As first reported by RaceDayCT.com on Tuesday afternoon, Rowan Pennink confirmed to NASCAR.com that he will retire from racing, effective immediately.
The Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, driver missed the 2018 season-opener at Myrtle Beach Speedway following offseason back surgery, but returned for the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson, and ran eight of the last nine events on the schedule driving for Boehler Racing. The only other missed race for the veteran was the Bud “King of Beers” 150 at Thompson, where he celebrated the birth of his first child.
However, following the race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Pennink’s back issues crept up on him once again. It didn’t take Pennink long to make the decision that this was the right time for him to stop climbing behind the wheel after he started having pain again.
“After talking with my family, I made the decision to say enough is enough,” Pennink said. “I have a new family, and I don’t want this to get to the point where I am in pain for the rest of my life, and not able to enjoy spending time with my family. I just decided this is a good time.
“I had been good up until just after Bristol, I started having some back pain and I figured I was just a little bit sore and it would get better, but, it progressively got worse. I had to go back to the doctor, and they gave me a couple of shots in my back, and they told me to take it easy for a while. The doctor didn’t really say for me not to race anymore, but in my mind, after I had the surgery, I had a good recovery, but I told myself that if I continued having back problems, I probably should hang up the helmet.”
Over 12 years, Pennink won three NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races, including the 2017 Icebreaker 150, which will go down as his final win.
His other two victories came in 2013 (Thompson) and 2010 (Riverhead). The 32-year-old modified veteran drove the final three years of his career for Boehler (BRE) Racing in the historic Ole Blue No. 3 modified.
Pennink arguably had the most success with BRE compared to any other team he raced for over his career — scoring 11 top-five finishes and 28 top-10s across his last 42 starts.
“It’s really tough to step away, especially with the group of people on the No. 3 team, they aren’t only an amazing group, but they work really hard on the car, and they have given me some amazing cars to drive,” Pennink said. “It’s tough to step away from a great team and a great group of guys that have done so much for me since I started driving for them.”
Over his career, Pennink also competed regularly at Stafford Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, winning two SK Modified titles at the half-mile in 2015 and 2016. He retires ninth on the all-time SK Modified win list at the Connecticut oval with 20 career wins — with the last of them coming on May 25th of 2018.
For Pennink, who built a striking resume in modified racing across New England, the decision to step away was a difficult one. But, for now, he will take the memories and step back to focus on his health, and his family.
“Over the years, I have had a lot of great fans out there that have reached out and supported me, all the way from the lows of the racing season to the highs,” Pennink said. “A lot of fans stuck with me through thick and thin. I really am grateful for all of them.”
With Pennink stepping away, Boehler Racing has selected Matt Swanson to drive the No. 3 Cape Cod Copper Chevrolet at Oswego Speedway on Saturday evening.
Swanson, an 18-year-old driver from Acton, Massachusetts, recently drove the BRE Racing Ole Blue No. 3 modified to a second-place finish in the Bud King of Beers 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in August. Pennink missed that event following the birth of his first child.
At this point, it is simply a one-race deal for the Swanson and BRE combination.
“Right now, there have been no talks of a further partnership. We are going forward with me as the fill-in driver for Oswego,” Swanson said.
“I’ve raced against Rowan a lot, I have a lot of respect for him. I think it’s unfortunate that an injury is taking him away from what he loves to do. It was a little bit less humbling for me at Thompson because his first child was born, but now the circumstances are a little bit different. It’s humbling. We are going to Oswego with the same goal we had at Thompson. We want to win. Hopefully we can do one spot better than we did at Thompson.”
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