The Scoop
CHAD BUTZ – BRINGING THE FRRC/WIR TITLE HOME IN ’24
Posted on: Thursday September 12, 2024
Chad Butz won four SLM features at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna en route to the Fox River Racing Club 2024 track championship. (danlewisphoto.net)
It’s been 14 years since a Mike Butz Racing No, 8 rolled to a super late model track championship at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna.
That all changed in 2024. Butz, with his son Chad at the wheel, committed to competing weekly in the Fox River Racing Club’s “Thursday Night Thunder” show. Butz was able to bring that black No. 8 back to championship form as Butz sealed the FRRC super late model title on the final night after a season long see-saw championship battle with Reedsville’s Maxwell Schultz.
Chad Butz shown here winning the Bob Iverson Memorial 100 at Norway Speedway in 2022, won that track’s SLM crown in 2021.
Chad Butz, who’s 24, has been racing super late models since he was 15-years-old. In fact, Butz won a feature as a young teen at Norway (MI) Speedway. Chad, who now lives in West De Pere, scored the Norway track title in 2021.
However WIR’s crown carries with it a significant amount of prestige. After all, his dad Mike Butz earned his first two WIR titles in the mid-1990’s with a guy most know well – NASCAR Cup champion Matt Kenseth. Since the time Kenseth flew the coop and moved down south to be a part of NASCAR history, Mike Butz Racing has earned no less than six titles with one of the best drivers to emerge from WIR – Omro’s Terry Baldry.
With his son Chad’s track championship that makes nine total for the Green Bay car owner. So what prompted the Butz family to return to competing weekly for another Thursday Night Thunder crown?
One of the big reasons is the Butz family made a bold move during the off season by switching to a Fury chassis. For those who think a racing chassis is simply a dumb piece of iron? Butz disagrees. “This car was incredibly fast,” Chad said. “I could put that car pretty much anywhere I wanted to on the track and it stuck. It was beyond consistent week in, week out.”
Butz earned four feature wins and nabbed one fast time en route to the title. As it turned out, the Butz camp was the only Thursday night SLM team to use a Fury chassis. In a day where sharing setup tips and information among different teams can be a big advantage, the Butz team obviously found something that worked and worked well on Thursday nights in ’24.
Butz, who was a longtime dealer of Lefthander chassis, has now become a dealer for Fury chassis, which is slowly growing in popularity in Wisconsin. Butz is one of just five Fury dealers in the United States. When you win, it obviously helps sales. “Since the season ended a month ago I’ve already gotten a few calls from some WIR regulars inquiring about switching to a Fury car for 2025,” Mike Butz said. “And that’s one of the reasons we decided to focus on WIR weekly. We were dealing with a new chassis so we wanted to develop some consistency with our base setups with this new Fury car.”
According to Mike Butz, he truly let’s his sons Chad and crew chief Matt Butz decide ultimately when and where they race. “WIR weekly simply made sense for us,” Mike Butz said. “It’s close to home so you save on travel expenses. We’ve always had fun racing there. But among all the drivers I’ve had including Kenseth and Baldry, getting this title was definitely the toughest because it’s with my own kid. They both have good work ethics and Matt is a great crew chief, too.”
Back in 2016 Chad Butz did compete weekly at WIR, but things were vastly different than they are in the pavement super late model scene in 2024. “The bump springs and chassis development are so much more advanced now,” Mike Butz pointed out. “You have to really tweak things. Even on asphalt you are always chasing the track conditions. In the summer months the track really does change when it gets hot. Different setups from the colder, spring races. The margin of error is razor thin.”
A blown oil line caused the only DNF of the season for Chad Butz in late August during the Blue race at WIR in Kaukauna. (danlewisphoto.net)
As the season marched on, Butz found himself in a see-saw battle with Schultz all year long. “Maxwell was tough and he’d lead points for a while and we’d trade the lead a couple of times all season long,” Chad said. “But when it came down to the final night dad said ‘No matter what happens tonight, Chad, the sun is still going to come up tomorrow whether we win this or not. Dad always did preach not to even worry about points racing until the last couple of weeks in the season. But we had some great sportsmanship with Maxwell all year long. In fact, we never had to replace one door panel all year racing on Thursday nights. The only DNF we suffered was during the Blue race in August. It might have cost us the Red, White and Blue title but not the weekly title.”
Fox River Racing Club and WIR remain one of the very few tracks in Wisconsin that continues to host weekly, pavement super late model racing. “We averaged nearly 20 super late models a night and to me, that’s pretty special,” Chad Butz said. “It makes winning that title that much more important.”
Chad Butz is engaged to Jurnee Bennett. And yes, that last name is a big one in the local racing circles. Her dad is WIR legend “Lightning Lowell” Bennett. Can you imagine what it’s like to for holiday gatherings with this family? “Yeah we talk about racing a lot,” Chad joked. “I mean Jurnee has her drag racing career and we support each other well. I race against Lowell and Braison once in awhile. So it’s pretty cool that way.”
The 2024 racing season isn’t over for the Butz team just yet. They plan on competing at Oktoberfest at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway next month. “We’re also trying to secure sponsorship for a big race towards the end of the year at the Freedom Factory in Manatee County, Florida,” Chad Butz explained. “That’s a big race the week before the Snowball Derby we’d like to see how we stack up.”
Butz’s hard working pit crew includes Matt & Chad Butz, Jurnee Bennett, Kevin Parkansky and a pair of former racers – Marquette, Michigan’s Mike D’Angelo and multi-time WIR sport truck champion Brett Van Horn.
The marketing partners assisting Butz in his racing efforts include Ken’s Sports of Kaukauna, Roffers Trucking, Domain Outdoors, Glenn Styres Racing, Mike Butz Racing, Fury Race Cars, Bob’s Inn of Kaukauna, Paulie’s Chop Shop, Welding Works, Sentry Foods, Valley Gasket, Lake Park Pub, Tri- County Heating and Victory Sign.
So what does 2025 have in store for the Butz camp? “We work on our own cars and work on other people’s stuff so we have money to go racing ourselves,” Chad Butz said. “We’d love to return to WIR and defend our title. But we’ll see what develops in the off season. It all depends about the funding. And that’s yet to be determined. We love traveling too. But racing weekly at WIR is more affordable for us. Luckily we didn’t wreck anything this year on Thursday nights. Because if you do wreck on WIR’s half-mile things can get costly real fast.”