{"id":27501,"date":"2020-11-09T06:46:28","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T11:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27501"},"modified":"2020-11-08T18:47:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T23:47:13","slug":"duane-provost-wins-napa-auto-parts-late-model-rookie-of-the-year-honors-at-stafford-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2020\/11\/duane-provost-wins-napa-auto-parts-late-model-rookie-of-the-year-honors-at-stafford-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Duane Provost Wins NAPA Auto Parts Late Model Rookie of the Year Honors at Stafford Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Duane Provost Wins NAPA Auto Parts Late Model Rookie of the Year Honors at Stafford Speedway<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stafford Springs, CT)—After racing for 10 years in Stafford Speedway\u2019s Limited Late Model division where he accumulated 2 track championships and 18 feature wins, Duane Provost made the step up to the Late Model division for the 2020 season.\u00a0 Provost drove his #88 Facchini Law Firm Chevrolet to 2 top-5 and 3 top-10 finishes this season in 12 starts to claim NAPA Auto Parts Rookie of the Year honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels really good to be rookie of the year,\u201d said Provost.  \u201cMy first goal this season was to win rookie of the year and my second goal was to finish in the top-10 in the points.  I wasn\u2019t able to make the top-10 but it does feel pretty good to check off the rookie of the year box.  I have to thank my sponsors Michael Facchini of Facchini Law Firm and Team Link in Ludlow, thanks to my brother Derek for helping me out, Brian Routhier, Tyler Wood, R.J. Surdell, the RRC Crew, R.A.D. Auto Machine, and Buzzy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provost\u2019s rookie season got off to a slow start with a best finish of 12th<\/sup> over his first 4 races.  But the 5th<\/sup> race of the season marked the high point of the season for Provost as he scored his first podium finish with a 3rd<\/sup> place effort after holding the lead for the first half of the race.  Provost spent the rest of his 2020 season tinkering with his #88 car to try to replicate his podium performance but the best he could manage for the remainder of the season was a 5th<\/sup> place drive on August 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI took as many notes that race as I could and I tried to get the car back to where it was that night,\u201d said Provost.  \u201cI got the car close a few times but it didn\u2019t quite work out for me.  I definitely felt like I could get back on the podium this season.  We finished 6th<\/sup> in the 50-lapper and we finished 5th<\/sup> the race before that so I knew I wasn\u2019t that far off.  I was trying to chase that 3rd<\/sup> place finish for the rest of the year but I couldn\u2019t quite get there.  I thought I should have gotten back up there on the podium but overall it wasn\u2019t a bad performance this season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provost faced several challenges this season in making the move from the Limited Late Model division up to the Late Model division, including the increase of laps and getting used to having a spotter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first couple of races this season was an adjustment going 30 laps instead of 20 but I think by about the 3rd<\/sup> or 4th<\/sup> race I kind of knew what I needed for 30 laps,\u201d said Provost.  \u201cI think the majority of the races we finished higher than where we started so for the most part it was a forward moving year.  Inside the car it was all about getting used to having a spotter.  Once I had a few races together with my buddy Tyler, who was spotting for the first time this season, I think having that extra set of eyes really helped me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provost\u2019s rookie campaign also served as a season of learning as he went through trials and tribulations in making adjustments to his #88 car in order to be among the fastest cars on the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI took a lot of notes and learned a lot of things that are completely different between the Limited and Late Model cars as far as handling and setup and all the things we can change or adjust,\u201d said Provost.  \u201cI found out quite a few times what not to do to the car.  I remember at the first race I was trying to make wholesale changes to the car and these cars are real sensitive.  When you put anything more than 1 round of wedge into the car during a race it completely changes the car and that first race I went with 2 or 3 rounds and the car completely went away so I learned no more making big changes like that.  We had a lot of fun this season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a season\u2019s worth of experience and notes to work off of for the 2021 season, Provost is looking forward to getting back out on track after a crash on Sept. 25 brought a premature end to his 2020 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last race I ran my practice times were in the top-5 and I was looking forward to that race but my night ended pretty abruptly,\u201d said Provost.  \u201cI had some miscellaneous things happen during the year like a shock came off one night, so I\u2019ll be working on some things to make the car a little more consistent for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit www.staffordspeedway.com<\/a>, checkout Stafford Speedway on Facebook or Twitter, or contact the track office at 860-684-2783.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Duane Provost Wins NAPA Auto Parts Late Model Rookie of the Year Honors at Stafford Speedway Stafford Springs, CT)—After racing for 10 years in Stafford Speedway\u2019s Limited Late Model division where he accumulated 2 track championships and 18 feature wins, Duane Provost made the step up to the Late Model division for the 2020 season.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27502,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27501\/revisions\/27502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}