Beaver Falls, NY (August 1, 2004):  Mike Stefanik survived a mid-race spin to post a tenth place finish in the Kinney Drugs 150 at Adirondack Speedway Saturday night. Stefanik’s finish marks his sixth top-10 of the season and maintains his sixth place position in the 2004 Busch North Series championship chase.

            “I just got clobbered,” Stefanik said. “That’s all I can say. I’m sure by the looks of what I’m seeing here in the pit area a lot of people are feeling the same way I am. There’s not enough money in this series to be tearing equipment up like this.”

            With threatening skies and persistent rain showers, NASCAR officials canceled qualifying procedures and lined the field up by points. Stefanik started the race in sixth and maintained that position through the early laps of the race.

            The first caution flew at lap 14 when light rain showers started to fall upon the ½-mile oval. Luckily, it was not enough water to lose the track and racing resumed at lap 20. Stefanik used patience as the 40 and 32 cars battled side-by-side in front of him, but the 96 was anxious to move forward and took a spot away from Stefanik when he ducked underneath the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet. When caution waved at lap 57, Stefanik was running tenth.

            “We came in put on a fresh set of tires and made a quick adjustment,” Stefanik explained. “I think a lot of people were afraid to pit in case it started raining again, but we really had nothing to lose.”

            Stefanik lined up tenth for the restart at lap 62, but a spin slowed the field once again a lap later. Green flag action resumed on lap 69 with Stefanik keeping point leader Andy Santerre behind him. Santerre challenged and was able to take over the spot before a lap 71 incident sent Stefanik spinning in turns one and two.

            “We got jumbled up in the corner and I got hit,” Stefanik said. “It seems like nobody really cares how they run or where they run. I really don’t have too much to say about anything that happened out there tonight. Our car wasn’t perfect, but we had gotten it to where we would have been a top-five car.”

            Stefanik pitted at lap 74 to allow the crew to make repairs and sent the Coventry, RI-driver back out to line up on the tail end of the lead lap for the restart at lap 76. Several caution periods and two red flag periods dominated the second half of the race. Despite the slow pace, Stefanik was able to gain enough ground to finish 10^th.