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JON MCKENNEDY
LOOKING TO
GO BACK 2 BACK AT STAFFORD |
When
the Exit Realty Modified Touring Series comes to
Stafford Speedway this Friday, July 21st for the
Lincoln Tech 100, Jon McKennedy will be looking to
make it back to back victories at the Connecticut
half-mile. McKennedy won the first ever appearance
for the new series at Stafford back in June with a
drive that saw him have to come from the back to the
front several different times. McKennedy only led 4
laps in the race, but they were the most important
laps, the final 4 laps of the race. A victory for
McKennedy would be two in a row in the MTS and it
would be his third consecutive touring series
victory at Stafford as he won the VMRS 80 at
Stafford last September.
“I feel good,” said McKennedy. “Stafford has been a
pretty good track for me the past couple of years
and we’ve won the last 2 times we’ve been to
Stafford with the MRS and the MTS against a strong
group of competitors. I think we have a real good
chance on Friday. It’s a long race at 100 laps so we
just have to stay out of trouble and put ourselves
into position for the end of the race and see how
things play out. We were pretty strong the whole
race. We had a lower control arm break in our
qualifying heat race so we basically started last
and we drove up to third before the competition
caution. We made some adjustments under that caution
to try to make the car better and we restarted in
the back and came back to the front. Then we pitted
later and changed a tire and came from the back
again, so the car was really good and we’ll be
bringing the same car back for this race. We’ll make
some small changes to it for the weather and the
track conditions and we’ll hope for the best.”
The Lincoln Tech 100 will serve as the opening round
of the Modified Touring Series Sunoco Quest for the
Cup in which 12 drivers will accumulate points over
the next 4 races to set up a top-5 in the standings
for the final race of the 2017 season at Monadnock
in September. McKennedy, as well as the other 11
championship hopefuls, will be looking for a good
finish to kick off their championship quest on a
high note.
“There’s 12 guys locked into the championship deal
and for us, we always try to go as hard as we can in
the races and try to keep our nose clean and let the
points fall where they fall,” said McKennedy. “It’s
tough to say how that might impact things, I think
most guys have the same kind of driving style where
they try to win every race. It’s still a bit early
to worry about points, I think if it was the end of
the year it might be a little different. It’s
important to get off to a good start, but if you
have a bad race, there’s still 3 more races to get
back into the championship quest.”
With the Lincoln Tech 100 being shortened from 125
laps down to 100 laps and no competition caution,
McKennedy says that will open things up for the team
to try different strategies and will result in a
great race for fans.
“I’m glad they changed to 100 laps,” said McKennedy.
“I think overall you’ll see a better race and guys
will be up on the wheel much longer throughout the
race rather than saving the car for later. As far as
strategy goes, a lot of times you go into a race
with a strategy in mind and it doesn’t work because
of how the cautions fall. You put a few ideas
together and depending on when the cautions fall and
how your car is running, you make your strategy
decisions from there. It should be an interesting
race with a lot of good cars. As good as our car ran
in June, I feel good, we’ll just have to dial the
car in to the conditions. It seems like Stafford is
pretty sensitive to weather so we’ll have to keep an
eye on that and make adjustments accordingly. I
think everyone is going to see a real good race and
it should be interesting.”
Tickets for the Lincoln Tech 100 are available and
on sale now at the Stafford Speedway box office.
Tickets are priced at $30.00 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 seat
tickets are $32.00 for all ages. All ticket prices
include 10% CT Admission Tax. Stafford Motor
Speedway offers plenty of free parking along with
overnight parking available for self contained
Recreational Vehicles. Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series divisions will join the Exit
Realty Modified Touring Series in feature action.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor
Speedway track office at 860-684-2783
or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com. |
Source:
Scott Running /
Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
July 18, 2017 |
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