Stafford Press Release (June 18, 2004)
Contact: Penny Degre
(508) 234-8684
Stafford Springs, CT (June 18, 2004): For the second straight week, Mike Stefanik, driver of the No. 55 Burnham Boilers Chevrolet, was forced to settle with a finish that was not indicative of his performance in the race. After a swift pit stop on part of the Burnham Boilers crew, Stefanik returned to the track in the ninth position and was looking to secure a top-10 finish. On-track contact and an ill-handling racecar, however, had different plans for the two-time champion.
“When your car is not running good you run into problems like that. When your car is really fast you can blow right past those kinds of things,” Stefanik said about some late-race contact that cost the team several valuable positions. “I’m not even going to think about it.”
Stefanik ran tenth fastest in practice and backed it up with a qualifying effort that yielded a speed of 89.228 mph (20.173 seconds). The speed earned the Coventry, RI-driver a 14th place starting position.
At the drop of the green it appeared that Stefanik might be a contender when he immediately jumped ahead two positions and began working on the 61 of Mike Olsen. Olsen closed the door on his challenges, but Stefanik continued to work on progressing through the field.
Caution slowed the race at lap 26 with Stefanik ninth on the grid for the restart at lap 33. He maintained that position over the long green run that developed until caution allowed for the team to come in and adjust on the car.
“The car was tight on the center early and loose off,” Stefanik explained. “It got looser and looser and looser to the point that we were afraid to free it up any and tighten it up off.”
The team changed right side tires and got Stefanik out third behind Mike Johnson and Andy Santerre. When green flag action returned at lap 93 Stefanik was still in the ninth position – exactly where he was running before his pit stop.
On lap 98, Stefanik went by the 96 using the inside groove on the backstretch, but when Johnson tried to reclaim his position, Stefanik went right up the racetrack.
“I was following Andy (Santerre) by him. I had a piece of him, but I didn’t have enough of him. We made some slight contact getting into one, but I had a fender on him. We had fresh tires and I was going to go by him. I hit him in the left rear, but it wasn’t much. I drove up alongside him, and I knew he was upset because I got into his quarter panel, but it was a 50-50 deal. He had as much to do with it as I did. It’s one of those things.”
Stefanik slowed to avoid contact with the outside retaining wall, but fell back to the 13th position, where he took the checkered flag.
“The effort didn’t equal the result,” Stefanik said. “It’s very frustrating right now.”