There is going to be a new driver and team combination in town when the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rolls into New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Musket 250 presented by Whelen next month.

Woody Pitkat will team with Eddie Harvey Racing for the longest race of the season, and will also drive the No. 1 for the final two races of the year at Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

The hope is that the combination will make a run at the Whelen Modified Tour title in 2020.

“It’s just been a 10 year friendship and the timing is right,” Harvey told NASCAR.com. “For the last three years, every time we have come north to race, I’ve been going out to dinner with Woody at least one of the nights. How we have never come together before is beyond me, but we never really thought about it.”

Pitkat is no stranger to winning success. He has four career Whelen Modified Tour wins, with the most recent of them coming with Danny Watts Racing this season in May at Wall Stadium Speedway in New Jersey. He’s a former NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track champion at both Stafford and Thompson as well.

RACING-REFERENCE: Woody Pitkat Career Stats

“I think it’s a good deal,” Pitkat told NASCAR.com. “I’ve had a long relationship with Eddie back since I was running with David Hill and going down south. Eddie called me and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m fortunate enough that he is giving me the opportunity to do it.”

This season, Harvey has competed in 10 of the 11 races with three different drivers behind the wheel. Burt Myers drove the car to four finishes inside the top seven in the first four races of the season, before chasing and eventually earning his 10th NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Modified championship at Bowman Gray Stadium. Jeff Rocco and George Brunnhoelzl III have also competed for the North Carolina based car owner.

Harvey is a former championship car owner on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.

“I’ve never really driven an LFR car in a race, I practiced Bobby Santos’ a few times, but I’ve never been able to race it. I’m looking forward to something new, and I’ve seen what the LFR brand has accomplished on the tour,” Pitkat said. “You’ve seen what some of the people who have switched have done. Every time I have talked to Eddie has been really fun. I’m hoping we will be good right off the trailer.”

Pitkat and Harvey have picked the most prestigious race of the 16-event championship points schedule to begin their pairing. The Musket 250 presented by Whelen puts drivers, equipment and teams to the test, with live pit stops and strategy playing a major role in the final laps.

“They finished third in the race last year and I think it was the first time Burt Myers had ever seen the place,” Pitkat said. “The race comes down the strategy, and if anything, it will give me a chance to get acclimated to the equipment. We will have to stay on the lead lap and be in contention at the end. I’m going to places like Loudon, Thompson and Stafford, and I feel like those are my key tracks.”

“I just want to give him an opportunity to turn it up and have some good races under him,” Harvey said.

Eric Goodale might be fifth in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship standings, but he isn’t letting that number put him at ease. He wants to win. Badly.

The Riverhead, New York, driver has two top five finishes in the first 11 races of the season, but he scored both of them at the beginning of the season. He wants to turn it around when the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Oswego Speedway on Saturday for the Mod Classic 150 presented by McDonald’s.

“We’re having our best points year, which is cool, but not cool, because I’ve been really disappointed in our finishes this year,” Goodale said. “Two years ago we were contending for wins on the regular. That’s why you race, that’s why we show up. It’s fun to do, and I love and enjoy doing it. At the end of the day, you show up to win the race. We just haven’t been putting ourselves in position.”

RACING-REFERENCE: Eric Goodale’s 2019 Season

The last two races definitely haven’t been what Goodale was looking for. At Stafford, he was running inside the top 10 on the final lap when contact sent him into the wall, forcing him to not finish. At Thompson, the team struggled and finished outside the top 10.

“We just haven’t had the speed in the cars — we haven’t deserved to win based off our speed. Jason (his crew chief) and I have worked together a lot. It’s been a hard year. We’ve had some solid finishes to walk away with and have a good ride home, but at the end of the day, not winning races is getting old really quick,” Goodale said.

“We got wrecked at Stafford and totally destroyed the car we’ve been racing with and we had to bring out the backup car at Thompson and we had a lot of issues. That was a tough race for us and it set us back a lot.”

Oswego Speedway | Classic Weekend Schedule

For now, Goodale is looking forward. He has two consecutive top five finishes at Oswego, and he’s hoping that this Saturday’s event pans out the same way.

“We’re pinning a lot on this race to get our ship back together,” Goodale said. “I can tell you that we are not lacking anything off the track, we’re doing everything we need to do. Some of it is probably me as a driver, some of it might be the car. Everything isn’t quite working the way I know that it can. We are looking at every aspect of what we are doing to see if we can find the little bit extra. We have a few tricks up our sleeve.”

Oswego is one of the venues on the Whelen Modified Tour schedule that Goodale says is unlike any of the others. Saturday’s race puts the series on the big stage as part of the track’s annual Classic Weekend, which also includes major Supermodified events.

“It’s fun, and it’s bumpy as (expletive),” Goodale said. “You have the raised interior wall all the way around the track that keeps you honest. It’s really easy to get pinched in there with your left-front. There is no nicking that wall — you can completely tear the left-front right off your car. It adds a whole dynamic.”

“It’s also two completely different turns. Everyone feeds on the bottom in turns one and two, but in three and four, everyone wants to enter on the bottom and you push up the hill. You want to run the bottom, but you don’t have much grip. It’s tough. That’s where the opportunities for passing happen.”

With five races left, Goodale’s chances of winning the Whelen Modified Tour championship might be slipping away. But he has one major goal in mind, and all his attention is towards it.

“I want to win a damn race,” Goodale said. “The points will take care of itself, and I want to finish top five in points. But I honestly just want to win a damn race.”

NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR NEWS & NOTES:

• The leader of lap 80 in Saturday’s Toyota Mod Classic 150 presented by McDonald’s is going to earn some extra cash. Through a fundraiser organized by Carol Haynes and racing photographer Fran Lawlor, $2,480 will be awarded to the leader of that one lap. The original idea was created by Mary Hodge, longtime racing photographer and wife of Howie Hodge, who passed in 2017, to celebrate Howie’s 80th birthday. Mary passed at the beginning of this season, but Haynes and Lawlor are following up on her wishes.
• As first reported by RaceDayCT, Chase Dowling will drive the No. 82 for Danny Watts, after Watts and driver Woody Pitkat parted ways earlier this week. Dowling has five starts this season driving for Jamie Tomaino, where he’s finished on the podium twice. Pitkat had one victory driving the car at Wall Stadium Speedway in May.
• Amy Catalano is entered in her attempt to make her first career Whelen Modified Tour start at Oswego. Catalano attempted to qualify at Stafford Motor Speedway on August 2, but missed the field. She’s a modified regular in New York and has multiple NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track titles to her credit.