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Stefanik Wins NASCAR Busch North and Featherlite Modified Tour Championships

28 October 1997

                 STEFANIK CAPTURES DUAL NASCAR TITLES 

GARDINER, ME - Nobody would be surprised to see a blue shirt with a big red 
"S" when Mike Stefanik of Coventry, R.I. takes off his driving suit. After 
all, he has just accomplished a rare feat, winning two NASCAR Regional 
Touring Series Championships in the same year - the NASCAR Busch North 
Series, Grand National Division and the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour. 

Stefanik's concurrent titles are a modern-era NASCAR record, and it has only 
occurred one other time in NASCAR's 50-year history. Lee Petty of Randleman, 
N.C. picked up NASCAR Grand National (now NASCAR Winston Cup) and NASCAR Late 
Model Short Track Championships in 1958. The NASCAR Late Model Short Track 
Series ran from 1951 through 1959. 

Using airplanes, helicopters and automobiles, Stefanik managed to make all 
but one race on the two series' 1997 schedules. In one case, for example, he 
flew from the NASCAR Busch North Series race at Watkins Glen on Saturday 
afternoon to compete in a NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour event at 
Riverhead, N.Y. that evening. 

But he had to make a tough choice when he was faced with a NASCAR Featherlite 
Modified Tour event at Jennerstown (Penn.) Speedway and a NASCAR Busch North 
Series event at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine at the exact 
same time. 

He chose to skip the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour event, which adds even 
more significance to the fact that he wrapped the NASCAR Featherlite Modified 
Tour title up with one race remaining on that schedule - the November 1 
General Mills/Ukrop's Fall 150 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. 

After the finale for the NASCAR Busch North Series, Grand National Division 
at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn., Stefanik admitted that he 
uncharacteristically allowed a number of drivers a "free pass" in an effort 
to finish the race and lock up the title. "If they worked hard enough to 
catch me, they deserved a free pass. I wasn't interested in getting involved 
in any serious side-by-side racing," said Stefanik. 

But it was the side-by-side racing on two of NASCAR's most competitive 
regional touring series that brought Stefanik to his new page in the NASCAR 
record books, and he is already looking forward to defending his titles in 
1998. 

So is his growing legion of fans.

By NASCAR Public Relations