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Familiar Faces In Different Places

By Jason Cunningham, NASCAR
April 3, 2008 - 10:17am

With the season-opener for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour just days away, race teams are making final preparations for what they hope will be the first step toward a title. For a few of those teams, a new driver behind the wheel adds to the anticipation.

As with any offseason, a number of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race teams shuffled their personnel following the 2007 campaign. For a pair of teams, 2008 will see a driver return to a car he had previously driven, while other drivers made the switch to a completely new setting. The season begins this weekend with the Icebreaker at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway.

For Chuck Hossfeld and Rick Fuller, 2008 will be a reunification with familiar faces. Hossfeld will get back in the seat of the No. 4 owned by Bob Garbarino, a ride he piloted from 2002-04. Garbarino, the longtime Modified car owner, was able to win his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship trophy last year with Donny Lia behind the wheel. But Lia’s departure to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series left an opening. With a proven track record of success together – Hossfeld registered five wins and 37 top-10s in the “Mystic Missile” – a reunited Garbarino-Hossfeld team made sense.

“When he [Garbarino] made the commitment to field a team in 2008, I told him I sure would like to drive for him,” Hossfeld said. “As it got closer to the season, I became his driver, and I’m pretty excited about that. I’m so glad to be involved with them again, they really are a great bunch of people.”

Like the reunification in the No. 4, the 77 car will turn back the clock as well. Fuller drove to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour title for Curt Chase in 1993, and is now in his third go-around with the team.

 “I actually finished out last year with this team,” Fuller said. “I started out in a different car, and things didn’t work out as well as I had hoped. I had an obligation with my sponsor to run certain events, and that’s when I got together with Curt [Chase], the owner of the No. 77, and we put together a deal to finish out the remaining races in 2007. Now, we are going to run the entire 2008 season.”

A veteran of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since its inception in 1985, Fuller has 20 career victories, but none since 2003. Getting back in the No. 77 on a full-time basis could prove to be the right formula for a return to Victory Lane.

There is also a pair of drivers that made offseason switches to new race teams. It was announced just after the 2007 season that Ronnie Silk would be switching from the No. 19 to the 79 car of Hillbilly Racing, and as the 2008 season closed in, Ryan Preece moved from his family-owned No. 40 car to the No. 3 of BRE Racing.

Silk, who finished fourth in the 2007 season standings with a win at Thompson International Speedway and 11 top-10s, should be a strong contender for this year’s championship in the No. 79. In his first run with Hillbilly at the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour opener at Caraway Speedway on March 22, Silk finished sixth.

“Joining a new team is just like starting over … you’ve got to build that chemistry between crew chief and driver,” Silk said. “I think that we are going to be very competitive [in 2008]. I believe we can win a couple of races. That isn’t an easy thing to do, but I think that they have the equipment and the experience to do it.”

One of the youngest drivers in the series, Preece won’t turn 18 until after the season, but he has advanced quickly at each level he has raced. After three top-10s in his rookie season, Preece is poised to take a step forward in the No. 3 with a year of Modified experience under his belt.

“To be in that car, with all the history that’s in it, just to be a part of that is a real good thing,” Preece said. “There is the potential to win in that car year after year. It’s a great car.”