{"id":3429,"date":"2010-09-23T21:19:16","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T02:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2010-09-23T21:19:16","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T02:19:16","slug":"mike-stefanik-making-late-season-charge-into-championship-contention-as-whelen-modified-tour-heads-to-stafford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/mike-stefanik-making-late-season-charge-into-championship-contention-as-whelen-modified-tour-heads-to-stafford\/","title":{"rendered":"MIKE STEFANIK MAKING LATE SEASON CHARGE INTO CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENTION AS WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR HEADS TO STAFFORD"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIKE STEFANIK MAKING LATE SEASON CHARGE INTO CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENTION AS
\nWHELEN MODIFIED TOUR HEADS TO STAFFORD<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Stafford Springs, CT)—As the Whelen Modified Tour makes its penultimate
\nstop of the 2010 season at Stafford Motor Speedway for the 38th Annual
\nCARQUEST Fall Final Weekend on Oct. 1-Oct. 3, Mike Stefanik has charged back
\ninto championship contention on the strength of 5 consecutive top-5
\nfinishes. The seven-time Whelen Modified Tour champion comes to Stafford, a
\ntrack that he has won at 20 times in his career, only 7 points adrift of
\nchampionship leader Bobby Santos, III.
\n\u201cRacing is a crazy game,\u201d said Stefanik. \u201cI don\u2019t really follow the points,
\nI usually find that out from Julie or the media. All I know is that we are
\n7 points behind Bobby Santos. I couldn\u2019t tell you if we had 600 points, 800
\npoints, or 1200 points. We\u2019ve had some real strong finishes and we\u2019re just
\nhappy to be in contention again, we haven\u2019t been in the championship the
\nlast couple of seasons.\u201d
\nWhile Stefanik and the #16 Flamingo Motorsports \/ Sanderson-MacLeod team
\nhave climbed the ladder back into championship contention, they have yet to
\nreach victory lane this year. Stefanik\u2019s best finish of the 2010 season has
\nbeen a second place at both Bristol and Stafford, and he says the team is
\nfocused on winning.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not coming to Stafford to race for points, we\u2019re coming to win the
\nrace,\u201d said Stefanik. \u201cI feel more pressure to win a race this year than
\nthe championship. We haven\u2019t been in the championship race all year long
\nuntil the last couple of races, so I would say that the championship is
\nBobby\u2019s to lose and all the pressure is on the 4 team. I\u2019ve been in that
\nboat before, the first championship I won was nerve wracking, but now there\u2019
\ns no stress at all. Like I said, we\u2019re just happy to be in it, but if we
\nshould be in position to win the championship this year, it would certainly
\nbe disappointing not to win a race.\u201d
\nWhat better place for Stefanik to end his winless drought, which dates back
\nto Martinsville of last season, than Stafford Motor Speedway? Stefanik has
\nrecorded 20 of his 70 career Whelen Modified Tour wins at the Connecticut
\nhalf-mile facility, and he is also a former Late Model Sportsman as well as
\nModified track champion at Stafford. But the two drivers he is dueling with
\nfor the championship, Bobby Santos and Ted Christopher, also have stellar
\nrecords at Stafford.
\n\u201cIt would be nice to get another win at Stafford, but the other two guys run
\nwell at Stafford too,\u201d said Stefanik. \u201cI think Bobby has been the class of
\nthe field this year at Stafford and Teddy is always good at Stafford, so it\u2019
\ns going to be a fun battle for sure. We\u2019re coming to win and I\u2019m sure those
\nguys are coming to win. In the end, it could all come down to luck. We\u2019ve
\nbeen close to winning this year, but look at what happened to Tony Stewart
\nat Loudon. If he had another half gallon of gas in the tank, he probably
\nwins that race. We can\u2019t do anything other than what we have been doing all
\nyear long to enhance our chances, so we\u2019ll show up with a fast and well
\nprepared race car, which the Flamingo guys always give me, and we\u2019ll see
\nwhat happens.\u201d
\nRace fans can meet and greet with the three Whelen Modified Tour
\nchampionship contenders as well as the rest of the Whelen Modified Tour
\ncompetitors and Stafford\u2019s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series drivers at the
\nCARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party on Sunday, starting at 11am.
\nThe Whelen Modified Tour cars hit the track for the first time during
\nCARQUEST Fall Final weekend on Saturday October 2nd with a practice session
\nfrom 11:00am-12:30pm. Time trials to set the field will begin at 2:15pm on
\nSaturday and the 150-lap race will take the green flag at approximately
\n3:15pm on Sunday.
\nTickets for the 38th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are now on sale at
\nthe Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for
\nadult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $38.00 for
\nreserved seats, and free for children ages 5 & under. Tickets are good for
\nadmission to the Saturday, October 2nd, and Sunday, October 3rd portions of
\nthe Fall Final. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free
\nparking with overnight weekend parking available.
\nFor more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
\n860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com
\n.<\/http:><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIKE STEFANIK MAKING LATE SEASON CHARGE INTO CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENTION AS WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR HEADS TO STAFFORD (Stafford Springs, CT)—As the Whelen Modified Tour makes its penultimate stop of the 2010 season at Stafford Motor Speedway for the 38th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend on Oct. 1-Oct. 3, Mike Stefanik has charged back into championship contention […]<\/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":[196,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","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=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}