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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Anticipation and excitement for Stafford Speedway’s 2025 season opening NAPA Spring Sizzler® has been building among drivers, teams, and fans alike. Perhaps no driver is more eager to return to Stafford than Berlin, MA native Anthony Nocella. Nocella looked like he and his #92 Nocella Paving team had the car to beat last September at Stafford in the NAPA Fall Final. Nocella started the race from second, took the lead in the opening laps, and then led the race until a spin on a restart with 3 laps to go relegated him to an 11th place finish. Nocella and his team are looking for some redemption when they return to the Connecticut half-mile facility as part of the field for the 53rd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler®, set for April 26-27.
“We’re looking to hopefully run as good as we did in the fall and this time finish things off a little better,” said Nocella. “We’re going through everything on the car right now and we’ll run Thompson and Loudon before Stafford so hopefully we’ll have everything figured out on the car by then and we can have a strong run. We hadn’t been to Stafford in a couple of years before the Fall Final last year but it was a good run for us right until the end. We want to build on that with a car that will hopefully be just as strong. It’s always tough racing at Stafford and after the run we had last fall, it would definitely be nice to come back and redeem ourselves.”
During his career, Nocella has seen both highs and lows when it comes to his results at Stafford. Nocella has 1 top-10 finish in 12 career WMT starts with a pole position in the 2021 NAPA Fall Final. He has scored 1 win, 2 top-5, and 3 top-10 finishes in 9 VMRS starts, and in 7 open modified races, he has posted 1 top-5 and 4 top-10 finishes. Nocella’s lone Stafford victory came during the 2017 season in the VMRS 80. He has notched 4 top-7 finishes in his last 5 open modified starts to go along with his strong Fall Final run last September. Nocella knows what it takes to reach NAPA Victory Lane at Stafford and he will be hoping to keep his positive momentum going when he takes the green flag in the NAPA Spring Sizzler®.
“It’s always good if you can pass cars well at Stafford and I think getting through the heat races will be the biggest thing for us,” said Nocella. “Getting a good finish in the heat and having a good starting position is always a good thing so you don’t have to burn the car up too fast getting to the front in the race. The key will be to unload with some decent speed already in the car and having a good long run car. The long run really helped us in the fall to stay up front so hopefully we can do that again and have a good shot at the end of the race. I have one win at Stafford back in 2017 and I really enjoy coming to Stafford. The goal is always to win races but if we can come out of Stafford with a top-3, that would be a good run for us and it would mean a lot to us with the tough competition and the prestige of the Spring Sizzler®.”
The 53rd Annual NAPA Spring Sizzler® is set for April 26-27. The NAPA Spring Sizzler® kicks off on Saturday, April 26, with feature events for the Late Model, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions, along with SK Light qualifying duel races that will set the field for an extra-distance 30-lap feature event on Sunday, April 27.
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Sunday, April 27, will play host to the 53rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®. Filling out Sunday’s racing card will be qualifying and feature racing for the SK Modified® division, the 30-lap SK Light Modified feature, plus the NAPA Pit Party.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
