Mike Stefanik Right at Home for CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — If it’s the end of a season, that means it’s time for the CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend at Stafford Motor Speedway, which means that Mike Stefanik will be counted among the favorites to take home the winner’s trophy. Stefanik is the two-time defending champion of the race, and of his 20 career victories at Stafford, 8 have come in the Fall Final event.
“I don’t really know how to explain that,” said Stefanik. “I do like to race in the cooler temperatures, it’s more comfortable in the car.”
Normally when discussing Mike Stefanik and the end of a season in the same sentence, it usually relates to the fight for the championship. But this year, Stefanik currently sits 6th in the standings, 276 points behind Ted Christopher. With only two races left on the 2009 schedule, Stefanik is not in contention for an eighth Whelen Modified Tour championship this year, but that has not dampened his drive to win races.
“We’re not in the championship chase this year, so there is no pressure there,” said Stefanik. “We’re coming to Stafford this weekend guns blazing. With not being in the championship chase, we can afford to take come chances and gamble a bit on strategy. We gambled at Martinsville this past week and that was the key to us winning that race. Sly [Szaban] made a great call to not pit for fuel and that helped put us in position to win. We were just happy to get a win this year. There used to be 22 or 23 races on the schedule, but now, we were coming down to the end and starting to run out of chances of getting a win for this year.”
Stefanik’s win at Martinsville this past weekend was the 70th victory of his Whelen Modified Tour career. Of those 70 career victories, 20 have come at Stafford Motor Speedway, which means that Stefanik knows better than anyone what it takes to have a winning car at Stafford.
“I think the keys to winning this weekend will be the same as always,” said Stefanik. “You need to have a car that will rock and roll through the corners at Stafford, you can’t make any mistakes, and you need to start the race up front. Normally our races are positioning yourself for the pit stop and then whoever among the premier cars of the race gets off pit road first is usually the way to go. But like I said earlier, with the position we’re in, we can afford to gamble and take a chance on our strategy that maybe some others can’t.”
Although the championship might not be in the cards for Stefanik and his team this year, they have a firm outlook out finishing out the 2009 season strong to carry over into the 2010 season.
“Winning last week was really a relief for me,” said Stefanik. “We’ve been struggling with the Flamingo Motorsports team, but we’re beginning to work ourselves out of the rut we were in. We’ve been faster and faster on the time sheets and faster on the long runs. The entire team has been working hard but we just haven’t had anything to show for it until last week. You look at a guy like Mark Martin, just a couple years ago he couldn’t win, he was too old, he needed to retire. Now that he has what he needs, he’s winning races and leading the championship. I feel like we are at the point now where we have all that we need to win. It’s a tough point to get to and even harder to hold on to, but we’re looking at winning these last two races and carrying it over into next year.”
CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend kicks off on Friday, October 2nd with practice for Stafford’s weekly divisions. Practice runs from 2pm to 6:30pm and the grandstand gates will be open free of charge to the public for the practice session.
Saturday has practice for the Whelen Modified Tour beginning at 10:00am. Time Trials get started at 1:30pm with heat and consolation events for Stafford’s weekly divisions to follow. Closing out the Saturday on-track activities will be feature events for Stafford’s SK Light Modified, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions, including the Paradiso-Muska DARE Stock Shoot-Out. There will also be a special 15-lap Mini Stock feature event as part of the Saturday festivities. Grandstand gates for Saturday open at 10:00am.
The 37th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend concludes on Sunday with feature events for the Whelen Modified Tour and Stafford’s SK Modified® and Late Model divisions. Spectator gates open at 10:00am with the famous CARQUEST Belts and Hose Pit Party taking place from 11:00am to noon. The SK Modified® feature takes the green at 1:00pm, with the Whelen Modified Tour and the Late Model feature events to follow.
Tickets for the 37th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are now on sale at the Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $38.00 for reserved seats, and free for children ages 5 & under. Tickets are good for admission to the Saturday, October 3, and Sunday, October 4 portions of the Fall Final. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking with overnight weekend parking available.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR