(Stafford Springs, CT)—With the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heading back
\nto Stafford on May 27th for the 21st Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125, one
\ndriver who will be looking to knock the door down to victory lane is Mike
\nStefanik. Stefanik is the Tour\u2019s all-time winningest driver with 70 career
\nvictories, but he hasn\u2019t won on the Tour since Martinsville in 2009.
\n
\nStefanik heads into the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 with two top-5 finishes in
\neach of the first two races of the 2011 season, but he says his Diversified
\nMetals team are still searching for speed in his #16 machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re struggling right now,\u201d said Stefanik. \u201cWe\u2019re just not quite firing
\non all 8 cylinders right now. It seems like our car is good on the shorter
\nruns, 20 or 30 laps, but once we get to a run with 40 or more laps, the car
\nisn\u2019t good. To win on the Tour, you need to have all of your ducks in a row
\nand right now we need to get a couple of our ducks back in that row. We\u2019re
\nworking hard and we\u2019ll get it straightened out, we always do. The top-5\u2019s
\nare nice, but we want to win races. It\u2019s a short schedule and if you want
\nto win the championship, you have to win races. Racing isn\u2019t as easy as it
\nlooks and right now we\u2019re having a tough time getting towards the front once
\nwe get into the top-5.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best remedy for Stefanik\u2019s woes is a return to Stafford. Of his
\n70 career victories, 20 of them have come at Stafford. While Stefanik hasn\u2019
\nt won at Stafford since the 2008 Fall Final, his worst finish in the four
\nStafford races in 2010 was a 7th and he finished 5th in the CARQUEST
\nTech-Net Spring Sizzler in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get back into victory lane, it\u2019s been a while since we won a
\nrace,\u201d said Stefanik. \u201cStafford is as good a track as any to win at, but
\nlike I said, if the car isn\u2019t handling, then you aren\u2019t going to win, no
\nmatter what track you\u2019re racing at. We\u2019re working with Doug Chenard from
\nRowan Pennink\u2019s team and we\u2019re coming with a new package for Stafford, so we
\n\u2019ll see how that works out. We can be fast in practice and fast in
\nqualifying, but we need to work on our race setup. Because no matter how
\nfast you are in practice or qualifying, you need to have the car working for
\nyou in the race or you\u2019re going to go backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the TSI Harley-Davidson 125 being 25 laps shorter than the standard
\ndistance of 150 laps, Stefanik says that pit strategy could play an
\nimportant role in determining the race winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with this race you might see some different pit strategies,\u201d said
\nStefanik. \u201cSome guys might pit for tires and some guys might be able to
\nstay out for the whole 125 laps on one set of tires. With these Hoosiers,
\nif your car is right, you can stay out on one set for a long time. But it
\nall comes down to the chassis, it has to be working for you. I think that
\nthe new tires vs. old tires is not worth as much as it used to be, so you
\nmay see the race winner be able to go the whole way on one set of tires.\u201d
\nTickets for the 21st Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125 are on sale now at the
\nSpeedway Box Office and are price at $30.00 for adult general admission
\ntickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are
\nadmitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is
\npriced at $32.00 for all ages.<\/p>\n
For more information, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor (Stafford Springs, CT)—With the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heading back to Stafford on May 27th for the 21st Annual TSI Harley-Davidson 125, one driver who will be looking to knock the door down to victory lane is Mike Stefanik. Stefanik is the Tour\u2019s all-time winningest driver with 70 career victories, but he hasn\u2019t won on […]<\/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":[196,126,197],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-5263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263","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=5263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSpeedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at
\nwww.staffordspeedway.com