Rain
Strategy Gives Civali Third NWMT Win
James Civali can thank his brother for his third victory of the season.
With his brother serving as his spotter and tracking the weather on his
cell phone, James Civali elected not to pit with the leaders and was out
front when NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour officials called the rain-shortened
Mansfield 150 Saturday at Mansfield Motorsports Park.
“He knew it was going to rain – he just didn’t know how much or when,”
said James Civali.
The race was called after 108 laps following several attempts to dry the
track.
Doug Coby finished second and rookie Woody Pitkat was third.
Point leader and Budweiser Pole Award winner Donny Lia was fourth and
Eric Beers fifth. Ronnie Silk, Matt Hirschman, Ted Christopher, Todd Szegedy
and Bobby Grigas III rounded out the top 10.
Coby led the first 13 laps before Civali made the pass. Silk moved to the
front seven laps later and led until a lap 54 caution. Silk elected to pit
along with the fifth-place car of Szegedy and nine others.
“We were leading and the car was really good,” Civali said. “When Ronnie
got by me, the car got free. But then it stayed the same. It had 90 hard
laps on it, too. But it never changed that whole run. It looked like Ronnie
got free and then kept getting (more free).”
Following the restart, Civali and Coby built a straightaway lead over
third-place Pitkat on the half-mile banked oval. The field was bunched
briefly following a lap 96 caution. Rain brought out the caution at lap 104
and the red at lap 108.
Lia maintained his points lead at 131 over Szegedy and 139 over
Hirschman.
The next NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race will be at Martinsville (Va.)
Speedway Sept. 1.
Source: Jason
Christley/NASCAR WMT
PR
Posted:
August 25, 2007
