The Scoop
MONDEIK’S VISIT TO FLORIDA SPEEDWEEKS WILL BE MORE ‘BUSINESS’ THAN ‘PLEASURE’
Posted on: Thursday February 3, 2022
Gleason, Wisconsin’s Justin Mondeik will wheel his familiar number 44 super late model in the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida in February.
Next week Justin Mondeik will be packing his bags for the warmth and sunshine of Florida.
However, the visit for Mondeik won’t be much of a vacation. The 25-year-old from Gleason, Wisconsin is heading down to battle in the World Series of Asphalt February 11-19 at New Smyrna Speedway. 2022 will mark the third straight year Mondeik will travel to the sunshine state to get some well-needed seat time in to kick off an ambitious 2022 short track season. “It’s a fun week and-a-half down there but for us it’s really not much of a vacation,” Mondeik confessed. “We’re up thrashing on the race cars right away at 8 a.m. There are I think two nights off where we may go out to eat or catch a race down there somewhere. But it’s more of a business trip for us. We won’t get too much time to spend at the beach that’s for sure. And as for the track itself? It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Mondeik plans a 45-race schedule this year with his pavement super late model team based in Gleason in north central Wisconsin. “The good thing with down at Speedweeks is you really do get a lot of seat time in,” Mondeik explained. “The rules package down there pretty much follows CRA so it’s real close to the ARCA Midwest Tour. The bodies are pretty much the same as what we run up north. We’ll have to run typically 25 to 50 lbs. heavier than we do for the tour. In terms of payout it’s not a real big paying deal with $1,500-to-win most nights and I want to say $3,000-to-win on the other nights. The features run 35 laps. But the flipside is your expenses aren’t real big compared to what they would be for the Snowball Derby. We use it as a test-and-tune for our stuff for the spring and summer season up north.”
Mondeik had a successful ’21 campaign where he won 15 features, including seven at his home track State Park Speedway in Wausau, Wisconsin, five at Norway (MI) Speedway and another three at Golden Sands Speedway in Plover, Wisconsin. Mondeik also scored the track titles at Wausau and Plover and won the prestigious Stateline Challenge at Norway for the second straight season. “We want to build upon our success from last year and we’ve got three cars at our disposal,” Mondeik explained. “We work on race cars pretty much every night of the week. That’s what it takes though. It really does if you want to stay on top.”
Mondeik plans on defending his track titles at both Plover and Wausau and will also defend his Stateline Challenge crown at Norway. “We’ve had a lot of success at Norway and it’s somewhat similar to Wausau,” Mondeik explained. “It’s sort of a flat track and I seem to feel real comfortable there.”
Mondeik’s winning percentage at Norway is a whopping 83 percent where he’s won 10 out 12 times he’s raced at the third-mile, paved oval located just across the Wisconsin/Michigan border in the past two seasons. “I see they raised their Stateline pay to $5,000-to-win for this year so I’m sure it will draw a few more heavy hitters for that show,” Mondeik suggested. “We’ll be back there another four or five times this year. We also want to step up our game at other places as we’ll still run the full ARCA Midwest Tour and TUNDRA series races too. We’ve run well at places like WIR (Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna, Wisconsin) and at Marshfield (Marshfield Motor Speedway in Marshfield, Wisconsin) and have come close to winning but we’ve run into some bad luck at times.” Mondeik also plans on running the Alive For Five series at Dells Raceway Park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Gleason, Wisconsin’s Justin Mondeik, shown here after an August 13 Auto Value series win at Norway (MI) Speedway, will attempt to win three straight Stateline Challenge Series races during the 39th running of the event July 1, 2022.
As a four-year-old Mondeik got his start racing snowmobiles and go karts. “My first time running a race car was when I was 16 when I ran in their four-cylinder modified class they had at Wausau,” Mondeik said. When he’s not racing Mondeik works as a mechanical project engineer at AGRA Industries, which also happens to be one of his sponsors. “I am the main engineer and work with customers on equipment layout and things of that nature,” said Mondeik, a 2019 Michigan Tech University graduate.
When it comes to the chance of ever racing for a living Mondeik confesses he’d “do it in a heartbeat. “But truthfully I’m very realistic about the whole deal,” Mondeik admitted. “I mean it takes a lot of money to move up the racing food chain. Heck it takes a lot of money to do the short track racing we do. And we’ve got some great sponsors with that. But we looked into getting an ARCA ride for Daytona, for example. You need to come up with $125,000. We’re always working hard with our marketing partners and would love to land a race or two at the bigger level. But you need to bring money to the table and typically a lot of it. That’s why I’m comfortable with our short track program and I want to simply keep racing as long as I can. I’ve got a very supportive family and great supporting cast, too. We just want to keep racing and winning in the Midwest. Maybe a door or two would open. But we’re also very realistic about the whole deal at the same time, too.”
Justin’s dad Pete Mondeik is one of the driving forces behind his racing operation. “Dad always jokes and says I’m trying to kill him with all the racing we do,” Mondeik joked. “Dad is going to drive the hauler down to Florida. But we enjoy it. I’m extremely thankful for all the time everyone puts into this deal and especially their commitment to Florida. It’s a huge commitment and we all take a lot of our PTO time for it.”
Another ‘ace in the hole’ Mondeik has in his corner is noted car builder/crew chief Toby Nuttleman. “All three of our race cars are Toby-Cars,” Mondeik explained. “I guess the biggest thing with Toby in our corner is you know you’ll be fast as soon as you unload the race car. Toby is very much a calming influence on me at the track. He has a lot of confidence in my ability. Even though everything we do really is not an exact science. He gives us all some great guidance and I’m lucky to have to have him around.”
In addition to Nuttleman and his dad other loyal crew members who lend an assist to Mondeik’s 44 include Kayla Schmitt, Eric Breitenfeldt, Mitch Rucinski and Scott Schmitt. “I enjoy getting hands on myself with the cars and I think that’s important as a driver,” Mondeik said.
Among the long list of the team’s marketing partners are Aqua Finance, Agra Industries, Powerhouse Lawn & Leisure, Metsa Machine, Merrill Manufacturing, Merrill Equipment Company, Integrity Sales & Auction, A & A Lock Service, Culver’s, Schaeffers Oil, Breaman Merrill Ford, Cleaver & Gayle, Grandpa Bob # 15, Merrill Dairy Queen, Woodland Court Elder Services, Matt & Kim, KB Body Shop, Sawmill Brewing Company, Kimmons Roofing & Ventilation, DCMotors, Penny Callahan, Gleason Bowling Center, Down To Earth Greenhouse, Truck Country, GARD Specialists, Damgood Clothing Company, X To C Golf Course, Z’s Fork Horners, Ma’s Place, Headhunter Taxidermy, Geiss’s Meat Service, McCumber’s, Pioneer Trucking, Geno Eckes, Advanced Engine Concepts, Toby-Car, Lefthander Chassis and Rick Doering.
