Eleventh Place Finish A Source Of Frustration For Stefanik

            Seekonk, MA (June 13, 2004): Mike Stefanik felt the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet was capable of a top-10 finish in the Budweiser 150 at Seekonk Speedway Saturday night. Nevertheless, the Coventry, RI-driver fell victim to the tight confines of the 1/3^rd mile oval and crossed the checkers in the 11^th position. Stefanik cites a lack of on-track respect as a reason for his frustration following the race.

            “Outside of the race for the lead, the racing was disgusting. We were fighting a tight racecar so I don’t think we would have gotten a lot of forward progress, but without the beating and banging around that we had to deal with I think we would have had a seventh or eighth place finish,” Stefanik said.

            Stefanik wowed the crowd in the first practice session with the fastest time of the 23-car field. When qualifying rolled around, Stefanik’s speed of 90.576 mph was enough to earn the Burnham Boilers Chevrolet a seventh place starting position.

            After eight circuits of competition at the ‘Cement Palace’, Stefanik had moved up to sixth and was looking for a way around the 40-car of Kobyluck when caution flew for the first time of the evening.

            Stefanik maintained his position through the first half of the event, but as the laps wound down in the second half, things became treacherous.

            “We moved up from the start of the race a little bit, and every time we took advantage of having a faster car and moving by somebody, we got paid back by having someone dumping somebody or spinning them. We’d have to check up and lose positions,” Stefanik said.

            As the lap reached the 100-lap mark, Stefanik was still maintaining an eighth place position. The last 50 laps of the race, however, saw the team fight off the beating and banging that defines short track racing.

            “Kelly, I don’t know what he did – but getting into turn three it just seemed like he forgot to turn the steering wheel. That cost us a couple of spots there. And than basically he was just trying to put us in the fence for ninth place. That was ridiculous. You’re not going to do well if every time you do something you lose a couple of spots. I’m just going to forget about this place tonight.”

            Stefanik took the checkers in eleventh and moved up to sixth in the points.