Stefanik’s Eighth Place Finish A Step In The Right Direction

North East, PA (July 11, 2004): The GRIZCO Race Team has been frustrated with the last couple of finishes in the Busch North Series, but Saturday night’s eighth place finish in the Local Dodge Dealers 150 at Lake Erie Speedway was a step in the right direction for the team. It was Stefanik’s first top-10 since posting a runner-up finish at Thompson Speedway back in May.

“Eighth is better than 11th, 12th, or 13th where we have been finishing,” Stefanik said after the race. “It’s still not where we want to be, but it’s definitely better. As long as we keep moving forward… that’s the key.”

Stefanik started the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet eighth in the 22-car field after turning a lap of 15.496 seconds (87.119 mph) in qualifying.

“There’s something to be said for consistency!” Stefanik said. “Actually, we were pretty happy with the effort. We improved on our practice times and that left us optimistic for the race. Some say qualifying is a race within a race, and I agree it can be, but I try not to put too much importance on qualifying. We like to do well, don’t get me wrong, but if we don’t, it’s not like we give up. I think it makes this team work even harder.”

The beginning of the race showed promise for the Burnham Boilers race team as Stefanik moved up two spots in the first 20 circuits. From there, however, Stefanik slid backwards and spent the rest of the race maintaining his position.

“I didn't think we were going to have a bad run. I moved up a couple of spots from where I started. The car got tight and we just kind of slowly started falling back. We dropped back to 10th or 11th,” Stefanik said. “The more the race went on you could get the outside working for you. The 8 car went on the outside of us. I think Kobyluck got underneath him and forced him out there and he found that you could run out there. I kind of moved up to the top of the track after a few cars cleared us and I think our car ran marginally better after that.”

Rough riding between cars in front of Stefanik resulted in penalties that relegated some drivers to the rear of the field. Stefanik was able to break into the top-10 for the drop of the checkers.

“It was a pretty uneventful night for us,” Stefanik concluded. “I thought we would be able to move forward, but it just didn't happen.”