STAFFORD – Keith Rocco has always been a driver who has lived by the mantra that if you focus on winning races the you won’t have to worry about focusing on collecting points.
On Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway that philosophy proved wildly successful for the Wallingford driver.
The good luck of Rocco combined with the bad luck of Todd Owen made for a huge night of celebration for Rocco in his efforts to win a fourth SK Modified championship at Stafford.
Rocco held off Chase Dowling to win the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
Rocco came into the night holding a two-point lead over Owen in the standings. But Owen’s night went bad when he got turned into the wall on lap 14. Owen ended up 22nd in the 26-car field and dropped to third in the standings. Two-time defending division champion Ronnie Williams, who finished fourth, moved to second in the standings. Rocco left the track holding a 38-point lead over Williams. Owen now sits 44 points behind Rocco in third.
It was the third win in eight starts this year for Rocco, who has won SK Modified championships at Stafford in 2008, 2010 and 2017. It marked his 60th career victory in the division dating back to 2005.
“We’ll just keep shooting for winning races,” Rocco said. “If you win the races everything else comes with it. You’ve just got to have the finishes behind them.”
Dowling of Roxbury was second and Stephen Kopcik of Newtown third.
Despite knowing he could likely have a huge points swing night, Rocco hardly played it safe after Owen’s misfortune.
Dowling got by Rocco for the lead off turn four on lap 17, but on a lap 18 restart it was Rocco using the outside to regain the top spot.
Dowling fought back on lap 31, getting under Rocco off of turn four on lap 31. The pair came side-by-side to the line to complete lap 31 and ran that way for the next lap. On lap 33 Rocco was able to clear Dowling off of turn two. Dowling remained glued to Rocco’s bumper to the checkered.
“Obviously I wasn’t too worried [about the points] when me and Chase are bouncing off each other and I almost spun out coming off of turn [four],” Rocco said. “I always just have the mentality of just winning races.
“It was just hard racing, We’re both racing for the win. I had fun. I don’t know if he was happy finishing second. But we were bouncing off a each other a little bit. It was just good, fun hard racing.”
Congrats to Keith and the 88 crew for the win. Good job