Stefanik Falls Short Of Top-10 With 11th Place Finish

Loudon, NH (July 20, 2003): Mike Stefanik piloted the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet to a solid 11^th place finish in the New England 125 at New Hampshire International Speedway Saturday, and solidified a fifth place position in one of the tightest point battles to emerge in years.

“I definitely hoped to bring home a better finish for Burnham Boilers, but we’ll take it,” Stefanik said of his 11^th place finish. “We started off real strong, but blistered a tire in the race and that certainly didn’t help things. We put another tire on and it seemed as if we had kept going we probably would have blistered that one as well. Obviously, we’re abusing that tire.”

Stefanik’s weekend kicked off with a qualifying effort of 122.422 mph (31.112 seconds), which earned him an 18^th place starting position. Green flag action kicked off in front of 51,000 fans with Stefanik gaining five positions in the first eight circuits around the 1.058-mile oval. Caution slowed the pace before racing resumed at lap 15, but Stefanik was on a tear. He moved up through traffic gaining three more spots before caution waved again at lap 23.

The caution period saw a majority of the lead lap cars, including the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet, come down pit road for a routine pit stop. The stop was anything but routine, however.

“The guys made a chassis adjustment, which slowed us down a bit,” Stefanik explained. “Don’t get me wrong, the guys did a great job and were pretty fast, but we did a little bit more than some of the other teams so we didn’t gain anything by going into the pits.”

Stefanik re-entered the race in the 17^th spot, but was hopeful that the adjustment would give him the set-up he needed to march out front. And it did. By lap 49, Stefanik had wheeled his way back into the top-10. A few laps later, Stefanik was challenging former Burnham Boilers driver, Brad Leighton, for the eighth position. Stefanik used the lower groove to attempt to go by Leighton for the spot but his efforts were thwarted.

Stefanik used the lower groove to follow Leighton through traffic and the two drove by 1994 Champion Kelly Moore to place Stefanik eighth. Unfortunately, moving up through the field used up Stefanik’s tires and the team slowly dropped back before coming in to change the blistered tire.

The unscheduled pit stop cost the team valuable track position and Stefanik was relegated back to the 18^th position by lap 99. With only 26 laps left in the race, Stefanik had his work cut out for him. Still, the Coventry, RI-native was able to rise to the occasion and take the checkers in the 11^th position.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” Stefanik said. “It’s frustrating because I see how hard this team is working, and the results we are getting should be better. I know the team is so used to running better than this, and it’s frustrating like you would expect. I’m confident that we’ll get it. We’ve come out of the box consistent and that says something, but I’m a racer and I like to win. That’s where I want us to be – in victory lane.”