Watkins Glen, NY (August 15, 2004):  Mike Stefanik moved up to sixth place in the 2004 Busch North Series Championship chase after posting a solid fifth place finish in the Mohegan Sun 150 at Watkins Glen International road course Saturday afternoon. The finish marks Stefanik’s fourth top-five and seventh top-10 of the season. The finish came despite a last-minute engine change two hours before the start of the race.

            “Brian Latuch (crew chief) thoroughly went through everything and found a valve train issue and possibly a lifter issue,” Stefanik explained. “We didn’t want to take a chance so we put the other engine in the car.”

            Stefanik was scheduled to start the race in the seventh position after rain washed out qualifying procedures Thursday afternoon, but following the engine change, was forced to drop to the rear of the field for the green flag.

            Stefanik paced himself in the early going of the race, but made steady progress through the field. Caution waved at lap three and eventually the race was red flagged. It took safety crews nearly a half-hour to fix the guardrail in turn four before green flag action returned at lap nine. Stefanik was 15^th on the restart.

            The Burnham Boilers crew opted to make a green-flag pit stop for fuel at lap 21. Caution flew on lap 23 when all the rest of the field came in for their round of pit stops. The sequence allowed Stefanik to gain track position and restart the race in the fifth position.

Stefanik immediately maneuvered his way by Barney McRae to take over fourth, and by lap 34 had moved into third.

            “After the pit stops I went through the esses and the car started to flutter. It just would not run clean through the esses. The car never pulled like it did the first 20 laps after that,” Stefanik said.

            Despite battling the flutter, Stefanik was able to maintain a top-three position for more than 20 laps. At lap 55, Matt Kobyluck caught the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet and went by for third at the entrance to the inner loop. Dale Quarterley was also able to power by Stefanik in the last three laps of the race.

            “We ended up losing a couple of spots near the end,” Stefanik said. “Near the end I got loose, and the motor I think got a little worse. Very seldom am I happy with handling, but the guys gave me a great racecar here. I needed the chassis there at the end 100 percent to get a third place finish because the motor wasn’t 100 percent. Obviously that didn’t happen, but I’m really happy with the way the car drove.”