{"id":9551,"date":"2012-04-27T14:45:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T18:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9551"},"modified":"2012-04-27T13:24:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T17:24:27","slug":"richie-pallai-jr-hoping-for-repeat-of-sk-modified-success-in-this-years-carquest-tech-net-spring-sizzler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/richie-pallai-jr-hoping-for-repeat-of-sk-modified-success-in-this-years-carquest-tech-net-spring-sizzler\/","title":{"rendered":"RICHIE PALLAI, JR. HOPING FOR REPEAT OF SK MODIFIED\u00ae SUCCESS IN THIS YEAR\u2019S CARQUEST TECH-NET SPRING SIZZLER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stafford\"<\/a>The 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler
\nwill kick off the 2012 race season at Stafford Motor Speedway and Richie
\nPallai, Jr., driver of the #39 CARQUEST Filters \/ Bosch Spark Plugs
\nChevrolet, is hoping for a repeat of the 2009 Sizzler where he collected his
\nfirst SK Modified\u00ae feature victory. Pallai finished 14th in the season
\nopening event at Thompson, and although he was caught up in a multi-car
\nwreck, he has confidence in his car and team with how well they ran as they
\nprepare for the 200-lap test that is the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the Sizzler more than we have in the past,\u201d said
\nPallai. \u201cStafford has kind of been one of our worst tracks. You would
\nthink it would be one of our better ones, but it just hasn\u2019t been. We ran
\nreally good at Thompson, we were eighth when we pitted and we pitted with
\nall the leaders. We restarted 14th and we were up to 10th right before we
\nwrecked, so realistically we had about a 7th or 8th place car without a
\nproblem. We didn\u2019t qualify as good as we wanted to, which hurt us because
\nit\u2019s tough to pass, but we\u2019re looking forward to Stafford. We had a lot of
\nproblems with the car last year that we figured out during the winter and we
\nswitched to Bruneau engines. We have the best equipment that we\u2019ve had in
\nthree years, so it\u2019s nice to know that going into the race.\u201d
\n
\nWith the Whelen Modified Tour field being so close together, Pallai knows
\nthat the first step to repeating his SK Modified\u00ae victory will be a good
\nqualifying lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think it would be easy, but qualifying is a lot harder than it looks,\u201d
\nsaid Pallai. \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely need to have a good lap because it\u2019s so hard
\nto pass with the cars all being so close together. At Thompson, Ryan
\n[Preece] was dominant in the first half of the race and he was having a hard
\ntime getting back to the front after he pitted. We were at Riverhead
\ntesting this week and the car is very fast. Everyone on the team is having
\nfun and when everyone is having fun, good things usually happen for us.\u201d
\nAfter qualifying, the next step is to have the correct race strategy for the
\nSizzler. With the race being 50-laps longer than most tour races, Pallai
\nknows that the correct strategy can give him and his team\u2019s chances a boost
\nat victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cStafford is so tough because the weather really dictates what you\u2019re going
\nto do,\u201d said Pallai. \u201cEvery race at Stafford you have to start out tight
\nbecause it always loosens up. You have to save your stuff early, but it\u2019s
\nsuch a long race that there\u2019s going to be a long green flag run and you don\u2019
\nt want to go a lap down. You have keep a pace that you\u2019ll be fine at and
\nthen once the pit stop happens, that\u2019s when the race really picks up. You
\nnormally break the race into two, the first half is just surviving and the
\nsecond half is where you go racing. Usually if you lead the first 150 laps,
\nyou probably aren\u2019t going to lead the last 50 laps of the Sizzler. You
\ndefinitely drive the Sizzler different from any other Tour race at Stafford.
\nTrack position is going to be huge, some guys will short pit, and other guys
\nwill pit late, but I think that pitting late isn\u2019t the advantage it used to
\nbe with how hard it is to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Pallai came away from the first race of the season with a
\ndisappointing 14th place finish, with the Whelen Modified Tour switching to
\nthe Sprint Cup Series points system, Pallai knows one race can put him right
\ninto the thick of the championship fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe destroyed the car at Thompson, but weirdly we came out of there with our
\nbest points position to start the season with,\u201d said Pallai. \u201cWith the new
\npoints system, if you have a good run, you can capitalize on that. Right
\nnow, we\u2019re only 12 points out of second, which is 12 spots on the track. It
\n\u2019s easy to figure out and if we can have a top-10 finish at Stafford and
\nsome guys in front of us have a bad day, we can pick up 10 or 20 points in
\none race, so it\u2019s pretty cool the way it works now.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler being a different race than most
\nwith it\u2019s 200-lap distance, Pallai remembers what it was like to win his
\nfirst SK Modified\u00ae race during Sizzler weekend and he is hoping to repeat
\nthat success this Sunday at Stafford and have a breakout season on the
\nNASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be cool to win the Sizzler,\u201d said Pallai. \u201cAnyone can win a race
\non any given day, but there\u2019s so much work and strategy involved with the
\nSizzler. I think we\u2019re in for a breakout year this season, we have no
\nexcuses if we don\u2019t run well. It all comes down to me driving the car
\nbecause everyone else on the team is doing their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2012 CARQUEST TECH-NET Spring Sizzler gets underway this Friday, April
\n27 with a practice session for Stafford\u2019s weekly divisions. The practice
\nsession will be open to the public at no charge. Action continues on
\nSaturday, April 28 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified
\nTour cars, along with heat and consolation races for Stafford\u2019s weekly
\ndivisions. Saturday will wrap up with feature events for the SK Light,
\nLimited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions. The Sizzler continues on
\nSunday, April 29 with the CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party followed by
\nStafford\u2019s SK Modifieds\u00ae and Late Models joining the Whelen Modified Tour in
\nfeature action.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the \u201cGreatest Race in the History of Spring\u201d are on sale now at
\nthe Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general
\nadmission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and
\nunder are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved
\nseating will be priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include
\n10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free
\nparking with overnight parking available.<\/p>\n

[adrotate block=”1″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler will kick off the 2012 race season at Stafford Motor Speedway and Richie Pallai, Jr., driver of the #39 CARQUEST Filters \/ Bosch Spark Plugs Chevrolet, is hoping for a repeat of the 2009 Sizzler where he collected his first SK Modified\u00ae feature victory. Pallai finished 14th in […]<\/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":[196,4163,197],"tags":[15001,6795],"class_list":["post-9551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-modified","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-richie-pallai","tag-stafford-motor-speedway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551","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=9551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}