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Rain
strategy brings Cywinski ASA win
By Ken
de la Bastide
Staff Writer
Wisconsin veteran Kevin Cywinski took a big leap toward
winning a second American Speed Association title by
electing not to pit and then watching rain shorten the
Pennsylvania 250.
Cywinski and his crew didn’t exactly do a rain dance,
but by deciding not to pit just before the halfway
point, but when the skies opened in the Laurel Hills it
was the SK Hand Tools Chevrolet upfront.
Cywinski was running second to Mike Garvey in the Jani-King
Chevrolet when the sixth caution flag waved on lap 107
caused when rookie Kyle Jones spun in Turn 4 and Troy
Wangerin looped his Chevrolet in Turn 3.
With threatening weather surrounding the Jennerstown
Speedway, Garvey and Butch Miller in the Timber Wolf
Chevrolet, running third at the time, elected to stop
for tires, a decision that impacted the finish of the
rain shortened event.
That handed the lead to Cywinski followed by Chad Wood
in the Track Side Charities Chevrolet, Ed Brown in the
Grubb’s Auto Repair Chevrolet and Greg Stewart in the
Body Balance Chevrolet up front, none of who pitted at
that time.
Miller came out of the pits in sixth with Garvey
rejoining the field in eighth position. With Cywinski
opening up a sizeable lead, Wood, Brown, Stewart, Peter
Cozzolino and Garvey raced side by side for the second
position.
On lap 124 there was a multiple car accident between
Turns 3 and 4 that collected Cozzolino, Zach Niessner,
Glen Allen Jr. and Kris Stump.
Just as the race was to be restarted on lap 133 the rain
started to fall and the race was declared official after
137 circuits.
For Cywinski it was the third win of 2003 and the 13th
of his career. He extended his points lead by 50 markers
over Miller to 129 with five races remaining.
“I was really surprised,” said Cywinski of Garvey’s
decision to pit. “I thought with the weather everyone
would stay out. When we almost went back green, I was
hoping we had made the right call.”
Cywinski said fuel wasn’t a concern and the team figured
it had enough to go at least 200 laps.
“I was really having a problem coming off of Turn 4
because of the glare from the lights,” he said after
collecting $16,965 of the more than $197,000 purse.
Following Cywinski to the checkers was Wood, Stewart,
Brown and Garvey. It was career best runs for Wood and
Brown. Rounding out the top ten were Bryan Reffner,
Robbie Pyle, Reed Sorenson, Chris Wimmer and Todd
Kluever.
“I knew the rain was coming,” said Wood, “but I didn’t
know when. We had a good race car, but had a horrible
qualifying run.
“The crew called on the caution before the last one (lap
107) and wanted to pit,” he said. “I said no, we have
got to stay out there.”
Stewart recording his first podium finish since 2001,
has now finished in the top ten in the last three races.
He recovered from a spin in Turn 1 on lap 50 when he was
tapped by Cozzolino and pitted.
“The car was good, but the driver messed up during
qualifying,” said Stewart. “We were moving up and our
pit strategy worked. This wasn’t handed to us, we still
had to race hard against Ed (Brown) for third. We earned
it.”
The
largest crowd of the season at Jennerstown Speedway
waited out a rain storm that caused a 2 1/2 hour delay
in the start. The fans were treated to exciting side by
side racing as the drivers were trying to anticipated
the next round of showers.
Miller grabbed the lead from pole sitter Cywinski at the
start and led the first five laps before the Wisconsin
veteran and Garvey went inside entering Turn 3 to take
over the first two positions.
Garvey then was able to get around Cywinski with an
outside move on the front straight to take the lead on
lap 25 and led until he pitted on lap 108.
Reed Sorenson in the ACDelco Chevrolet extended his lead
to 206 points over Travis Kittleson in the Bob Steele
Chevrolet for the rookie title. Sorenson finished eighth
and Kittleson came in 14th.
Bad luck continued to haunt Glenn Allen Jr. in the Birk
Transit Chevrolet who ran the entire race in the top ten
before electing to stop on lap 108 for tires. He was
then caught up in the lap 124 multi-car crash and
finished 29th.
The Pennsylvania 250 will be broadcast on The
Speed Channel at 5 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday. |
