STAFFORD – It’s hard to imagine Woody Pitkat cranking up the iPod to blast some of 70’s soul stylings of Peaches and Herb, but the Stafford driver has to be humming just a few bars from the duo. Thinking maybe some, “Reunited and it feels good.”
Pitkat walked away from Sunday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour CarQuest Fall Final 150 feeling like the big one got away, but also with a confidence that the opportunity to finally get the big one was no fluke.
Pitkat had the dominant car for most of the Fall Final 150, though he lost the lead to eventual race winner Bobby Santos III on lap 144. Pitkat led all but 22 laps Sunday at Stafford but had to settle for a second place finish.
It was the second race since Pitkat reunited with the Westfield, N.C. based Hill Enterprises organization.
Pitkat replaced Jon McKennedy in the ride before the F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sept. 22. He ran near the front of the pack most of the day in Loudon before getting caught up in a multi-car wreck late in the race.
“They keep saying this is a mid-pack car but we proved today it’s a top-notch car,” Pitkat said. “It should be running in the top-five every week. They say you’ve got to lose one to win one but I felt like I did that [last week] at Loudon.”
Pitkat ran 10 events for Hill Enterprises in 2007 before he was released in the offseason that year. It was his first ride in the series.
“I can’t thank [team owner] Sandra Hill enough for giving me the opportunity,” Pitkat said. “I mean, I was there once, why would they want me to come back? Obviously they must see that I’ve matured and I’ve got more laps and I can get the job done. It would have been nice to be one spot ahead [Sunday].”
Coming into Sunday’s event, Pitkat had led 78 laps in Whelen Modified Tour action over his first 62 career starts. Sunday he led 128 laps at Stafford.
“All I hear is that it’s a mid-pack car,” Pitkat said. “It’s nice to be able to have the opportunity to show them that it’s a top-five car and should be a top-five car every week. We should have been top-five at Loudon and we had a bad break. It just shows that they can run in the top-five and prepare a good car to go to the track. I’ve been racing on the Tour 5-6 years, these last two weeks have been the least stressful. Just practice smoothly, make a couple minor adjustments and the car gets better every time you do it. Everything has been so smooth it’s just been a dream come true.”
Leave a Reply