{"id":7907,"date":"2011-09-18T12:07:18","date_gmt":"2011-09-18T16:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9076"},"modified":"2011-09-15T22:08:24","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T02:08:24","slug":"whelen-modified-tour-championship-contender-todd-szegedy-hope-change-luck-stafford-carquest-fall-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/whelen-modified-tour-championship-contender-todd-szegedy-hope-change-luck-stafford-carquest-fall-final\/","title":{"rendered":"WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER TODD SZEGEDY WILL HOPE TO CHANGE HIS LUCK AT STAFFORD IN CARQUEST FALL FINAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visits
\nStafford Motor Speedway, Todd Szegedy is normally among the pre-race
\nfavorites to contend for victory. Szegedy was a regular SK Modified\u00ae
\ncompetitor at Stafford before moving onto the Whelen Modified Tour and he
\nhas 4 career WMT wins at Stafford. But the 2011 season has been unkind to
\nSzegedy and the #2 Wisk team in the three races held at Stafford this
\nseason. A crash in the Spring Sizzler in April left him with a 24th place
\nfinish and two spins in the August race left him with a 14th place finish to
\ngo along with a 6th place finish in the May event at Stafford. Szegedy
\nhopes to have his bad luck at Stafford put behind him when the green flag
\nfalls for the CARQUEST Fall Final 150.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we were [at Stafford], we should have won the race,\u201d said
\nSzegedy. \u201cWe started 9th and we got up to 3rd passing cars on the outside,
\nand we got spun out. We came out of the pits in 9th and we got spun out
\nagain and bent the right front spindle and the car was done. But what are
\nyou going to do, that\u2019s racing. We\u2019ve had a good car everywhere we\u2019ve gone
\nand Stafford is definitely one of my favorite tracks, we know we always have
\nthe potential to run good at Stafford.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his race finishes at Stafford this season appear to be less than
\nstellar on paper, Szegedy feels confident that he will be a contender for
\nthe checkered flag in the CARQUEST Fall Final 150.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely feel like we will be a contender at Stafford,\u201d said Szegedy.
\n\u201cOur car was extremely fast the last time we were there. We made most of
\nour passes on the outside and whenever you can do that at Stafford, you know
\nyou have an exceptional car. If we can come back to Stafford with that type
\nof car again, we should be contenders once again. If we can come out of
\nStafford with a good, strong finish and be closer to the championship, that\u2019
\ns all we can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two more races on the schedule before the Tour comes to Stafford for
\nthe 39th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend on Oct. 2nd, Szegedy currently
\nsits second in the championship standings, 60 points behind Ronnie Silk.
\nSzegedy knows that in order to win the championship, he must not only finish
\nahead of Silk, but he needs to have a good qualifying effort to start closer
\nto the front of the field and avoid getting caught up in wrecks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve qualified up front and in the rear at Stafford and we\u2019ve had good
\nresults from both,\u201d said Szegedy. \u201cIt\u2019s always a good motivation for the
\nteam to know you have a fast car when you qualify well. We\u2019ve used up our
\nmulligans this year so if we want to win this championship, we have to be
\nflawless from here on out. It\u2019s going to be very important for us to stay
\nclean and start up front. If not for the mishaps we\u2019ve had this year, we
\nwould either be very close to leading or we would be leading the points
\nright now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 39th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend kicks off on Friday, Sept. 30
\nwith pit gates opening at 12:00pm with a practice session running from
\n2:00pm to 6:30pm for Stafford\u2019s weekly divisions. The General Admission
\ngrandstands will be open to the public at no charge for the practice
\nsession. The G.A. Grandstands will open at 2pm.<\/p>\n

Action continues on Saturday, Oct. 1 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for
\nthe Whelen Modified Tour cars at 2:15pm, followed by heat and consolation
\nraces for Stafford\u2019s weekly divisions. Saturday\u2019s events wrap up with
\nfeature events for Stafford\u2019s SK Light Modified, Limited Late Model, and
\nDARE Stock divisions.<\/p>\n

The CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend continues on Sunday, Oct. 2 with the famous
\nStafford CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party kicking off the day\u2019s activities
\nfrom 11:00am to 12:00pm, with the final SK Modified\u00ae and Late Model feature
\nevents of 2011 being accompanied by the Whelen Modified Tour 150-lap
\nCARQUEST Fall Final.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are available and on sale now at
\nthe Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for
\nadult General Admission, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 &
\nunder are free. Reserved seating is $38.00 for all ages. All tickets cover
\nboth Saturday and Sunday admission to the Fall Final. As always, Stafford
\nMotor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
\nTickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office
\nat 860-684-2783.<\/p>\n

For more information, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor
\nSpeedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at
\nwww.staffordspeedway.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visits Stafford Motor Speedway, Todd Szegedy is normally among the pre-race favorites to contend for victory. Szegedy was a regular SK Modified\u00ae competitor at Stafford before moving onto the Whelen Modified Tour and he has 4 career WMT wins at Stafford. But the 2011 season has been […]<\/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":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,45,197],"tags":[15775,72],"class_list":["post-7907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-nascar","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-nascar","tag-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907","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=7907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}