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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Stafford Motor Speedway and the Arute Family are pleased to announce that long-time NASCAR team owner and crew chief Tommy Baldwin, Jr. will serve as the grand marshal of the 52nd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler®, set for April 27-28. Baldwin will send the open modified field on their way for 100-laps of ground pounding action with the most famous words in motorsports, ‘Drivers start your engines.’
“This is pretty cool and very unexpected for sure,” said Baldwin. “As a crew chief, the Sizzler® is the only race that I haven’t won yet at Stafford. We’ve won at New Hampshire, won the Thompson 300 a couple of times, won the Fall Final a couple times, won at Martinsville, but the Sizzler® at Stafford is definitely a race that I have circled.”
“When we were talking about the 2024 Sizzler® Grand Marshal, Tommy was one of the first names that came up,” explained Stafford Speedway CEO Mark Arute. “From the early days racing with his father to having his own Modified team today, his contributions to Modified racing is something we wanted to recognize. We’re looking forward to having Tommy send off the drivers in the 52nd running of the NAPA Spring Sizzler®.”
Baldwin has a long history of success in both the modified ranks as well as the NASCAR Cup Series. Baldwin has won modified races with a wide variety of drivers such as his father Tom Baldwin, Jimmy Blewett, Michael Christopher, Jr., Doug Coby, Mike Ewanitsko, Jeff Fuller, Jon McKennedy, and Steve Park. Baldwin also has 5 career NASCAR Cup Series wins as a crew chief with 4 of those wins, including crown jewel events Daytona 500 and Southern 500, with Ward Burton, and he has a single victory with Kasey Kahne. Baldwin won the Whelen Modified Tour owner’s championship in 2022 and he has notched several Speedweeks championships at New Smyrna Speedway.
“I think I’ve won 25 or 26 tour races in my career and a bunch of open races and a couple championships on top of that, so it’s been pretty cool,” said Baldwin. “We won the owners championship a couple years ago with Doug Coby, Jimmy Blewett, and Michael Christopher, Jr. driving and I’ve lost the championship to Tony Hirschman by 3 points with Steve Park. In the five years since I’ve been back racing modifieds, we finished second with Jon McKennedy and won the owner’s championship and those are the only two years we have run the Tour full-time. On the Cup side I’ve won the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500, so I’ve had a really good career and hopefully there’s a lot more still to come.”
On paper, Baldwin will have a great opportunity to finally take home a Sizzler® trophy as he has teamed with Justin Bonsignore to drive the famous #7ny car. Bonsignore is a 3-time Whelen Modified Tour champion and his 41 career WMT wins place him 4th on the all-time winners list, trailing only Ted Christopher with 42, Reggie Ruggiero with 44, and Mike Stefanik with 74. Bonsignore first ran the #7ny last season in the Tour-Type 150 at Riverhead Raceway where he finished 7th.
“We ran together last year at Riverhead and I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of really good racecar drivers driving the #7ny car,” said Baldwin. “We have another one with Justin and we’ll plug him in there and see what we can do. Winning the Sizzler® would be awesome and that race is definitely on my list of accomplishments that I’d like to get.”
The 52nd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler® is set for Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28. Saturday, April 27th and will consist of two 40-lap NAPA Duel qualifying races for the Open Modified division. The 40-lap races will each pay $3,500 to win and will set the field for Sunday’s NAPA Spring Sizzler®. Stafford’s Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions will complete Saturday’s racing program with qualifying and feature racing.
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Sunday, April 28th will play host to the $20,000 to win 52nd NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®. Filling out Sunday’s racing card will be qualifying and feature racing for the SK Modified® and SK Light Modified divisions along with last chance qualifiers for the NAPA Spring Sizzler®.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
