Sixth Place Finish In Siemens 125 At NHIS

            Loudon, NH (July 24, 2004): Mike Stefanik’s perseverance was evident in the Siemens 125 at New Hampshire International Speedway Saturday afternoon. After a wild chase for the point, Stefanik fell back in the field only to fight his way to sixth place before the checkers fell. Stefanik overcame both loose and tight conditions to post his fifth top-10 of the season.

            “In the early laps we had a great car,” Stefanik said. “The problem was when we changed tires we lost the stagger. That just threw us off really bad. On the second set of tires I could barely hold on in traffic. So basically, we went from having a push, to a real bad loose, back to having the push again. It was a wild time.”

            Stefanik started the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet third on the 34-car grid after posting a speed of 124.406 mph (30.616 seconds) in qualifying. The effort was his best at the 1.058-mile oval since August 29, 1998.

            “We were pretty happy with that,” Stefanik said of his qualifying effort. “Track position is so important here. The further back you start the more you use up your car trying to come up through. We’ve got some prime real estate to work with.”

            Stefanik played the patience game over the first couple of circuits, but on lap seven, the Coventry, RI-driver figured it was time to make his move. Stefanik dove hard into the corner going three-wide with Brian Hoar and Kelly Moore in his bid for the lead. Stefanik was forced to back out of it and settle back into third place.

            On lap 15, Stefanik mounted a challenge on Hoar for the second position, and coming out of turn four, successfully completed his objective. The first caution waved at lap 28 after a long green flag run allowed then-leader Kelly Moore and Stefanik to pull away by a significant advantage over the rest of the field.

            Following the cue of Moore, Stefanik came down pit road at lap 31 and took on fuel and right side tires. The remainder of the race would not be so easy for the eight-time NASCAR Champ.

            Stefanik re-entered the race in the tenth position after his pitstop and took the green flag at lap 34. Slower cars had opted not to pit and were in front of the front-runners creating some five-wide racing heading into turn one. By the time things settled down, Stefanik was running ninth.

            “Things can change in the blink of an eye,” Stefanik said. “I knew we had a problem with the handling – which is critical at this track. The second set of tires just tightened us right up. When I could stay low by myself I was running times equal to the leader.”

            Focusing on his own race, and running a good line, Stefanik was able to break into the top-10 for the final 25 laps of the race. By lap 110, Stefanik had made his way up to sixth – where he stayed for the remainder of the race.

            “Are we happy with the sixth? I’m never happy when we don’t win a race, but overall, hey, we’re definitely making progress and that’s what counts,” Stefanik said. “We’ll definitely take it.”