(Stafford Springs, CT)—Since Ryan Posocco joined the #48 Davidson Company
sponsored Kretschman Motorsports team prior to the 2008 season, that
combination has been the team to beat when it comes to Late Model
competition at Stafford Motor Speedway. This past Sunday at Stafford,
Posocco and the Kretschman team locked up their third championship in the
past four seasons, which was Posocco’s record sixth Late Model championship
at the track. The championship run brought to a possible end one of the
dominant driver/team combinations that has been seen at Stafford in any
division.
“This is bittersweet, this is the last ride in the 48,” said Posocco. “I
have to thank the crew, Pat and Marci Kretschman, 4 years of awesome racing,
my Dad, everyone on the crew. We’re happy to be here, number 6, I would
have never guessed it being a little kid sitting in turn 4 that I would have
6 championships. I’m not 100% sure what the deal is, but I believe it’s the
last ride in the 48. We wanted to go out on a high note and I think we
accomplished that. It’s been a great four years with those guys, they’ve
done a lot for me, and I can’t thank them enough and this was the best way
to end it.”
Posocco took the points lead for the first time after the second race of the
2011 season, but he would lose that points lead several weeks later with a
15th place finish. It wasn’t until Posocco recorded his first feature win
of the season on July 15th that he retook the points lead, and once he was
in the points lead, he held that spot for the remainder of the 2011 season.
Woody Pitkat applied pressure to Posocco and the Kretschman team in the
championship chase by posting 14 consecutive top-4 finishes after a slow
start to the year, but it was not enough to overtake Posocco in the
championship fight.
“We had our normal pattern to the season, we started slow, then we picked it
up in the summer, and then we weren’t quite as good as Woody was the last
couple weeks of the season,” said Posocco. “We knew if we kept finishing
where we were finishing that we would be ok, but just like last year,
anything can happen in those last couple of races. I would rather have been
in Ryan Preece’s position and had the points race wrapped up with one race
to go. Anything can happen and you can never be comfortable until it’s
over.”
The 2011 championship puts a cap on one of the most dominant runs in
Stafford’s history. In 4 seasons together, Posocco and the #48 Kretschman
team posted 17 wins, 53 top-5, and 67 top-10 finishes in 72 races and they
won the championship in 3 of those 4 seasons. Posocco’s 6 championships and
45 victories currently stand as Stafford Motor Speedway records for the Late
Model division.
“For sure the numbers speak for themselves,” said Posocco. “It’s going to
be tough to walk away, we’ve had some really good times in 4 years together.
When you spend that much time together, you become more than racers, you
become really good friends. Records were made to be broken and I’m sure
that someday all my records will be broken.”
Posocco will officially be crowned the 2011 Late Model track champion at the
42nd Annual Stafford Motor Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony on Friday,
November 18, 2011 at the La Renaissance Banquet Facility in East Windsor.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.