{"id":29298,"date":"2026-06-06T18:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T22:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=29298"},"modified":"2026-06-07T19:23:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T23:23:50","slug":"jon-puleo-wins-casella-waste-sk-80-and-multiple-feature-victories-at-stafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2026\/06\/jon-puleo-wins-casella-waste-sk-80-and-multiple-feature-victories-at-stafford\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Puleo Wins Casella Waste SK 80 and Multiple Feature Victories at Stafford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Stafford Speedway was back in action on Friday, June 5th with the Casella Waste SK 80, the $3,000 to win first leg of the Sign Pro Triple Crown. Jon Puleo was the big winner of the night, using a dominating drive to notch his first win of the 2026 season in the Casella Waste SK 80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Bennett was a Late Model winner for the first time in nearly 5 years at Stafford, Jason Finkbein came out a first-time SK Light feature winner after an eventful finish, Rich Hammann scored his first win of 2026 in the Limited Late Model feature, and Ryan Waterman took down what is already his fourth win of 2026 in the Street Stock feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Casella Waste SK 80 feature, Glen Reen charged around polesitter Jon Puleo to take the early race lead. Puleo came right back to the inside of Reen on lap-2 to move to the front. Bryan Narducci was third in line with Marcello Rufrano in fourth and Michael Christopher, Jr. fifth. The caution came out with 4 laps complete as Frank Ruocco got into the turn 3 wall and the cars of Wade Gagner, Josh Zentek, and Ethan Durocher all spun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Reen took the lead back from Puleo on the restart but again Puleo took one lap behind Reen before he went back into the lead. Narducci took second with Rufrano and Reen now wheel to wheel for third and Christopher in fifth. Narducci made a move to the inside of Puleo on lap-9 but Puleo still had the lead by a nose at the line and he went back in front of Narducci on lap-10. Rufrano won the duel with Reen for third but he now had Christopher to his inside and Christopher took third place on lap-11. Reen was still fifth with Tyler Chapman, Noah Korner, Andrew Molleur, Mikey Flynn, and David Arute making up the top-10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puleo was starting to stretch out his advantage over Narducci in second and with 22 laps complete the running order was Puleo, Narducci, Christopher, Rufrano, Reen, Chapman, Molleur, Flynn, Korner, and Arute. Nickolas Hovey spun in turn 2 to bring the caution flag out with 26 laps complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puleo took the lead on the restart with Christopher moving into second. Reen was side by side with Narducci for third with Molleur and Rufrano side by side for fifth place. Reen briefly took third on lap-29 but Narducci came right back and maintained the position. Reen completed a pass for third on lap-30 and the caution came back out with 31 laps complete for Durocher who spun in turn 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Talladega melee broke out on the restart as Puleo didn\u2019t quite come up to speed with the cars of Tyler Hines, Arute, Alex Pearl, David Flammia, Jr., Dylan Izzo, Matt Vassar, Art Caruso, Noah Korner, Keith Rocco, and Wade Gagner all involved to bring the caution flag back out immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puleo took the lead with Christopher and Narducci right behind him. Christopher nearly took the lead on lap-33 but Puleo was able to fend off his challenge. Reen was fourth in line with Chapman up to fifth. Molleur was sixth followed by Flynn, Troy Talman, Rocco, and Owen. Molleur took fifth from Chapman on lap-38 while the same lap saw Rocco take eighth place from Talman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 50 laps complete Puleo was still in command with Christopher, Narducci, Reen, Molleur, Rocco, Flynn, Chapman, Talman, and Todd Owen giving chase. Reen was working Narducci over for third and they made contact on lap-60 but both cars maintained position and kept on fighting for third place. Reen was finally able to make a pass on Narducci on lap-65 to take over third place while Puleo and Christopher were still comfortably in first and second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 10 laps to go the order was Puleo, Christopher, Reen, Narducci, Rocco, Molleur, Flynn, Chapman, Riely O\u2019Keefe, and Talman. Chapman got loose in turn 4 which allowed O\u2019Keefe to take eighth place on lap-71. Puleo led the field to the checkered flag to pick up his first win of the 2026 season with a dominating drive. Christopher finished second with Reen, Narducci, and Rocco rounding out the top-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 30-lap Late Model feature, Wayne Coury, Jr. took the lead at the green flag to set the early pace with Michael Bennett taking second behind him. Paul Varricchio, Jr. was third with Josh Wood fourth and Chris Buffone fifth. Buffone took fourth from Wood and lap-6 saw Chris Meyer and Wood get stuck together coming out of turn 2 before the cars separated with Wood and Meyer falling back to eighth and ninth place with Meyer\u2019s right front fender slightly damaged as Adam Gray took fifth, Darrell Keane sixth, and Kevin Gambacorta seventh. Scott Davis spun coming out of turn 2 to bring the caution flag out with 9 laps complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coury charged into the lead on the restart with Bennett and Buffone going door to door for second. Bennett won that duel and one lap later saw Varricchio take third from Buffone. Adam Gray also got by Buffone to take fourth place and drop Buffone back to fifth. Bennett worked his way to the inside of Coury to take over the lead on lap-13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 10 laps to go it was still Bennett in command followed by Coury, Varricchio, Gray, and Buffone. Gambacorta was sixth with Meyer, Darrell Keane, Adon Burrell, and Wood making up the top-10. Bennett led the field to the checkered flag to pick up his first win of the 2026 season which was also his first Late Model victory in nearly 5 years at Stafford. Coury finished second with Varricchio, Gray, and Buffone rounding out the top-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 20-lap SK Light feature, Tyler Barry went 3-wide with Paul Arcari and Bob Charland to take the lead at the drop of the green. The caution flew with 1 lap complete for Aiden D\u2019Agata, Rob Pederson, and Anthony Forino, who all spun in turn 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barry took the lead back under green with Robert Bloxsom, III taking second. Charland was third with Matt Brewer fourth and Amanda West fifth. West took fourth from Brewer on lap-5 while Bloxsom was applying heavy pressure to Barry for the lead. Bloxsom made a move in turn 4 to take the lead form Barry on lap-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barry came back to the inside of Bloxsom on lap-10 and he took the lead by a nose at the line. The two leaders were now racing wheel to wheel with Bloxsom taking the lead by inches to complete lap-11. Barry led lap-12 by inches as they were still side by side. Charland was still third with West fourth and Jason Finkbein fifth. Barry again led by the slimmest of margins to complete lap-13 before he got clear into the lead on lap-14. Bloxsom made a move to the inside of Barry on lap-15 but couldn\u2019t make a pass. The caution came back out with 15 laps complete for a spin in turn 2 by Ava Lombardo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barry took the lead back under green with Bloxsom glued to his back bumper. Finkbein took third with Chris Matthews taking fourth. Nick Anglace was wheel to wheel with Charland for fifth while Bloxsom took the lead from Barry on lap-18. Barry looked to make a move in turn 3 on lap-19 but Bloxsom shut that move down. Lombardo spun in turn 4 to bring the caution flag out on the final lap of the race to set up a green white checkered finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connor Christmas spun on the restart to bring the caution immediately back out and set up attempt number two at a green white checkered finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stafford Speedway was back in action on Friday, June 5th with the Casella Waste SK 80, the $3,000 to win first leg of the Sign Pro Triple Crown. Jon Puleo was the big winner of the night, using a dominating drive to notch his first win of the 2026 season in the Casella Waste SK […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,86,5,118],"tags":[270,268,175,269,271,221,272,214,123,215],"class_list":["post-29298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-race-results","category-stafford-connecticut","category-stafford-motor-speedway","tag-jason-finkbein","tag-jon-puleo","tag-late-model","tag-michael-bennett","tag-rich-hammann","tag-ryan-waterman","tag-sk-80","tag-sk-light","tag-stafford-speedway","tag-street-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29299,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29298\/revisions\/29299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}