Brandon Varney Scores Emotional PASS Modified Victory in Return to Competition

Brandon Varney scored an emotional victory on Saturday in his first laps behind the wheel since the Oxford 250, winning the PASS Modified feature at White Mountain Motorsports Park.

The Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist’s season took a sour turn while competing in the Oxford 250. Collected in an incident just shy of halfway, Varney had been sidelined since as he recovered from pain and discomfort in his ribs that resulted from it.

Furthermore, Varney’s grandmother passed away last weekend. Thus, it made for an emotional winner’s circle when Varney emerged victorious in the PASS Modified feature.

“I lost my grandmother last weekend,” shared an emotional Varney in victory lane. “Pop-pop, thank you guys. Thank you.

“Thank you to everyone who has helped us out this year. I’m struggling for words, man, this is tough. Thank you to everyone for coming out.”

A late-race battle for the lead between Varney and Daniel Brown ended in contact, with Brown spinning on the frontstretch with two laps to go. Varney apologized for the incident during his post-race interview.

“I’m sorry, Dan,” said Varney. “I just made a mistake on that. We were racing hard for a win. Just hard racing for a win.”

Varney held off Zach Nicholson on the ensuing restart for the victory. Varney also won the PASS Modified event on the eve of the Oxford 250, and now has 12 career wins with the series.

As for Nicholson, he was pleased with a runner-up finish for his third top-five result of the season, including his first podium finish.

“We had a really good car today,” said Nicholson. “I’m just really happy that I was able to finish up front here.”

Spencer Morse finished third, closing in on Ryan Hewins in the series’ championship battle with just two races remaining. It’s been a surprising development after Morse’s own disappointments during Oxford 250 weekend.

“We wrote off points,” said Morse. “We had an issue at Oxford Plains Speedway, we broke a ball joint. I said, as good as Ryan is, he’s not going to make any mistakes, nothing bad is going to happen.

“I basically conceded the championship as his. He’s had a rough stretch of luck. I know that it’s going to be a heck of a battle going to Thunder Road in a couple of weeks and then capping it off at Oxford.”

-Photo credit: Connor Sullivan