08/15/06

Stefanik Dodges Wreck And Finishes 5th At Stafford

    Mike Stefanik avoided a multi-car wreck that brought out a red flag condition to post a fifth place finish in the New England Dodge Dealers 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway Friday night. The finish was Stefanik’s seventh top-five of the season in the Flamingo Motorsports-owned Diversified Metals Chevrolet.
    “The show was kind of rough. I think a lot of guys got tore up,” Stefanik said. “We weren’t one of them fortunately, but we certainly could have been. I heard it was a good race for the lead, but we weren’t close enough to watch it.”
     The Flamingo Motorsports crew battled with a tight condition through qualifying, but pulled out a tenth fastest qualifying effort.
    “We were pretty quick speed-wise on the board, but we weren’t happy with the way the car was driving,” admitted Stefanik. “The last few weeks we’ve been fighting a loose condition, and this week we were completely on the other side of the fence. It was tight on entry and tight everywhere mostly. It drove like that for the whole time we were at the track.”
    The early laps were marred by cautions – a total of seven for 35 laps by the time the mid-way point came – making survival a key aspect to a strong finish. Following a pit stop, Stefanik lined up 15th for the restart at lap 72. Right behind him was Ted Christopher, Stefanik’s closest challenger in the point race. When the green flew, an accident unfurled that collected several key players in the Whelen Modified Tour – including Christopher.
    “We could have easily been involved in that accident,” admitted Stefanik. “There was a bunch of cars that got tore up – and some heavy hitters.”
    When the race went back to green, Stefanik was running seventh, but he was still fighting an ill-handling racecar. He got up to sixth, and when second place driver Reggie Ruggiero spun to the infield in the closing laps, Stefanik inherited the fifth place spot.
    “We’re trying to win races, not finish in the top-five. That’s good for the points, but we want to win,” said Stefanik. “We need to hit the reset button and go back to the set-up’s that we had before we started trying to make the car better.”

    The next race for the Flamingo Motorsports team is at Thompson International Speedway this Thursday night, August 17th. Stefanik, who has posted a top-10 finish in every race this season, leads the series in points with 1,410 – 101 points over Ted Christopher.

Source:  Penny Aicardi/NASCARTouring.com/WMT PR
Posted:  August 15, 2006