STAFFORD – David Arute began Friday night at Stafford Speedway staring down a nearly two year winless drought in the SK Modified feature.
And the hopes for snapping that streak looked fairly bleak after Arute’s car was turned into a mangled mess in a heat race crash.
But even while looking at his car being rebuilt after his heat race, Arute was brimming with optimism
“Even after that damage I was a feeling this is our night,” Arute said. “The last time I won we had the car apart in the pit area and it just turned into a dominant performance.”
Arute’s feeling was spot on. His crew got his car back together for the feature and the Stafford driver put on a dominant performance on the way to victory in the 40-lap SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford.
It was the first victory for Arute since July 5, 2024 and his eighth overall in the division.
“I’m speechless right now,” Arute said. “… I can’t believe we’re in Victory Lane again. The hard work that went into this car this year, last year, for my team is… I can’t even put words on it. I don’t know what to say.
“After that wreck [in the heat race], I was so angry. I drove the wheels off this car and I was like, wow, this thing’s fast. We found something and this is awesome to be back in victory lane.”
Mike Christopher Jr. of Wolcott was second and Marcello Rufrano of North Haven third.
“Well, I didn’t expect to be here [in second],” Christopher said. “We weren’t that good in practice, we weren’t good in the heat race, but we were good enough in the feature to get second. I don’t know what happened on that initial start, but the [Matt Vassar] backed up the entire inside lane, and it just got worse with people shuffling down from the top. Picked our way through the field, had a pretty decent cat and mouse game with [Rufrano].
Said Rufrano: “Definitely had a better car than third. Kind of gave that away trying to get by the [Tyler Chapman for second]. I was a little impatient but still had a good race car, fast. … All my guys did a really good job. Just a little bit of homework to do this week. … I mean I’d really like to get the win but so far we’re stringing on a couple of podiums here. Hopefully that gets us back into the point situation and see where that leads us.”
Arute started third behind pole-sitter Matt Vassar and outside row starter Wesley Prucker. The first attempt to start the race was called back. On the second attempt Vassar wiggled and slowed coming out of turn four to take the green, stacking up the inside lane and allowing Prucker to go to the lead and Arute to second.
Arute got under Prucker for the lead on lap three with Chapman following to second. After a multi-lap battle, Rufrano got by Chapman for second on lap 27, with Christopher following to third the next lap. At that point Arute had checked out from the field. Christopher went by Rufrano for second on lap 35, but Arute was 2.5 seconds ahead of the field at that point.
“I know I stunk up the show a little bit but when you don’t win for 22 months … you don’t care you’re just driving all out. And my crew guys put in so much effort today just to rebuild the car on the pit area we had a lot of body damage and wheel damage … we got it all straightened out and that was the best car we’ve had all year, even last year. I don’t think this is gonna be the last you see it running up front.”
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David Arute ran a great race. He needed everything to go his way in terms of how the race played out. And it did especially with no cautions which was huge. Nice to see a new winner. Most pumped I’ve seen a driver in a long time.