Stafford Notes: Mike Quintiliano Makes Long Awaited Return To Victory Lane At Stafford

STAFFORD – A week of setup changes paid the right dividends Friday night at Stafford Motor Speedway for Mike Quintiliano.

Mike Quintiliano

Quintiliano made a daring restart move pay off as he won the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford.

It was the first victory since 2005 at Stafford for Quintiliano of Shelton.

Woody Pitkat of Stafford was second and Adam Gray of Belchertown, Mass third.

From 1999 to 2005 Quintiliano won 19 Late Model races at Stafford, good for sixth on the all-time list at the track. But after 2005 his full-time days at the track were curtailed, until this season.

He ran sparingly at the track from 2006 to 2008 and didn’t race at all in 2009 and 2010. He ran three events last year.

“We love racing and you miss it and the guys wanted to come back so we got a car,” Quintiliano said. “It’s an old car. We just did what we had to do with the car to make it competitive.”

Quintiliano came out with the lead after a three-wide battle with Corey Hutchings and Jim Peterson on lap 16.

“I had to do what I had to do,” Quintiliano said. “We got to the front and we were able to stay up there.”

Peterson gave Quintiliano a run for the lead on a lap 19 restart, but that was the toughest challenge he would face the rest of the way.

“We’ve just been fighting it, fighting it, fighting it and finally got it to handle,” Quintilano said. “We made a bunch of changes during the day and it worked, we lucked out.

“We were good at the beginning of the year. The last few weeks we didn’t have a real good car. During this week we changed the car. The whole setup we changed and it’s better. I’m more comfortable in the car. It’s still not 100 percent. We made not have been the fastest car, but at least it was pretty consistent.”

In the 25-lap SK Light Modified feature it as Zach Aszklar of Wallingford holding off Dylan Kopec of Palmer, Mass. coming to the checkered flag for the win. Joey Ferrigno of East Hartford was third.

Josh Wood of Palmer, Mass. won the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature. Duane Provost of Springfield, Mass. was second and Cory Casagrande of Stafford third.

James Carroll of West Hartford won the 15-lap Late Model feature. Austin Bessette of Stafford was second and Kyle Casagrande of Stafford third.

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