Rowan Pennink
STAFFORD – A week ago at Stafford Motor Speedway it was a green-white-checkered finish in the SK Modified feature that proved the undoing of Rowan Pennink.
Pennink had to settle for a second place finish to Michael Gervais Jr. after Gervais bested him on the final restart of the feature.
Friday at Stafford the Huntingdon Valley, Pa. driver got his redemption.
Pennink held off Justin Bonsignore on a green-white-checkered finish to win the 45-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
It was the fourth victory in nine SK Modified events this season at Stafford for Pennink.
“I didn’t want a green-white-checkered but I knew it wasn’t going to screw up two in a row,” Pennink said. “I was making sure I wasn’t going to get beat on any of those restarts, no matter how many there were.”
Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., held on for second and Ryan Preece of Berlin was third.
Sean Foster went to the lead early with Bonsignore moving to second. Bonsignore got by Foster for the lead on lap seven off turn four with Ted Christopher moving to second a lap later.
On lap nine Christopher went by Bonsignore for the lead into turn three, with Keith Rocco moving to third past Foster behind them.
On lap 15 Bonsignore retook the lead with a past by Christopher off turn two, but the pass was negated when a caution flew after Rocco spun from third place.
On lap 17 Pennink went by Bonsignore to move to second and a two laps later he used a diving move off turn four to go by Christopher for the lead.
With Pennink checking out from the field, Preece went by Christopher for second place on lap 25, but the field was bunched back up on lap 29 for another caution.
On lap 30 Preece used an outside move to take the lead over Pennink as the two battled side-by-side around the track for the top spot. Preece led the next two laps in the continued side-by-side competition at the front before Pennink went back to the lead off turn two on lap 33.
“I was tight when he had me pinched down there on the bottom,” Pennink said. “I didn’t want to get up into him. I knew I could stay side-by-side with him at least. I just gave it a couple laps and was able to get a good run and get by him.”
On lap 34 Bonsignore moved to second past Preece, but Pennink again quickly checked out from the field.
But Pennink’s big lead was stolen away by caution again because of a spinning car on lap 44.
“You get out that far and its kind of just a given, don’t get excited because you know the caution is going to come out,” Pennink said.
On the final restart, Pennink was able to keep Bonsignore at bay to seal the victory.
“It was a blast mixing it up with everybody with the bottom shots and rolling the top,” Bonsignore said. “Hopefully the fans enjoyed it. … I had one shot at Rowan but I wasn’t going to turn him to win the race.”
Pennink extended his lead points lead over Preece, who sits second in the standings.
“We knew this car was going to be really good this year,” Pennink said. “You can come into a season knowing you’re going to have a good car but you’ve still got to get out there and make it happen. We’ve been able to do that so far this year. We just want to keep doing what we’re doing, staying out of trouble and finishing up front and hopefully end up in victory lane some more this year.”
GreaT race
What a pleasure it was to see Wild Bill Greco in the stands last night at Stafford! He was my favorite driver when I was a kid going to the Park and Plainville Stadium. Damn, They used to call him “Gramps” back THEN, and he’s still around.
Everytime I see Greco he looks better than before. Heard stafford sk race was a wreck fest again?