Catalano Brothers with career best finishes in the top 5 at New Hampshire

In short track families, racing just runs in the blood from generation-to-generation. For the Catalano family, racing Modifieds has been a thing since the 1960s.

This past weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, two of the Catalano brothers finished in the top 5, with Tommy Catalano coming up just short of a huge victory in second, and younger brother, Trevor Catalano finished fifth.

For Tommy Catalano, it was a confidence booster to have a strong run at the ‘Magic Mile’ and with a green-white-checkered, he was unsure how things would unfold.

“I just got done talking to my spotter with a couple of laps to go, he was like, ‘do you have a plan?’ And, I wasn’t sure,” said Tommy. “This is the first New Hampshire race we have ever finished without an issue, whether that be a broken motor, a crash, we’ve limped across the line before, but this is the first one we’ve actually finished.”

Tommy looked strong early on in the Mohegan Sun 100, running in contention through much of the first half of the race, then the first round of pit-stops came.

“We were top three there that whole first run and had an issue on pit road and had to restart in the mid to deep 20s,” said Tommy. “Then to have a shot at it at the end, you can’t ask for much more than that. I don’t even know what to say.”

For the older brother Catalano, it was a proud moment knowing he had a strong, as well for his younger brother Trevor to finish in the top-5. Especially heading into the final races of the season. 

“This is huge. We’ve struggled in the past few weeks,” said Trevor. “We completely rebuilt this car, this car was a completely bare chassis a week and a half ago and, you know, I tried to make the best car of the two cars I had and just, it’s awesome.”

For younger brother Trevor, it was a career day for him as well. Getting his best finish in three starts at Loudon, finishing in fifth.

“This is awesome,” said Trevor. “We were pretty terrible all day, so we made a swing for it there at the end and it ended up working out. This place is awesome. Every time you come here, it’s an adrenaline rush and it’s a lot of fun to race here. Probably one of the biggest races we have. It’s fun and I’m just thankful to everyone that helps out.”

For Trevor, the last few races have been a struggle, his last top-10 finish being at Oxford Plains Speedway in early June, and it’s his first top 5 finish since last August at Richmond Raceway.

“We only had two top-10s this entire year. It’s been a rough year,” Trevor said. “So, yeah it gives us a little bit of a push to try and get a couple more of these top fives and  hopefully continue to run inside the top 10.”

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to Stafford Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut Friday August 28th.. A track Trevor Catalano has not raced at yet with the tour, but older brother Tommy has. Catalano had a 3rd place finish in the ‘Spring Sizzler’ in 2021, followed by a 10th place finish in the Fall Final in 2021.