Barry Kuhnel

Barry Kuhnel’s career is legendary in the Modified ranks in New England. As a car owner, crew chief, and team principal, Barry was highly successful at many New England tracks. He was crew chief for 4 of Bob Polverari‘s Modified Championships at Riverside Park Speedway, including wins in 3 Riverside Park 500 events. They also won the Spring Sizzler together when Polverari edged out Richie Evans to win in 1981.

Kuhnel had many wins as crew chief for John Rosati from 1985 to 1986, winning a Riverside Park championship and placing fifth in the NASCAR’s National Weekly Racing Series.

After almost a decade away from the short tracks, Kuhnel joined the Beal & Bacon Motorsports team, that originally had Richie Gallup as the driver before Mike Stefanik took over. Kuhnel was the crew chief when Mike Stefanik won a record 13 races on the NASCAR Modified Tour in 1998. They won back-to-back NASCAR modified tour championships in ’97 and ’98. During this period, Kuhnel and Stefanik built their own chassis out of the Peter Beale/Charlie Bacon shop. They visited victory lane in some of New England’s biggest races, including the Thompson Ice Breaker (1998), Thompson World Series (1995, 1998), Stafford Spring Sizzler (1997, 1998), Stafford Fall Final (1995, 1998) plus 5 times at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

In 1999 Stefanik moved on to the NASCAR Truck Series and Kuhnel was hired to wrench a tour effort for car owner Gary Cretty with Tony Hirschman as the driver, resulting in Barry’s 3rd straight NASCAR Modified Tour Championship as a crew chief. The pairing won a lot of races in the next few years.

When Hirschman moved on, Ted Christopher was hired to pilot the 26. Kuhnel prepared another winner with Teddy driving. He worked with Ted Christopher for a few years during TC’s Mystique Motorsports era. In 2006, Barry reunited with Stefanik as part of the Flamingo Motorsports team, where he won another NASCAR Modified Tour championship.

All in all, Barry Kuhnel had wins throughout New England at Beech Ridge, Lee, Loudon (NHMS), Riverside Park, Seekonk, Stafford Springs, Thompson, and Waterford.