~ By Tom Boggie

I like Jessey Mueller.

He’s had to make a lot of choices in his life, and not once have I heard him complain. I remember when it looked like he was going to be the next big thing in modified racing. As a teenager, he looked like a natural, piling up victories on the asphalt tracks of New England and Northern New York. Even after he switched to dirt track racing in 2015, and went nearly four years without a win, he kept coming back for more.

And now, as a 29-year-old with a family and a ton of responsibilities, he never looks back and asks what-if?

Racing is now a hobby, and he’s still darn good at it.

“I only ran 11 races all of last year,” he said last Friday night after winning the 35-lap NAPA Modifieds feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. “A lot of these guys have already run 11 times THIS YEAR. If I could run at much as some of these guys do, I think I’d be pretty tough to beat.”

Things hadn’t gone well for Mueller in the last month, which put him fifth on the starting grid last Friday.

“I got destroyed taking the green two weeks ago,” he said. “Then, last week, we broke the right rear shock coming down to take the green. That’s never happened before. But the car has always been good. We came from 23rd to sixth the first week, so we know the car is good.”

Ah, the car. That’s another thing. He’s campaigning a 3-year-old chassis because sinking money into new race cars is no longer a priority.

“I can’t put in the time like I used to,” he said. “I’ve got three kids now (including a 2-week-old newborn) and I’ve got a business to run. Family comes first, then business, and then racing. If I can get here on a Friday night, I’ll be here. But if I can’t get here because of other responsibilities, I’m OK with that.”

Since finishing sixth on opening night, Mueller hadn’t been back in the top 10 before his win last Friday, posting finishes of 11th, 19th, 26th and 20th.

But Mueller doesn’t want to dwell on the negative. He knows it’s all part of the game.

“I’m not a believer in bad luck,” he said. “The harder you work, the better your luck is going to be.”

MORE FROM MALTA

Adam Pierson has been a no-show at Albany-Saratoga for the last two weeks, and as I later found out, has become a victim of the high cost of racing.

“We as a small team have to unfortunately think about the rest of the year financially,” he posted on his Facebook page. “We just have to sit back for a while until we get things figured out.”

Pierson had been involved in that first-lap wreck which also took out Mueller and rookie Brendan Darrah on May 10, which may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. After that incident, Pierson posted, “Out from the very start. Didn’t even get a lap in. Driver wasn’t happy, as well as the crew.”

In the first four races of the season, Pierson had finished 10th, ninth, 18th and 28th.

Keith Flach has also been absent from Albany-Saratoga for the last three weeks. If he’s using the extra time to concentrate on his Saturday night program at Lebanon Valley, it paid off last weekend, as he recorded his first big block modified victory since May 11, 2019.

Let’s get back to our weekly soap opera, “As Tim Hartman Jr. Turns.” To begin with, the beginning was horrible last Friday. In the second sportsman heat race, Drew Cormie got around in the second turn and collected Hartman Jr., Nick Lussier and Pat Jones. Hartman Jr. had a lot of damage to the right front of his car, and was taken off on the back of a tow truck.

His crew got the car back together in time for the B main, and he started 10th in the 11-car field, with only the top four transferring. On a restart on the second lap, he got hooked under the rear end of Tyler LaPlante’s car, keeping him at the rear of the field. He started running the extreme outside and got up into the final transfer spot, but on the final lap, he suddenly turned left into the infield, the victim of a rev box problem.

Now, it gets tricky. All that was left on the card before the sportsman feature were two street stock heats, which were run off quickly, and Hartman Jr.’s crew was still replacing the rev box when the field was called to line up for the feature.

The sportsman field took the green, with Hartman Jr. still in the pits, but before the lap was completed, three cars got around in the first turn, bringing out a yellow. That gave Hartman Jr. enough time to get out and tag onto the rear of the field. But he was knocked into the front stretch wall early in the race, breaking the frame, and he limped the car around to finish 17th.

But the next day, his daughter Brexley recorded her first win ever at the Lebanon Valley Speedway go-kart track, and Hartman Jr. drove to his fifth straight sportsman win at night, so it wasn’t a lost weekend.

Kim Duell picked up his first pro stock win of the season and regained the top spot on the all-time win list last Friday. He and Rob Yetman went into the night tied for the top spot with 29 wins, but obviously, Duell was the first to 30. Duell also opened up a 24-point lead over Luke Horning in the points race.

The modifieds will be competing for $4,000 to win Friday night. I’m putting my money on Peter Britten, who continues to amaze me with his charges to the front. Last weekend, he finished fourth, despite starting 25th. If he can stay out of the B main, he’s going to be a tough man to beat. There will also be a Greg’s Towing Sportsman Special, and the winners of both the street stock and limited sportsman features will earn $500.

AROUND THE TRACKS

Britten finished second to Mat Williamson in last Sunday’s Super DIRTcar Series race at Weedsport, while the Series race scheduled for Monday at Thunder Mountain was rained out.

Stewart Friesen had his best run of the season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last Friday night at Charlotte. He finished third, and then was awarded second place when Corey Heim was disqualified for having unsafe and unsecured lug nuts on one wheel of his truck. As a result of the runner-up finish, Friesen has climbed to 11th in the playoff points race, just 34 out of eighth place.

Fire Swamp pulled off a stunning win in the Northeast Crate Nationals last Sunday at Devil’s Bowl, passing Demetrios Drellos on the final lap to walk off with the top prize of $5,000. Drellos, who was driving the No. 44 owned by David Roberts, earned the Hard Charger Award after starting 15th in the feature. In the prelude to the Nationals, Robert Bublak Jr. won Saturday night’s 358 modified feature. If I’m not mistaken, that was Bublak Jr.’s third career win at the Bowl. He picked up his first win in a budget sportsman on July 19, 2009, and also won the Ron Casey Memorial during the Vermont 200 weekend in 2020.

It was good to see my old buddy Mike Ballestero back in victory lane, as the 65-year-old won Sunday’s “Fast Cars and Freedom” feature at Brookfield Speedway. He started on the pole and led every lap.

The age gap from Ballestero to Brock Pinkerous is 51 years, but both were in victory lane last weekend, as Pinkerous won the RUSH Late Model Series race at Tri-City Raceway Park in Franklin, Pa. “Bam Bam,” a former sportsman competitor at Albany-Saratoga, led all 25 laps and picked up $3,000 for his first RUSH Tour Series win, which shouldn’t be confused with RUSH Weekly Series victories. Yeah, I know it’s confusing … just as confusing as Hartman Jr.’s “did he or didn’t he” start at Albany-Saratoga.

Glen Ridge Motorsports Park promoter Ray Sefrin had better order some more hot dogs, because he’s going to have a packed house when the DIRTcar 358 Modified Series pulls into the pits Sunday night. Included among the drivers who have already committed for the 50-lapper are Friesen, Britten, Williamson, Mike Mahaney and defending race champion Billy Dunn.