrating. I see it for a lot of other guys.

SPEAKER_09 27:08

No better way to put it.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

No better way to put it. Listen, unfortunately, I don't think it'll ever change.

SPEAKER_09 27:16

But will it change for you? What's on the horizon for the rest of the year? This is look, this is your opportunity. You can make your elevator pitch right now for someone to come out of the come out of the corn stocks and provide you with the cubic dollars to continue to race.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

I'd like to run the uh the other two races in uh CyanPro Triple Crown up at Stafford. Um hopefully I can put together something with Todd to run one of his cars again and be able to showcase what I can still do. Um other than that, I'm not really sure what else is going on. Nothing nothing really lined up other than those.

SPEAKER_09 27:56

Well, can you make the sales pitch to somebody? The microphone is yours, my friend. What you know, what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Uh just I have an engine, so it's it's really just about getting the tire sponsors to be able to run the races. I mean, the tires are almost a thousand dollars a set, so it's it's just getting crazy. So that's that's pretty if I can get the tire sponsors, then it's a lot easier on me to do it. But uh other than that, that's I got an oil fuel sponsor and uh a couple others, but tires are the main thing.

SPEAKER_09 28:33

All right, so we gotta get you a tire sponsor. Anyone out there watching this podcast that wants to step up and provide a set of tires to Brian Narducci, how do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 28:44

Uh they can reach out to my phone number or reach out to you, and you can get in contact and Facebook, whatever whatever it is. All right. I got all of it.

SPEAKER_09 28:54

All right. Well, you know, you know, I've been in your corner ever since you decided to uh to to do uh SK lights, and uh we have that little uh flip you the bird every time you go out on the road.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah, every time I come out of the track and you're up in the tower. I see you up there.

SPEAKER_09 29:09

I just l I'm just letting you know you're number one. Hey Brian, we wish you the very best and thanks for joining me here on the Modified Minute.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Thanks, Jackie. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_09 29:20

Have you ever had a bad day at the office? Well, drivers sometimes have bad days as well. And in this week's throttle down, we watch and listen as David Arut tries to bring home his ailing SK number 75 in just one piece.

SPEAKER_10 29:37

This is Throttle Down Time, where you get to ride along inside a modified. Brought to you by Wattell Communications, your Northeast track side dealer for radios and repairs. You're riding with David Arut in the Monaco at Riven 75.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

I just try and get up to use the button. I know you're trying, but it's not working, good job, man.

SPEAKER_09 32:54

You know, recently, Nicholas Hovey became the 102nd different modified driver to win at the Waterford Speed Bowl. And to prove that he was no one-hit wonder, he came back the following week and scored his second career win at the Shoreline Oval. Let's meet the kid from Chaplin, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_10 33:16

This is SK Sounding. News from the SK, SK Life, and 602 Modified World. Brought to you by Wheelers Auto Services, the finest in top-level service of premier automobile makes and models, specializing in European, Japanese, and domestic vehicles.

SPEAKER_09 33:36

Well, Nick, it's good to have you join us here on the Modified Minute. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_06 33:41

Thanks for having me on. It's uh pretty cool show you got going on. You're happy to be part of it.

SPEAKER_09 33:46

Look, your dad raced, was a crew chief, pretty much did everything, and then he decided that it was time to devote his attention to you. How instrumental has he been to your development?

SPEAKER_06 34:01

Yeah, he uh pretty much since day one, he's done just about everything on my rate on my cars. And you know, luckily, as I got older, I've been able to be more of a part of it. But definitely in the beginning, he did everything and helped me get the opportunities I have today.

SPEAKER_09 34:16

Dude, I gotta tell you, you had a couple of years that were good in the street stocks, but then you went to SK Lights and you burned the house down. You won you won titles, you went went to New Smyrna and showed the 602 crate modified why the Northeast is the home of the uh SK Lights. What was it about the SK Lights that you took such a liking to?

SPEAKER_06 34:41

Um, you know, I feel like in the street stocks, when I was younger, I really wasn't as aggressive as I've become now, you know. Have to race with Fenders a little bit and teach just some things that probably shouldn't work, but you know, you learn quite a bit. And you know, I was raised with guys like Ryan Waterman and Sean Monaghan and people like that all the time on like a weekly basis in the street stocks. So um it really teaches you to uh up the up your aggression factor quite a bit and and uh certainly getting into a modified it, I was one of the more aggressive guys.

SPEAKER_09 35:16

The biggest difference between the SK and now that you've moved up to the big time and the uh the between the SK lights and now that you've moved up to the SKs, what has it been, Nick?

SPEAKER_06 35:28

Um I feel like it's a lot harder to just try and drive a mediocre car to the front. You know, I feel like everybody's so talented and so close in the SKs that when you're a little bit off, you're a little bit off. You know, you if you have a fifth place car, you gotta be you gotta be really uh you gotta be really willing to take a fifth place finish, you know, where the light, you know, feel like you have a fifth place car, you might feel you're a little bit better or more more talented than some of the people around you, and you get a few more spots out of it where the SKs, everybody deserves to be there and uh they're all past champions and winners and and all that.

SPEAKER_09 36:02

Do you get intimidated by that at all?

SPEAKER_06 36:05

Um, I wouldn't say necessarily intimidated at first, you know. Um I kind of skipped the learning curve a little bit. We did the tour mod last year before we made the jump to SKs. So that was a little bit intimidating, you know, just trying to trying to prove whether I belong out there or not. But uh by the time we got in the SK, it really was uh I felt like I belonged out there. And after winning three races in it really solidified that feeling for me.

SPEAKER_09 36:31

Look, you uh made some made some history at the Waterford Speed Bowl just a few weeks ago when you became the 102nd different driver to win at the Shoreline Oval. And then to just prove that you're no one-hit wonder, you backed it up the following week. Tell me how that felt to be able to be able to go in there, get your first Waterford win, and then come back and grab a second checkered flag the following weekend.

SPEAKER_06 36:58

Yeah, you know, it uh it meant a lot. You know, everybody who supports me, and I had quite a few people tell me I probably shouldn't have made the jump up that skate this year, that I probably should have stayed in lights, and you know, it really uh I really felt like it was the right thing to do. I felt like I had learned enough in the lights. And um, I just gotta thank my parents and everybody else who who uh stuck on board and stuck around, and I was really happy to get a win for everybody.

SPEAKER_09 37:20

You know, I watched you at Waterford, and as you just alluded to when we began this interview, you you're a pretty hands-on driver. Uh it's basically it's you and your dad, and uh he he gives you a lot of free reign as far as what you want in the race car.

SPEAKER_06 37:36

Yeah, my dad is uh, especially as the years have gone on, I've I've done I've taken more of a liking to the setup side of things. And my dad kind of does more of the maintenance stuff and all the the hard stuff and makes my life a lot easier. But once it once it comes to the setup side, he really it's uh it's a little out of his wheelhouse, and I've been really able to take a hold of that. And I feel like that's not a lot that's something not a lot of people know after, especially after renting from Keith for a couple years in the light. Everybody doesn't know that it's just pretty much me and my dad nowadays. And you know, Keith helped us out quite a bit from the start, but especially on race days, you it's just me and my dad. And uh occasionally we get my uncle Tim to come out and help, and he's a big help this year so far. And uh, but yeah, it's pretty much just us.

SPEAKER_09 38:21

What's what what do you like in a race car, Nicholas? What what what style do you like? Do you drive off the right front? Do you drive off the right rear? If when you're setting your car up, what are you trying to get it to do?

SPEAKER_06 38:36

Um, in a perfect world, you know, I I mean, I feel like it's kind of contradicts yourself, but I I really want to be able to bury it in the corner as deep as possible without sacrificing any drive. But uh, you know, that's that's pretty much begging for the impossible. So, you know, you try and get as close to that as possible, but but yeah, that's that's what I'd hope for.

SPEAKER_09 38:55

All right, so tell me, because uh look, every race car driver, if you want to bury it that way into the corner, there's gotta be times when you fall off the cliff. What happens then inside the cockpit?

SPEAKER_06 39:06

Yeah, you just um, especially with the with Waterford switching to the tour type tires this year, you know, the fall-off's been a little bit more, you know, you start to have to reel yourself back in. So, especially early on in the race, you really have to control yourself and not get too far ahead of yourself and burn your stuff up.

SPEAKER_09 39:24

Let's talk a little bit about last season. You were leading the points uh back and forth with Meg uh in the SK lights. It came down to the final race of the season, and uh you finished second.

SPEAKER_10 39:37

Nick Huppy side by side with blocks for fifth, two by two for second, two by two for four. Nicholas Huppy also knows he needs to go. Try to gain as many spots as possible, goes to the outside lane on Watson. That is a race for the fourth spot.

SPEAKER_09 39:52

Uh a disappointment or with the number of victories that you you gathered in last year, uh were were you okay with what the final outcome was?

SPEAKER_06 40:02

Um, you know, obviously I would have liked to have won the championship, but uh I would consider it a failure. But, you know, somebody asked me, I think it was this spring, whether I would have rather had the one win that she had the championship or whether I would have had the six wins and everything else that came along with it. And you know, the six wins are hard to give up. You know, just having one win the championship, it's a lot of stressful weeks to race is where when you're able to win quite a bit like we were, it takes a lot of the pressure off your shoulders and really just makes life easy. You know, um point racing is is hard, especially at Stafford. It's it can really get a hold of you. You know, there was there was times where some or some of us wanted to call it quits last year, you know. Obviously we never were, you know, we were gonna stick it out, but you know, it gets it gets pretty hard, especially when you wreck three or four weeks during the summer. But you know, I was just really happy we were able to finish off the way we did. I think we were we were about 40 something points back with three races to go, and we were able to cut down to two or two to four two or four points. I can't remember which one. So I was really happy we were able to rally back and never give up, but you know, we still came up a little bit short.

SPEAKER_09 41:13

You know, it it's it's funny. You're another one of those kids that came up through what I call the Keith Rocco racing mafia. I mean, you go you go to a racetrack and Keith's got so many cars there. He he's got more cars than Rick Hendrick does at the cup level. What what's the best lesson you learned from Kid Rock?

SPEAKER_06 41:33

Um you know, I didn't I didn't really hear a lot from Keith, you know. Most of the time you hear from Keith, it's usually a pretty bad day at the race.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:42

For the most for the most part, I had to deal with Todd and you know, um he uh he he would get pretty aggravated with me sometimes with some of the stuff I do, and he just he helped me learn where the fine line was between two being too aggressive and being aggressive when it mattered. Um you know, I really feel like the second half of last year we were able to finish a lot more races than we were in the first half, just just trying to put ourselves in better positions, and you know, he was he was the biggest part in that.

SPEAKER_09 42:11

All right, so you've knocked it down, check the box at Waterford. When do you think you'll be able to check the box at Thompson and of course Friday nights at Stafford?

SPEAKER_06 42:21

You know, that's the goal. I mean, obviously you want to run as well as possible at Stafford on flow and everything, you know. Um Thompson, Thompson, we don't really have any races planned yet this year. I'm sure we'll probably find something to do with the World Series. You know, that's that's that's the best event of the year in my mind. Um but uh Stafford, I mean, it'd be really cool to knock off a win this year. If not, it's not the end of the world. You know, that's the toughest division in the country right now. So if we're not able to win, it's no big deal. You know, I just want to keep going out there, keep fishing races, and a lot of experience.

SPEAKER_09 42:54

Well, I got a sneaky suspicion that it won't be long before you're in Napa Victory Lane at the uh home of the SK modified Stafford Speedway. Nick, it's always a pleasure. Good luck to you, and uh I appreciate your dropping in here in the Modified Minute. Thank you for having me. It's been fun. Well, before we close out this week's show, we have to have our weekly dose of either or. And taking a spin in the seat this week is Alexander Pearl.

unknown 43:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 43:21

So it is probably one of the more popular segments in the modified minute. It's either or. And we found another subject to sit in the chair and answer our questions. He's Alexander Pearl, driver of the S in the SK division at Stafford.

SPEAKER_10 43:42

It's either or, where our guest must choose one or the other. Brought to you by Mr. Rooter Plumbing, expert plumbing contractors you can trust. Stafford, are you ready?

SPEAKER_09 43:57

I'm ready. All right. Waffle House or Denny's?

SPEAKER_12 44:04

Um Denny's.

SPEAKER_09 44:08

Snow skiing or water skiing?

SPEAKER_12 44:12

Either one of those I would probably injure myself, but I I'm a big big summer guy, so I'll go water skiing.

SPEAKER_09 44:18

Alright. Mundane as it may be, bowling or pool?

SPEAKER_12 44:24

Oh, probably pool. I I'd like to get better at pool. Well, you can win some cash, please. Right, have fun with your friends. Yeah. Um Mac or Windows? Uh, probably Windows. I never had any Apple products growing up. Now I do, but still Windows.

SPEAKER_09 44:45

Well, and it naturally leads into the next one that's the big debate with everybody your age. iPhone or Android?

SPEAKER_12 44:52

I'm gonna say iPhone. I always used to be an Android guy, but iPhones are definitely more user-friendly for people my age. Android for you.

SPEAKER_09 45:01

Oh, that hurt. And finally, sandals or sneakers?

SPEAKER_12 45:08

Sneakers. I don't like my feet exposed. Is it because you have ugly feet? Um, yeah, they're not in the greatest of shape yet. Alexander, thanks so much.

SPEAKER_09 45:20

I appreciate it, and we'll see you at the racetrack. So that's a wrap for this week. My thanks go out to my guests, Corey DiMateo, Nicholas Hubby, and Brian Narducci. Make sure you come back next week when we'll have even more modified material. But until then, I'm Jack Aroot saying I'll see you again next week for another episode of the Modified Minute.

SPEAKER_10 45:48

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