Waterford Press Release (July 17, 2004)
Contact: Penny Degre
(508) 234-8684
Stefanik Gets A Little Help From His Friends And Posts Runner-Up Finish At Waterford
Waterford, CT (July 17, 2004): The GRIZCO Race Team took a little advice this week from singers Joe Cocker and The Beatles, who sung “I’m gonna try, with a little help from my friends”.
After struggling through the first half of the season, GRIZCO Racing called in long-time friend Dick Glines of NRP Race Cars to help them bring their program to a new level. The alliance paid off with a solid runner-up finish in the Kobyluck Corporations 150 at Waterford Speedbowl Saturday night.
“Steve Griswold, our car owner, had a good idea saying that we should bring somebody in. Steve’s a business-man and he looked at our problems with a business perspective,” Stefanik explained. “Dick gets along great with Brian (Latuch) and Karl (Osha). He brought them into the Busch North Series long ago. We needed some fresh ideas, and Dick brought those ideas. Mike Greci, Steve Hibbard, and several people threw in some information to help us. All-in-all I’m very happy to have something to build off of.”
Glines, together with crew chiefs Latuch and Osha, worked hard throughout the first two practice sessions, and had high expectations for a successful qualifying run. Stefanik fulfilled those expectations when he wheeled the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet to a speed of 89.707 mph (15.049 seconds) around the tight .375-mile oval. The speed was the third fastest time of the day.
When the green dropped, Stefanik immediately mounted a challenge on the 74 car of Ryan Moore, and after a brief side-by-side battle, moved into the second position. Polesitter Mike Johnson, who took the early lead, had pulled away by several carlengths.
Caution appeared for the first time at lap 13 setting the field up for a restart at lap 17. Although Stefanik was unable to catch the Johnson’s rocketship, he was able to distance himself by several carlengths over the third place driver of Matt Kobyluck.
“We really didn’t have much for Johnson. His car was on rails,” Stefanik said. “We just played it patient and ran our own race as we tried to catch him.”
A long green flag run followed with the torrid pace putting almost half the field a lap down. Stefanik concentrated on running his line, and keeping the traffic behind him. A caution at lap 66 tightened up the advantage, but a string of cautions followed and kept Stefanik in the second spot.
A lap 139 restart was Stefanik’s final chance to try and dethrone Johnson from the lead, however, his efforts never panned out and the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet took the checkers in second.
“It’s been a long time coming!” Stefanik said. “I’m really proud of this. We worked extremely hard. I’m glad that I could give this team a finish that more reflects the talent behind this operation. Everyone here is championship caliber and tonight we ran like that. I couldn’t be happier.”