Whelen Modified Tour Championship Contender Todd Szegedy Will Hope to Change His Luck at Stafford in CARQUEST Fall Final
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® 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 unkind to Szegedy and the #2 Wisk team in the three races held at Stafford this season. A crash in the Spring Sizzler in April left him with a 24th place finish and two spins in the August race left him with a 14th place finish to go along with a 6th place finish in the May event at Stafford. Szegedy hopes to have his bad luck at Stafford put behind him when the green flag falls for the CARQUEST Fall Final 150.
“The last time we were [at Stafford], we should have won the race,” said Szegedy. “We started 9th and we got up to 3rd passing cars on the outside, and we got spun out. We came out of the pits in 9th and we got spun out again and bent the right front spindle and the car was done. But what are you going to do, that’s racing. We’ve had a good car everywhere we’ve gone and Stafford is definitely one of my favorite tracks, we know we always have the potential to run good at Stafford.”
While his race finishes at Stafford this season appear to be less than stellar on paper, Szegedy feels confident that he will be a contender for the checkered flag in the CARQUEST Fall Final 150.
“I definitely feel like we will be a contender at Stafford,” said Szegedy. “Our car was extremely fast the last time we were there. We made most of our passes on the outside and whenever you can do that at Stafford, you know you have an exceptional car. If we can come back to Stafford with that type of car again, we should be contenders once again. If we can come out of Stafford with a good, strong finish and be closer to the championship, that’s all we can ask for.”
With two more races on the schedule before the Tour comes to Stafford for the 39th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend on Oct. 2nd, Szegedy currently sits second in the championship standings, 60 points behind Ronnie Silk. Szegedy knows that in order to win the championship, he must not only finish ahead of Silk, but he needs to have a good qualifying effort to start closer to the front of the field and avoid getting caught up in wrecks.
“I’ve qualified up front and in the rear at Stafford and we’ve had good results from both,” said Szegedy. “It’s always a good motivation for the team to know you have a fast car when you qualify well. We’ve used up our mulligans this year so if we want to win this championship, we have to be flawless from here on out. It’s going to be very important for us to stay clean and start up front. If not for the mishaps we’ve had this year, we would either be very close to leading or we would be leading the points right now.”
The 39th Annual CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend kicks off on Friday, Sept. 30 with pit gates opening at 12:00pm with a practice session running from 2:00pm to 6:30pm for Stafford’s weekly divisions. The General Admission grandstands will be open to the public at no charge for the practice session. The G.A. Grandstands will open at 2pm.
Action continues on Saturday, Oct. 1 with Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified Tour cars at 2:15pm, followed by heat and consolation races for Stafford’s weekly divisions. Saturday’s events wrap up with feature events for Stafford’s SK Light Modified, Limited Late Model, and DARE Stock divisions.
The CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend continues on Sunday, Oct. 2 with the famous Stafford CARQUEST Belts & Hose Pit Party kicking off the day’s activities from 11:00am to 12:00pm, with the final SK Modified® and Late Model feature events of 2011 being accompanied by the Whelen Modified Tour 150-lap CARQUEST Fall Final.
Tickets for the CARQUEST Fall Final Weekend are available and on sale now at the Stafford Motor Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult General Admission, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 & under are free. Reserved seating is $38.00 for all ages. All tickets cover both Saturday and Sunday admission to the Fall Final. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783.
For more information, or to order tickets, 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