Before Thursday, the last time Mike Stefanik headed south of the Mason-Dixon line this year to race a Modified the results weren’t very pretty.
Stefanik was knocked out of the lead on the final lap during the Battle at the Beach at Daytona International Speedway and minutes later gave his now famous “This is just bull…” comment on live TV.
Thursday it was all smile on TV for the seven time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour after he won the division’s annual visit to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
The 55-year old Stefanik passed Todd Szegedy with 11 laps remaining and went on to win the Whelen Modified Tour Titan Roof 150 at Bristol.
It was the second victory of the season and all-time series leading 74th of Stefanik’s career.
“I’m playing it cool right now, but I’m freaking out inside,” said Stefanik, of Coventry, R.I. “This is a huge, huge win in my career. This is right at the top of the list, if not the top.”
Szegedy, of Ridgefield, was second and Ron Yuhas Jr. of Groton matched a series career best third place finish. Series points leader Ryan Preece of Berlin bounced back from two consecutive rough events with a fourth place finish.
Woody Pitkat of Stafford recovered from a wreck in practice and was sixth.
Donny Lia of Jericho, N.Y. , who won the pole, lead the first 91 laps but was involved in a crash on lap 92. Preece inherited the lead from Lia, but gave it up to Szegedy on lap 103.
Preece now leads reigning series champion Doug Coby by 28 points in the standings with four events remaining. Coby, of Milford, was 23rd at Bristol.
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Too bad fox sports screwed us die hard lovers of the tv lacking mod division. Very few cable systems have fox 2. I sm one pissed off fan.. Way to go Mike. Daytona mod race was s slap in the face for the mod tour Cliff a ct fan of mods
Wish I could have watched the race but Fox Sports screwed us fans by taking it off of Speed (now FoxSports1) and putting it on FoxSports2 which very few people have…thanks alot Fox for ruining a great tv channel (Speed) and making it impossible to follow the Mods.
Wish I could have watched it myself but I don’t fox 2
I was there… the race had a few too many interruptions. But the racing was awesome, and much better and different in person. Cameras have a hard time following cars on this tight and fast track. These cars are outstanding on the high banked concrete. Highly recommend a visit to Bristol to see this race.