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(Stafford Springs, CT)—After opening the 2024 season at Stafford Speedway with a victory and a second place effort in the first 3 races, Troy Talman and the #3 Casella Waste team have opened the 2025 campaign slightly behind their 2024 pace. Talman and his crew recorded a stellar second place finish after fighting 3-wide with Keith Rocco and Marcello Rufrano last Friday night and they’re eager to return to their winning ways with a victory in this Friday night’s extra distance Casella Waste SK 80.
“We’re all very hungry to get back to victory lane,” said Talman. “We had a taste by finishing second last week but it’s bittersweet to be so close to a win. It was disappointing with how close we were to winning and I did everything I could do, but Keith had a good car and he had a great restart and I didn’t have anything for him. We’re feeling pretty good. We’re not going to overthink anything, we’ll make an adjustment for the 80-laps, and we should be good to go. I really like the qualifying format with the plus/minus system. That will be a little different than the normal standard handicapping and it might shake up the starting lineup a little bit. It’s an 80-lap race so I don’t think it’s going to matter too much where you start the race. There’s definitely some extra motivation to win with Casella sponsoring the race and there’s a real pretty trophy which we’d love to collect.”
Although his 2025 finishes don’t quite match up with his 2024 finishes through three races, Talman’s performance hasn’t been terrible. He went from 28th and last up to 10th in his first race and a mechanical issue hampered him to a 14th place finish in his second start, but Talman insists there’s no panic.
“We’re not really disappointed with things only because we can explain the first two races,” said Talman. “We had a plug wire fall off during the heat race for the first race so we started last and we missed our tire stagger a little bit for the feature and then the second race we were off to a good start but we had a mechanical issue that caused us to fade. The car wasn’t perfect last Friday but it was good enough to win so we’re happy with it.”
It’s been a long road for Talman and his crew to reach the front of the SK Modified® field at Stafford. After running two partial seasons during the 2014 and 2017 seasons, Talman began his full-time foray into the SK Modified® ranks in 2018. The Casella Waste team endured 6 winless seasons with the 2020 season the only year they finished in the top-10 in points. Things started to turn around for Talman at the end of the 2023 season with the introduction of a new Northeast Troyer chassis and a relationship with Shane Hopkins that Talman says has made a huge difference in his performance.
“I have a great mentor in Shane Hopkins and it feels like I have all the answers to the test when I’m working with Shane,” said Talman. “Everything seems be working out with him and that’s a good feeling to have. There was definitely a learning curve. We struggled in the beginning and it was just a combination of things that led to us struggling. We changed over to a new Northeast Troyer chassis at the end of the 2023 season and we had back to back top-5 finishes with it. We’ve been running that new car since the beginning of the 2024 season and with Shane’s help, having all our ducks in a row, and having great sponsors with Casella Waste, Reworld, M & M Auto Body, Ayer Auto Parts, P & D Pizza, Erich’s Cutting Edge, KAMO Motorsports, Harvest Moon Healthfoods, JDB Lawn Service, Northeast Performance Parts, and Pettit Racing Engines, the best horsepower there is, I’d say that everything has really come together for us in the last two seasons in finding what works for me. It’s tough at Stafford. Everyone is so good and so close together but we’re happy with where we’re at and we’re only going up from here.”
In addition to his first win of the 2025 season, Talman also has his eyes set on contending for the 2025 championship by winning as many times as he can.
“Our main goal is to win races,” said Talman. “Everyone wants to win races and the championship but I try to attack each race as it comes and the points will fall where they fall. If you do your job, the points will be there. Last year I think it was an average finish of around 6.2 would win the championship but finishing 6th isn’t as much fun as winning and we want to win races.”
Talman and the SK Modified® division will take center stage this Friday, June 6th with the Casella Waste SK® 80. Stafford’s Late Model, SK Light, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions will join the SK Modifieds® in feature action. Tickets are available now online at StaffordSpeedway.com/tickets and can also be purchased at the admission gates. General admission tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the gate for adults, while all kids 6-14 are $10 and kids 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is priced at $30 in advance and $35 at the gate for all ages. Pit passes are $45 with a valid 2025 Stafford Competition License and $50 without. If you can’t attend in person, don’t miss the action—tune in to the live stream on FloRacing, the official streaming partner of Stafford Speedway.
For more information, visit staffordspeedway.com, follow Stafford Speedway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.
