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PATRICK
EMERLING IN SEARCH OF FIRST NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR
VICTORY IN NAPA FALL FINAL WEEKEND AT STAFFORD SPEEDWAY |
Throughout
his first three seasons of Whelen Modified Tour
competition, Orchard Park, NY native Patrick
Emerling’s best finish at Stafford was an 11th place
finish in the 2013 NAPA Spring Sizzler. The 16 races
he had competed in at Stafford prior to the 2015
season yielded one top-5 and two top-10 finishes.
But that all began to change with the 2015 season as
Emerling has finished each of the first three races
at Stafford this season in the top-9 and he recorded
his first career pole position at Stafford back in
August. Emerling will be looking to continue his
wave of success at Stafford when the Whelen Modified
Tour cars return on Oct. 3-4 for the NAPA Auto Parts
Fall Final Weekend.
“We’ve gotten better at Stafford and we’re looking
forward to coming back for the Fall Final,” said
Emerling. “We have better cars than what we had in
the past and the cars are handling much better.
Another thing is where most of the drivers on the
Tour have grown up on tracks like Stafford and they
have tons of laps, it took us a little while to
figure the track out and what our car needed.”
Emerling had high hopes for the Call Before You Dig
150 at Stafford in August after winning his first
career pole position, but Emerling was only able to
lead the first four laps of the race before falling
back and then recovering to post a 6th place finish.
Emerling says that the lessons he and his #07
Buffalo Auto Auction team learned in that race
should have them prepared for not only a good
qualifying effort, but an even better race finish in
the NAPA Fall Final 150.
“We screwed up with our prerace adjustments in the
August race at Stafford and we didn’t quite get the
car right,” said Emerling. “We’re hoping we can
qualify the car on pole again and keep it up front
this time. Based off where we started and finished
in the last race we feel like we had a better car
and we were able to tune it up on our pit stop.
We’ve been working on our program and I think we’ll
definitely be better than we were the last time out
at Stafford.”
Emerling is currently sixth in the Whelen Modified
Tour points standings and he is only 7 points behind
Eric Goodale, who is fifth in the standings. A good
finish in the NAPA Fall Final will go a long way
towards helping Emerling and the #07 team get their
first career top-5 points finish.
“We historically run pretty good at Loudon, and
we’ve got pretty good at Stafford and Thompson, so
we should have a good showing in the last 3 races,”
said Emerling. “I think we’ll have a good chance at
getting the car into the top-5 at the end of the
season.”
The Whelen Modified Tour cars will qualify for the
NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final 150 on Saturday, Oct. 3rd
before hitting the track for 150 laps on Sunday,
Oct. 4th. Saturday’s racing card will also feature
heat and consolation races for Stafford’s weekly
divisions along with feature events for the SK
Light, Limited Late Model, DARE Stock, and a
National Qualifying Event for the US Legend Cars
divisions. Sunday’s action kicks off with the NAPA
Pit Party from 11am-12noon with the SK Modifieds®
taking the green flag at 1pm followed by the Late
Model and Whelen Modified Tour feature events.
Tickets for the 43rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Fall
Final Weekend are priced at $38.50 for adult general
admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and
children ages 5 and under are admitted free of
charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved
seating is priced at $42.00 for all ages. All NAPA
Fall Final tickets are good for admission on both
Saturday and Sunday and ticket prices include 10% CT
Admission Tax. Visit your local participating NAPA
Auto Parts Store for discount ticket offers.
For more information on the 43rd Annual NAPA Auto
Parts Fall Final Weekend, or to order tickets,
contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com.
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Source:
Scott Running
/
Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
September 28, 2015 |
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