Back On Top: Frank Mucciacciaro Snaps Seven Year SK Modified Winless Streak At Waterford Speedbowl

WATERFORD – Frank Mucciacciaro readily admits, there’s been times over the past seven years when he’s wondered if victory lane at the Waterford Speedbowl was a place he would ever visit again in an SK Modified.

Frank Mucciacciaro celebrates his SK Modified victory Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl (Photo: Mark Caise/Waterford Speedbowl)

Saturday night Mucciacciaro erased any of those personal doubts.

Mucciacciaro, of Milford, led every lap and held off Todd Ceravolo over the closing circuits to win the 35-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Saturday at Waterford.

It was the first victory at Waterford for Mucciacciaro since May 27, 2006.

“Perseverance,” Mucciacciaro said. “Keep trying, keep trying, keep trying. We’ve never given up this year. We’ve had a good car. At times we’ve been fast. At the beginning of the night, even in the heat race, we’ve had cars that have been better that I was definitely more optimistic than what I was tonight. The car just played out right. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good, it was fast enough.

“It’s more the, ‘Is it actually going to happen again?’ That weighs on you. You get frustrated, but you have those points where you run good and you’re like ‘Alright, I can do this.’ But you start to really doubt yourself when it’s that long. But it feels good.”

Mucciacciaro started on the pole. Ceravolo was up to second with 14 laps remaining but couldn’t find away around.

“I actually was very calm in the car and that’s really what it takes, you don’t get flustered,” Mucciacciaro said. “Todd let me know he was there a few times. He did a great job. We raced hard, we raced clean and hats off to them. Good job on everybody’s part.

“He went outside a couple times and there wasn’t much out there to pass me there. I had to slow up going [into the corners] and make sure the car would set so I could get off on the bottom and just hold his momentum up a little bit.”

Said Ceravolo: “He wasn’t giving me much room, but I probably would do the same to him leading the race, especially with 10 [laps] to go. There was no room on the bottom or the top. He did a good job covering them. Anybody else would have done the same thing.”