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02/20/2013 |
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THE BATTLE AT THE BEACH
IS SETTLED
NWMT - NWSMT
UNOH Battle at the Beach 150
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by
Polly Reid
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UNOH Battle at the Beach lived up to its name. Starting 30th, surviving 17
cautions that included two red flags and a last lap debatable move, it was
Steve Park of East Northport, NY in the Mike Smeriglio owned, UNOH sponsored
Ford claiming the coveted trophy at Daytona International Speedway in the
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour UNOH Battle of the Beach 150.
Eric Goodale of Riverhead, NY crossed second, Ted Christopher of Plainville,
CT third, Doug Coby of Milford, CT fourth and Patrick Emerling of Orchard
Park, NY fifth.
Sixteen years since Park took a turn into victory lane in the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour, a trophy at Daytona International Speedway is now in his
possession.
 “This
win means a lot – I was on Sirius radio today and I said you know what,
three short track people are going to come out of here with a trophy from
Daytona. To win the Battle at the Beach at Daytona and put that trophy on
the mantel is a credit to the team and Mike (Smeriglio), he put this deal
together with UNOH, I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity – we’re in
victory lane.”
Taking the white flag, Park was lined up in second behind leader Mike
Stefanik when contact sent Stefanik around just as he was exiting turn two.
Park inherited the lead with the field following to the checkered flag.
“Mike’s a good friend of mine and I never meant to get in the back of him,”
explained Park. “But I was getting pile driven from the back and I knew the
way this race was being laid out it was going to get aggressive at the end.”
“We knew when we got up into the top five and it was getting later in the
race that all heck was going to break loose and that it was going to be a
real battle at the beach- it lived up to its name. We were just the guy that
got lucky to get through the last one and get to the win.”
At the start of the UNOH Battle at the Beach 150, Todd Szegedy in the team
car to Park lined up on the pole for the green with Kyle Larson on the
outside bringing the 33 car field to the start. The tightly configured
turns, long stretch track became a difficult challenge for the full field of
modifieds who time and time again accordion styled going in and exiting the
corners resulting in a feature riddled with yellows and bursts of short
green runs. Szegedy from Ridgefield, CT, stayed on task masterfully
executing restart after restart warding off the constant challenges of
Goodale, Stefanik and Larson. Class of the field, Szegedy never waived when
with 25 to go, viewers were stunned when under caution, Szegedy retired to
the pits, sparks flying from near the right front- a mechanical failure
ending Szegedy’s night. “First I have to say thanks to UNOH,” said Szegedy.
“They’ve been behind me huge. I can’t seem to pull it off for whatever
reason, it’s just not meant to be. I’m glad Steve Park won, that’s pretty
awesome. I’m really happy for my car owner because if it wasn’t for Mike
Smeriglio I wouldn’t be racing a car. For some reason I’ve had a lot of
disappointments but eventually it’s going to turn around and when it does,
I’m going to win a lot of races.”
 Stefanik,
who had patiently bided his time, inherited the lead from Szegedy and the
seven-time NWMT champion was set to bring it home.
The final restart, one green white checker away from victory, Stefanik led
the field with Goodale on the outside, Park, Christopher and Coby the top
five. The field headed for turn one and that’s when the trouble started.
Before Stefanik could clear turn two, contact from Park sent the Robert B.
Our Co/Canto & Sons Paving Chevrolet around towards the infield- Park took
over the lead and on to collect the checkers with Goodale, Christopher,
Coby, Emerling, Justin Bonsignore, Brian Loftin, Cole Powell, Ken Heagy and
Dalton Baldwin the top ten.
“Mike Stefanik is a guy I raced against for years in the modified division,”
Park added. “He and his wife Julie have been friends of mine, of my family
for a long time- I would be mad too until I knew what the circumstances
were. I almost wrecked myself trying to keep off of Mike but whoever was
behind me wouldn’t let off the gas- wouldn’t let me go. I was just doing
everything I could but I was the meat in the sandwich. Mike was trying to
slow down for the corner, I was being pushed from behind and I was pushing
Mike. When he turned around I still thought that I had to get around him,
that he didn’t get into my nerf bar and get me turned around and the guy in
third would win the race. I truly hate it for Mike- he had a car capable of
winning the race, there’s no doubt about that. The fastest car didn’t win
tonight, just the luckiest car did.”
 “I
did not push him into it,” said Goodale after hearing Parks comment. “He was
already into him by the time I got there. Me and Steve both got back to the
gas at about the same time and that’s about the time Stefanik went around,
like I said, he went to the bottom so I had nowhere to go except to follow
the 20 through the line.”
“I thought I had myself in the perfect position there sitting third with
about 15 to go,” said Goodale. “When I saw Todd go off with that flat I knew
the whole dynamic of the end of the race was going to change there. I tried
to be as clean as I could. I knew there was going to be contact whether it
was going to be me in second or anybody else, I knew it was going to be
pretty cool at the end there. We came up a little bit short - Park got into
the back of Stefanik there, I wanted to pass them both to be quite honest
with you but Stefanik blocked the low line when he spun there so I had to
follow Steve through the hole there and ended up second.” Consistent all
weekend, Goodale followed up his practice and heat runs with a positive
result. “Second is not sealing the deal but we came a long way to be here at
Daytona from Long Island, I couldn’t be happier for Riverhead Building
Supply, my parents, my wife, my crew chief Jason (Shephard) and my brother
Kevin - we put a lot of work into this car during the off season and like I
said we could not finish races and it feels good to finally finish a race.
It’s Daytona, I finished 2nd, I’m happy.”
 Ted
Christopher took the green mid-pack at 17th and brought the Jan Boehler
owned, Cape Cod Copper/Silver Dollar Construction modified home for a solid
third. “It was pretty good from where we started then I got hooked on
somebody’s bumper, we went further back but I was pretty happy with it – all
and all, not a bad day.” Christopher was involved in a caution early on and
on the lap 25 restart was at the tail end of the field. It took until about
25 to go before the 3 car cracked the top ten, from there it was a sprint to
the checkers. “Every time you go to a race track for the first time, it’s an
unknown for everyone so guys that are off are off, so now everyone will make
their cars different and you would hope it would be a better race next time.
“
There was no question the win was historic and the finish controversial. But
for the Mike Smeriglio Racing team they had the absolute best and worse that
lady luck could possibly dish out.
“You know what?” said Smeriglio, “Steve is a professional. He grew up racing
modifieds, he knows ’20 to go’. I don’t know if you were able to listen to
him on the radio but he was just driving, hanging around – he just couldn’t
get out of 9th, 10th or 11th but once he cleared that and they had that bad
wreck, thank goodness everyone was ok, then he saw ‘showtime.’
“It’s a huge deal (to bring two cars),” added Smeriglio. “It’s a great
opportunity to showcase the entire talent of this team. From Phil (Moran) to
Bob (Tulipani) to ‘Hoppy’ (Harold Peterson) you know it’s all about what
they do at the shop. We had a real good season last year it’s just lady luck
wasn’t there. I couldn’t be more proud of the team, both the 2 and the 20.”
Crew chief for the Park machine was Ron Ste-Marie from the Old Forge, NY
area who makes the calls for the Buzz Chew racing team. “I had the easy job,
Phil, Bob and Hoppy they did all the work. Phil has a great bunch of guys,
they had the car ready to go. “We knew we had a good car. We let Steve get
some extra laps in the practice this morning- he needed to log laps and the
longer he went, the faster he got and the more comfortable he got. We made a
bunch of changes and picked up like half a second- got Steve where he was
pretty comfortable and between Phil and I being able to talk about what the
car was going to do, we just had to convince Steve of that and we just kept
plugging away. Usually we don’t get this lucky and dodge all the bullets but
tonight we did.”
“The guys in the shop, between Hoppy and Bob, helping out the deal came
together,” said Phil Moran, Szegedy’s crew chief who also prepared the Park
ride. We didn’t know until December that we were going racing so it put us
behind the gun a little bit to get ready for this. We busted our backside to
get it done. Thanks to UNOH for helping with this- it was a lot of hard work
to get down here. To have Steve drive for us is an awesome opportunity. “
 Having
two competitive cars in the same event is no easy task. Moran and the crew
that included the likes of Max Zachem making the trip south to lend a hand
was key. “It’s pretty cool,” said Moran. “Yesterday we had two cars in the
top ten in practice, today in the early practice Todd was real good and
Steve was comfortable. He wasn’t real fast but he was comfortable and that’s
what we were looking for him and it showed in the heat race, he went from
his starting position all the way up to third and then got tangled up. That
got us behind- Ron had to get that car ready, I had to get Todd’s car ready-
Ron did a great job. Without this team, without Ron, I would have never,
ever been able to do what we did this week- the guys that took the time off
to come down, Ron had a guy from his team come down- Jeff Williams who lives
here in FL called me up so he came over to spot for Steve, it all came
together. Todd, he’s my driver, I’m heartbroken for him. To run that good
and to not have the finish- my sadness is my car was sitting in here at the
end.”
There was a truly frightful moment in the race when right after a restart on
lap 117, Danny Bohn of Freehold, NJ bounced off the turn four wall making
sudden contact with Ryan Preece in the low groove. Bohn rode the
safer-barrier wall before the car flipped on its roof and caught on fire.
Thankfully Bohn somehow walked away from the incident after a tense few
minutes trying to get out of the upside down car.
Matt Hirschman’s day ended with a caution and a trip to the infield car
center. NASCAR released a statement at the conclusion of the event in the
media center that Hirschman was treated and released from the infield care
center with a broken left wrist and will be treated at home.
The UNOH Battle of the Beach, a year in the making, is now in the record
books. It took a great sponsor, UNOH, a lot of people, money and tons of
effort to bring the Modified Tour to Daytona International Speedway for this
event. It goes without saying that a time to shine for the modifieds fell
short of expectations. What did not fall short was the unprecedented
exposure the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour gained in all forms of media-
social, television and print that can only happen at a place like Daytona. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: February
20, 2013 |
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