Stefanik Continues Top-10 Streak With Sixth Place Finish At NHIS

Loudon, NH (September 16, 2005): Mike Stefanik hoped to repeat his July victory at New Hampshire International Speedway Friday afternoon, but instead, the Burnham Hydronics team placed sixth and kept within 33 points of series point leader Andy Santerre on the road to the championship. The finish was Stefanik’s tenth top-10 in as many starts this season.

“We got a little tight in the first set of tires, and made an adjustment on the second set,” explained Stefanik. “We put right sides on and made a stagger adjustment in the left rear, but we never really got a chance to race it because it was just yellow after yellow after yellow. It was a very discouraging and frustrating race from where I was sitting. I had all I could do to just not get so aggravated that I wanted to chew the steering wheel off the car.”

Stefanik started the race from the second position after rain washed out qualifying the day before, and powered by Andy Santerre for the lead at the drop of the green. Stefanik led for a total of 21 laps before losing it to Ryan Moore for the second and final time at lap 23.

A long green flag run evolved with Stefanik maintaining a second position until pitting at lap 51 with the leaders. Stefanik overshot his pit stall, however, and lost precious time shuffling the Burnham Hydronics Chevrolet back into the box.

“I made a mental error. I was thinking we were pitting by points, and I was thinking we were in the second stall. My wife started counting the stalls down, and I was thinking ‘why is she counting them down?’ and all of a sudden she yells out that I was going by it,” Stefanik admitted. “We always talk about where our pit is, but the way they got the race going so quickly today because of the rain threat we didn’t. That’s my own fault. I should have asked where I was. I just expected to drive the length of pit road.”

Despite the error, Stefanik restarted the race in the 15th position – only four spots behind Ryan Moore who came in with Stefanik. Six caution periods over the next 40 laps hindered Stefanik’s ability to move through the field, and progress was slow. Nevertheless, by lap 100 Stefanik was running sixth.

Rain began to fall on the track by lap 108 while the field was under caution. NASCAR ran some pace laps, but was forced to shorten the race to 119 laps when it became too heavy for the drivers to see.

“We couldn’t race with it raining,” Stefanik said. “The track was slick, and people just kept wrecking. I think if they had went to single file restarts we could have done a lot more racing. (NASCAR) is just steadfast on this double file restarts. I hope they are not crazy enough to try this at Dover and Lime Rock. We don’t need double-file restarts at all these tracks.”

Stefanik is now 33 points behind teammate and current point leader Andy Santerre as the series embarks on the final three events of the season.