WATERFORD – Second place finishes usually aren’t cause for frustration for drivers.
Rob Janovic Jr.
Though for Rob Janovic Jr., being the runner-up was getting just a little bit old this season.
Coming into Saturday night’s SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl Janovic was riding a streak of three consecutive second place finishes and the frustration was setting in.
Saturday Janovic, of Groton, left the frustration behind. Janovic held off Jeff Pearl on a green-white-checkered finish to win the 35-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature at Waterford.
Pearl, of Salem, held on for second and Kyle James of Ashaway, R.I. was third. It was the first victory of the season for Janovic.
“There are second place finishes that you’re thrilled about,” Janovic said of his streak of runner-up runs. “And there are those second place finishes that you just feel like you left something on the table or you just came up one spot too short. If you start dead last and finish second it’s a great night. If you get up to second and you know you’ve got the faster car, you know you’re faster than the leader, and then when that happens three weeks in a row, you start wondering, what do I have to do be the one in the front?
Saturday Janovic went past James for the lead with 19 laps left and went untouched the rest of the way.
“We’ve gotten the car dialed in,” Janovic said. “The only thing we’ve been doing on Saturday’s was just very small adjustments. It makes a big difference because we haven’t been coming to the track having to fix a handling problem, only tune on it.
“We’ve been coming from deep in the field, getting up to second in the closing laps, and there’s nothing to do short of moving the leader out of the way, which isn’t my style. Tonight we grabbed the top spot early and I was able to show how fast this car is.”
Janovic had built a big lead over Pearl before the caution flew with two laps left to add a little drama at the end.
“Like I needed to make it any more exciting for myself,” Janovic said. “Green-white-checker. Really? After all this I get green-white-checker.”
Said Pearl: “We had a really good car for two laps. We missed on the setup just a little bit. But the thing ran really strong. [Janovic] was on his game tonight. It’s good to see him get a win finally and get up there with everybody else.”
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