Keith Rocco (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
STAFFORD – Keith Rocco held off the charges of Rowan Pennink over three late restarts and won the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.
It was the third victory of the season at Stafford for the Wallingford driver, who is currently the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national points leader.
Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., was second and held tight to his points lead in the division. Matthew Galko of Meriden was third.
Galko went to the lead past Ted Christopher on lap seven with Ronnie Williams move to second. Williams then got by Galko for the lead, with Rocco moving to second on lap 15.
On lap 17, Rocco went by Williams for the lead and never trailed again.
“Our car was really good on the long run,” Rocco said. “On the short run it just took three laps to fire up. All of them restarts were really killing me.”
Pennink had chances on restarts on lap 33 and two on lap 36.
“A couple restarts there at the end, we had a pretty good run on [Rocco] on that last one,” Pennink said. “I couldn’t quite get it done. Got up a little high in the corner.”
I thought tc won
Still the most competitive weekly division going….anywhere. Hats off to the 3 team, Galko & Co. definitely found something!