Szegedy Returns to 50 and WHELEN MOdified Tour : Raceway Media

January 12, 2006

’03 Championship Duo Reunited for ’06 Title Run

Oxford, CT- NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car owner Michael Smeriglio of Greenwich, CT is pleased to announce that he has successfully secured former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, CT to pilot the Wisk/Snuggle Ford Mustang for the 2006 season. Smeriglio also announced that Phil Moran of Waterbury, CT will take on the crew chief duties of the Unilever modified, reuniting the combination that captured a total of seven victories over the two seasons they were together as well as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship in 2003.

"If you tried to put this together it wouldn’t work," stated Smeriglio about Szegedy and Moran together again, "but it all just fell into place." Smeriglio, who grew up attending Danbury Racearena where his dad crewed on a team there, was a SK modified car owner competing at Stafford Motor Speedway from 1997 to 2005. However, this will be his first venture for Mike Smeriglio Racing (MSR, Inc) as a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car owner. "It’s all there with the equipment, talent and the crew," said Smeriglio. "Racing has gone now from a hobby to being run more as a business. But there is no better racing than modifieds- we’re going to have a great year."

Szegedy is ‘pumped’ for the approaching season. "This is going to be a good deal, back in a Chassis Dynamics modified, having Phil again as a crew chief, the same engine builder and a lot of the same crew as before, we’ll have the opportunity to win some more races and a possible championship- it’s obtainable."

With eight WMT victories since his rookie of the year season in 2002, Szegedys’ job at Yates Racing recently ended, paving the way for an opportunity to come back to Connecticut and compete on the Tour. "I’m just happy to be racing again," Szegedy admitted, "I was completely miserable not racing last season."

Moran, who recently took a position as a fabricator at Chassis Dynamics, echo’s Szegedys’ enthusiasm. "This is awesome," said Moran. "We had a great 2005 season with Chuck (Hossfeld) but when it was decided to disband the team, I was kind of major league bummed out. But all in the last week everything has changed. We’ve even been able to put back together basically the same team we had, but with a new car owner. I’m psyched- getting back together with Todd, being able to keep the same cars I’ve worked on the last three years, I feel we’ll be able to come out of the box running up front."

"The consistency we expect will put us in contention for the championship title," said Smeriglio. "MSR, Inc will be ready for the Icebreaker."

The season opening event for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is scheduled for April 9th, the traditional Icebreaker at Thompson International Speedway.

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