Rain has ruined Ed Flemke Jr.’s
day on more than one occasion. Flemke was more than happy,
though, to see the overcast put an early end to Sunday’s race.
It gave Flemke his 17th win in his 21-year NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour career.
Flemke’s No. 10 Ron Bouchard
AutoParts Chevrolet was out front when rain forced the end of
the scheduled 150-lap season-opening Icebreaker after 92 laps.
“I’ve lost many, many races like
this,” Flemke said. “I finally won one like this. It’s a good
feeling.”
Chuck Hossfeld (No. 4 Dodge) was
second, followed by Bobby Grigas III (No. 09 Triple G
Scaffolding). Joe Hartmann and rookie Tom Abele Jr. rounded out
the top five.
Flemke inherited the lead on lap
71 when leader Todd Szegedy and others pitted.
“Everybody was pitting and that
was the time to do it,” Flemke said. “I just knew the car was
too good and with the way the track was, I knew our best chance
was to stay out.”
Before the race, former champions
Frankie Schneider (1952) and Donny Lia (2007), and the late
Richie Evans (nine-time champion) were honored by NASCAR and
series sponsor Whelen Engineering as part of a year-long
celebration of the 60 Years of NASCAR Modified Champions.
Source: Jason
Cunningham/NWMT PR
Posted:
April 6, 2008
