WALPOLE, N.H. - Only a week and a half remain before the Granite State Pro Stock Series teams return to Lee USA Speedway for the 2022 season’s biggest and richest event.
Next Friday’s Keen Parts 150 is shaping up to be an event for the ages, with a $10,000 winner’s purse in store for the driver who can master “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” in the longest feature of the year.
One driver hoping to poach the $10,000 bounty from the GSPSS series regulars was Corey LaJoie. LaJoie has strong family ties to New England through father Randy and grandfather Don, and the NASCAR Cup Series star filed an entry to chase his first win in the region since 2016.
But a late-breaking sponsor signing for the Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway presented LaJoie with an unanticipated schedule conflict. In order to honor commitments to his sponsors, LaJoie has had to bow out of Friday’s Keen Parts 150.
While one Cup star sits out the race, another has found new momentum en route to the Granite State. Tyler Reddick earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series win this weekend at Road America, and the two-time Xfinity Series champion carries that momentum not only to his next Cup Series events but to the Keen Parts 150 as well.
The Corning, Calif. native will look to become the first driver from the West Coast to compete with the GSPSS. With drivers well removed from New England, ringers from the national level of motorsports, and even the series’ first female competitors filing entries this year, 2022 has been a year of broadened horizons for the New Hampshire-based touring series.
But to win, Reddick will still have to outduel the local stars, racers with years of experience at Lee. Whether series regulars like Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. and Nick Cusack, or regional veterans like Joey Polewarczyk - or, in the case of points leader Joey Doiron, both - Reddick will have a worthy challenge ahead of him.
The Keen Parts 150, the sixth event of the nine-race GSPSS season, anchors a full Friday night of racing for short track fans, including the third round of the Whitcomb 5 Series for NHSTRA Modifieds and a complete complement of Lee’s weekly classes.
For more information on the Granite State Pro Stock Series, visit www.gspss.net or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
-Story by: Jeff Brown/Granite State Pro Stock Series
-Photo credit: Granite State Pro Stock Series