When asked about his 2024 race season, Tyler Leary had a quick response: “It was fantastic.”
The Hatfield, Massachusetts native won track championships in the Modified divisions at both Monadnock Speedway and Hudson Speedway in New Hampshire. The two titles brought him to five for his career; it was his first championship at Monadnock and second straight at Hudson.
Leary also finished third in points at Claremont Motorsports Park. His 10 wins on the year were enough to win the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series New Hampshire state championship, a goal Leary’s had for several years.
“That was a feat that we were looking to tackle in my career since we started open wheel racing three or four years ago, so that was pretty cool to be able to do that,” he said.
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Last year marked Leary’s most successful season since he started racing more than a decade ago. Part of the reason: He partnered with a friend who became his crew chief to drive their car at Claremont at Hudson.
“He’s been around racing a long time, and he just helped build a ton of consistency in our program, which is definitely something we’ve struggled with in past years, just putting a whole season together,” Leary said. “I feel like as I age in modified racing that I’m starting to be able to feel what the car is doing, give better feedback as a driver.
“I’m getting more comfortable behind the wheel. I mean, I’ve been racing a long time, and I’m still pretty young, but I feel like I’m kind of mastering the craft of open wheel racing.”
The championships weren’t won easy. Leary throughout the year built a large points lead at Monadnock. Three weeks before championship night, he was up by 56 points, but he suffered a right front flat tire in back-to-back weeks halfway through the feature races, leading to two DNFs.
Going into championship night, his lead had dwindled to just four points.
“Because of how the handicap system works, we started up front championship night and never looked back,” he said. “So that was good. At least we were able to capitalize on that, but we did have some poor fortune in the last few weeks that definitely made it interesting. Very stressful.
“I’ve kept my cool behind the wheel the last few years, but it reminded me of my old self, that’s for sure.”
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In the previous two seasons, Leary finished second and third in the New Hampshire state standings. The prior disappointment made the first state title that much sweeter.
“It’s cool. It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s something that me and my whole team, that was kind of our goal at the beginning of the year. Obviously, we want to win as many races as we can, and you always watch the points, but I think our team’s main goal when we set out this season was, let’s chase the championship, so we ran as many races as we possibly could.
“We had some decent car counts this year, which really helped, obviously, with regional and national stuff, as well. The races that we needed to do well, and when car counts were their highest, we did, so that was a plus. It feels amazing.”
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This season, Leary has a new suit to wear, as well as two championship helmets. Hudson will not run Modifieds for the track’s Division I series, so he’ll shift his focus to just Monadnock and Claremont, the latter at which he’s never won a title.
After a year like 2024, he knows it will be hard to top a career season, but Leary’s hopeful to continue improving as a driver and finding new goals as they come.
“I’m happy with where I’m at,” he said. “As a team, we’re super strong, and I’ve learned a ton over the past few years. Hopefully we can continue that this year.
“Just continue to build on our consistency. We didn’t really have much go bad that was technically our fault last year, but you’ve got to minimize your mistakes make sure there’s no failures on the cars and that kind of thing. So as long as we can stay consistent and win races, I think we’re going to have another fantastic year… Just always looking forward to the future.”
The 2025 NASCAR season begins at Claremont on April 25, and Monadnock will open the next day. Hudson begins racing on May 4.