Whelen Modified Tour Championship To Be Settled This Sunday At Thompson<\/p>\n
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 22, 2009) \u2013 When the green flag drops on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour\u2019s season finale \u2013 the World Series of Speedway Racing presented by Xtra Mart \u2013 this Sunday at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway, the waiting game will finally be over.
\nDonny Lia took his fourth checkered flag of the season last time out on Oct. 4 at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway and moved into the championship points lead for the first time this year. The 2007 titlist has little breathing room atop the standings, however, as Ryan Preece crossed the line third that day to sit a mere 26 points out of first.
\nAfter a scheduled off week, the 2009 championship was to be settled at Thompson on Oct. 18, but rain and snow forced the event to be postponed. Now with a more promising forecast, the World Series of Speedway Racing looks likely to take the green flag this Sunday, and the Whelen Modified Tour champion will finally be crowned. The three-week layoff has led to heightened anticipation for both title contenders.
\n\u201cI\u2019m really pumped up and excited to go to Thompson,\u201d Lia said. \u201cIt\u2019s been about three weeks since we raced, and it was supposed to be two weeks, so you just get amped up. You want to go to the race track and race. These three weeks off has seemed like forever.\u201d
\nPreece \u2013 like Lia \u2013 has avoided getting impatient, but is likewise anticipating returning to the track.
\n\u201cI\u2019m ready to race,\u201d Preece said. \u201cYou get all these people talking about the championship \u2013 who they want to win, who wants to win \u2013 that kind of deal. You kind of just want it to come, and get it over with. I\u2019m just looking forward to the race, and seeing if we can pull it off.\u201d
\nWhile both have not lost sight of the big picture, they intend to bring the same mentality to the track this weekend that they have each and every race this year: race to win.
\n\u201cYou go to every race to win the race,\u201d Preece said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re paid to do. That\u2019s what we want. We\u2019re definitely going [there] to win the race, and we have the car and the team capable of doing it. I\u2019m definitely going there looking to win the race, and let the points fall wherever they do.\u201d
\nAlthough Lia has a points cushion entering the weekend, don\u2019t expect him to ride around on Sunday either.
\n\u201cYou kind of stick to the same principles and same goals, which is to win the race,\u201d Lia said. \u201cWe always just go for the win and get the best finish we can. Just take the same approach to it, try to win the race and let everything else fall into place from there.\u201d
\nLia can clinch his second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour crown in three years by finishing fifth or better at Thompson, but with Preece so close behind, there are a number of scenarios that will make every lap important in the season finale.
\nThe World Series of Speedway Racing presented by Xtra Mart is scheduled to commence for the Whelen Modified Tour with practice and qualifying on Saturday, Oct. 25. The 150-lap race is set to go green on Sunday, Oct. 25 at approximately 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whelen Modified Tour Championship To Be Settled This Sunday At Thompson DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 22, 2009) \u2013 When the green flag drops on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour\u2019s season finale \u2013 the World Series of Speedway Racing presented by Xtra Mart \u2013 this Sunday at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway, the waiting game will finally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45,126,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-england","category-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}