Zack Robinson Goes Back to Back in Stafford’s Street Stock Division
(Stafford Springs, CT)—The 2020 Street Stock season at Stafford Speedway came to an end just as the 2019 season did with Zack Robinson and the #89 First Class Automotive, LLC team taking home track championship honors. Robinson becomes the 26th different driver to have won back to back track championships at Stafford, joining the likes of drivers such as Bob Santos, Geoff Bodine, Richie Evans, Jerry Marquis, Mike, and Ted Christopher, Bob Potter, Ryan Posocco, and more.
“It’s definitely awesome to have your name in the record books as a back to back champion along with all the other drivers who have done that at Stafford,” said Robinson. “It was a huge team effort every week. We did our homework during the week and that’s what gets you to the track every Friday night. I have to give a big thank you to the Anderson family, Joe Brockett, my grandparents, my Mom, Tim, Madison, Super Dave, and Joe Donovan as well as my sponsors First Class Automotive, Hopkins Trucking, Marika’s Place, and NEC Bodyworks.”
Although Robinson was able to accomplish winning back to back championships, the tales of his 2 championship seasons played out in drastically different circumstances. For his first championship, Robinson was in the lead and in control of the championship race for the majority of the season. The 2020 season saw Robinson climb his way out of an early-season hole as a result of two finishes of 14th or worse in the first 4 races. The early season deficit left him 30 points out of the lead. Robinson and the #89 team rose to the occasion as their worst finish over the final 10 races of the season was a 6th place effort on October 2.
“This championship was definitely harder to win than last season was,” said Robinson. “We had 2 bad finishes this year where last year we only had one bad finish. Meghan Fuller was on her game a little bit better than last year and there was a lot more competition this season. It was a little stressful, but not too much. We stuck to our game plan that we used all season long which was to go out and try to win the race. That’s what got us to this point last year and got us to that point again this season.”
The race for the 2020 Street Stock championship came down to the final corner of the final lap of the season. Robinson entered the final race 6 points behind Meghan Fuller, meaning that he had to finish at least 4 spots in front of Fuller to secure the championship. For almost the entire race, Robinson found himself behind Fuller and was ready to accept finishing second but contact from Brandon Michael on the final lap sent Fuller spinning and relegated her to a 13th place finish while Robinson finished 2nd to claim the title.
“The last race was all over the place,” said Robinson. “The first half of the race was ok and we were right where we needed to be. Then we got caught on the outside on a restart and we fell back a little bit so I just tried to stay consistent. Going into the last corner of the race, I thought we were going to finish fourth or fifth wherever we were running at that point and I saw Brandon [Michael] get into Fuller and I thought that we had the championship won at that point, but that was definitely not the way we wanted to win the championship. That was a turn of events that I feel really bad for the Fullers. It was shocking for me.”
With back to back championships now on his career resume, Robinson is unsure of exactly what his 2021 plans will be this point.
“We’re not 100% sure yet about next year, we’re looking at maybe moving up to Late Model.”
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Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR