Stefanik Finishes 9th After Mid-Race Spin At Stafford

Stafford Springs, CT (June 18, 2005): Mike Stefanik, driver of the No. 55 Burnham Hydronics Chevrolet, survived a mid-race spin to come back through the field and finish the Busch North’s Aubuchon Hardware 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway in the ninth position. Stefanik was only one of a handful of cars that pitted during the event.

“It’s hard to swallow a ninth as well as that car drove,” Stefanik said. “It really doesn’t tell the story. We’ve got a bunch of new faces here, and we all worked well together in practice. All-in-all, to come away with a ninth, is a little disappointing. We just have to build on that.”

Stefanik was optimistic from the beginning. The team consistently turned speeds in excess of 89 mph in practice, and walked away with the second fastest times during the hour-and-a-half session. In qualifying, Stefanik backed that up with a time of 20.125 seconds (89.441 mph) to earn an 11th place starting position in the 28-car field.

Stefanik maintained a top-10 position throughout the early laps of the race, but immediately knew there was a problem with the No. 55 Burnham Hydronics Chevrolet.

“We had a little bit too much tape on the grill,” Stefanik, who pitted at lap 31, explained. “We got a little warm and were pushing some water out. We had to pit and pull some tape off.”

Stefanik restarted the race at lap 32 at the tail end of the field, and worked his way back up to tenth by lap 66 when a caution waved for Ryan Moore. Shortly after the restart, Stefanik was faced with another obstacle.

“We were driving up through pretty good – actually I thought we were real good. I got up to Dave Dion and I got underneath him out of two and I got together with him a little bit in the right front. I like Dave and I’ve got a lot of respect for Dave and I didn’t want to cause any problems with him so I took my lumps. I spun down the backstretch and almost lost a lap,” said Stefanik.

No caution waved for the incident and Stefanik began to battle back once again.

A late-race caution at lap 129 allowed for Stefanik, who was still running on the lead lap, to pit once again. The team made adjustments and sent the Coventry, RI-native back out for the restart at lap 136 in the 12th position. Stefanik gained three more spots before the checkers fell a short 14 laps later.

The series moves on to Holland International Speedway in New York on Saturday, June 25th for the running of the Fuccillo Auto Park HUGE 150. Practice starts at 2:00 p.m., and Busch Pole Qualifying at 5:00 p.m. Race time is 8:00 p.m. with HDNet providing live high definition television coverage. An enhanced replay will be presented on SPEED Channel Friday, July 15, at 5:30 p.m.

“It’s one of the tracks where the harder you drive the faster you go,” Stefanik said of Holland International Speedway. “That’s not usually the norm in the Busch North Series. Usually, the driving is all about finesse. I like most racetracks, but Holland is one of the better ones.”