The  "Racing For Clean Air" Team Captain Andy Santerre
Expands Points Lead to 50 After Watkins Glen
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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. - Dale Quarterley made only one wrong turn in Saturday’s Mohegan Sun 150 presented by Pepsi at Watkins Glen International. Unfortunately, it was the turn down pit road on lap 32 that proved his downfall and paved the way for Ted Christopher to win his first NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch North Series race of the season. Less than ten laps after Bud Pole winner and race-long leader Quarterley followed his game plan by pitting under the green flag, a deluge of rain ended the scheduled 62-lap event after 41 circuits of the 2.45 mile road course.
Christopher, Rick Bell, Eddie MacDonald, and Joey McCarthy all gambled that the rain would arrive before their tanks ran dry, and the no-pit strategy proved to be the winning hand as they finished in the first four positions. Fifth-place Bill Penfold was the best of the drivers who made their scheduled stops, while Brian Hoar, running his third engine of the weekend, came from the back of the field to finish sixth. Mike Stefanik’s seventh place was good enough to lift him to second in the Busch North Series standings, 50 points behind Andy Santerre who finished eleventh. Brad Leighton, who like Hoar was forced to start on the tail of the field, took eighth, while Mike Olsen and Tommy Beamer completed the top ten.
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Quarterley wound up a disappointed 15th, despite a late charge which regained ten places after his stop. Even greater misfortune befell the Moore family. Kelly Moore, who began the weekend on a two-race winning streak and only eleven points behind Santerre, required a tow truck to return to the track after a late-race spin, lost a lap in the process, and finished 31st. Kelly’s son Ryan Moore, third in points when the day began, encountered the Glen’s famous blue guardrail in the early laps and lost 23 laps in the garage. Although running at the checkered flag, he was scored 35th and last. In the point race, Kelly fell to third behind Stefanik and Ryan to fifth, trailing Mike Johnson.
Several spins into the gravel traps and an earlier red flag for light rain resulted in 24 laps being run under caution, holding Christopher’s average speed to 56.468 miles per hour, compared to Quarterley’s Bud Pole speed of 117.799 mph. Of the 35 starters, 33 were running at the finish and 25 were on the lead lap.
Christopher started 17th and had worked his way to seventh when the first red flag for rain was displayed at lap 30. Ahead were Quarterley, Matt Kobyluck, Brad Bennett, McCarthy, Bell, and Johnson. The green flag on lap 31, which coincided with the scheduled halfway point, proved the decisive moment. Kobyluck and Johnson pitted at the green and Christopher passed Bell, McCarthy, and Bennett, putting himself in second when Quarterley headed for pit road one lap later, just as a caution was shown for the stalled car of Greg Schaefer.
There would be one more brief flurry of green flag racing, which saw MacDonald slip around McCarthy for third and Penfold power past Hoar for fifth. Kelly Moore’s spin brought out the yellow flag at lap 38, and moments later the downpour began, leaving Christopher to celebrate his ninth career Busch North Series win and Bell to savor his best career finish.
Christopher and Beamer both improved their starting position by 16 places, but Christopher earned the PowerAde Power Move of the Race Award by virtue of his higher overall finish. Mark Durgin captured his first Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Race Award.
The Busch North Series moves into the home stretch with the first of three consecutive short track races next Saturday night, as Adirondack International Speedway hosts the second annual Dealmaker 150.
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