Heated: Ryan Preece Tops Three Car Battle For SK Modified Supremacy At Stafford Speedway

STAFFORD – Victory lane was a busy place at Stafford Motor Speedway following the SK Modified feature Friday night.

Ryan Preece (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

There was the winner’s car parked in rightful spot, and the driver who felt that winner stole victory from him parked alongside.

Ryan Preece came out on top of a wild green-white-checkered showdown to win the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.

It was the sixth victory in 11 SK Modified events this year at Stafford for Preece, of Berlin.

Ted Christopher of Plainville was second and Woody Pitkat was third.

After the race Preece and Pitkat had a heated exchange in victory lane after Pitkat parked his car there before Preece could get there.

Preece took the lead from Pitkat on lap 32 and looked on cruise control to victory before the caution flew on the final lap, setting up the decisive final restart.

Pitkat seemed to get the jump on Preece on the restart, but Preece fought back on the inside lane. They came to the white flag side by side with Ted Christopher pushing Pitkat into the lead in the high lane going into turn one. But in turn two Christopher went to the inside lane and pushed Preece back past Pitkat for the lead, with Christopher following to second.

“We had it won there, we had a great restart, and [Preece] wanted to use eight tires instead of four down there,” Pitkat said. “He drove in real deep. He says he was getting pushed but I know he wasn’t. He wanted to win. He says he don’t drive like that, but that’s the last lap, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do and that’s basically what he did.”

Said Christopher: “Ryan got in there and got all loose and sort of took Woody out a little bit there. That was probably Woody’s, he worked his way by him. It is what it is. I’ll take a second.”

Though, video replays seemed to show that after getting hit from behind by Christopher in turn two on the final lap, Preece seemed to jump up the track into Pitkat, slowing his momentum down the backstretch.

“You know how racecar drivers they like to say things happened, and then you start second guessing yourself,” Preece said. “But I was pretty sure I got hit from behind. And Teddy is trying to do what he has to do to win a race. If I was in his position, I wouldn’t quite knock him, but I’d be aggressive as he is.

“I came out on top. I know Woody probably wanted it pretty bad for [car owner Steve Greer].”

Preece said he was glad Pitkat was waiting for him in victory lane.

“I wanted to talk to him face to face,” Preece said. “I’m not going to hide behind people. I’ll tell you exactly what happened whether you want to believe me or not. That’s his decision. He can watch it. Video doesn’t lie and I’m not going to lie to somebody’s face. If I do something, I’ll tell you if I did it. And I’ve raced him long enough and clean enough that I’m not going to move you for the win, especially him and I racing for this championship.”

Preece now leads Pitkat by six points in the SK Modified standings.

“It’s situations like that that are only going to make me better as a racecar driver,” Preece said. “You don’t get that if you go to certain places and you can go out and dominate a race green-to-checkered, what are you learning? You aren’t learning anything. Green-white-checkered finishes, having people hustling you, pushing you around, it teaches you car control and learning what you have to do to defend the win.”

—————————————————————
—- Follow RaceDayCT at Facebook
—- Follow RaceDayCT on Twitter
—————————————————————

Comments

  1. Russell Perry says

    Woody must have forgot the night at Thompson when he stuffed Preece into turn 2and they parked him for night. have to say its entertaining.

  2. 3 car battle? How about Owen or do you only report about WMT drivers

Leave a Reply

Copyright 2018 E-Media Sports

Website Designed by Thirty Marketing