(Stafford Springs, CT)---As Stafford’s SK Modified® drivers take to the track for this Friday night’s 39th Annual , they will be racing extra hard to come home with a top-5 finish.  Thanks to Xtra Mart Convenience Stores, each top-5 position in the Coors Light SK Modified® 100 will pay out an extra $300 in addition to the purse money.  One driver who will be looking to take advantage of the Xtra Mart bonus money is second year SK Modified® driver Michael Bennett. 

“It’s definitely good to have extra money in contingency because it’s a very expensive sport,” said Bennett.  “Any time you can run for extra money you definitely give a little more.  Not that you don’t go out there and strive for top-5’s and wins, but when there’s a little more money on the line you tend to find that little extra when you need it.”

After a rookie season that saw Bennett finish 21st in the standings with a single top-10 finish, the 2012 season hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts for the 2005 Ltd. Late Model Champion and 5-time Late Model winner.  Bennett says that his team’s finishes haven’t reflected how well they have ran this season and after posting their first top-10 finish of the season last week, Bennett is ready to climb even higher up the finishing order this Friday night and take home a piece of the Xtra Mart bonus money.

“We had a top-10 last year, and last week was our first top-10 this year,” said Bennett.  “We’ve ran in the top-10 in four out of the 5 races and we’ve had crazy things happen to us.  At the Sizzler the throttle broke with 5 laps to go, we were ninth and avoiding a wreck and we just barely got tagged in the right rear and sent into the wall, on a restart someone missed a shift and we got knocked out of the way when we were running seventh.  We’ve also had some mechanical problems here and there, but we’ve definitely got things together.  We got in a wreck last Friday and we still got back up to 8th and we finished 10th.  With the extra money on the line, there would be no better time to get our first top-5 or podium finish.  I definitely think we have it in us as a team, this is our second year together, we’re slowly getting better, and we’re getting more comfortable with the car.”

In order for Bennett to get into the top-5 and take home a share of the Xtra Mart bonus money, he will have a strong field of SK Modified® drivers to contend with.  There has been 5 different feature winners in the first five SK Modified® feature events this season: Ted Christopher, Eric Berndt, Woody Pitkat, Michael Gervais, Jr., and last week’s feature winner Ryan Preece is the defending champion of the Coors Light SK Modified® 100.  Nichole Morgillo, Matt Gallo, and Sean Foster are all coming off season best top-5 finishes last week, and veterans like Todd Owen, Dan Avery, and Keith Rocco will all be gunning for a piece of the Xtra Mart bonus pie.

Bennett and the rest of the SK Modified® field will be in hot pursuit of the Xtra Mart Xtra D bonus beginning with qualifying heats at 6:15 this Friday night.  Tickets for the Coors Light SK Modified® 100 Xtra Mart DARE Stock Xtra D program are priced at $20.00 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 seating is priced at $22.00 for all ages.  All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax.  As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.

For more information, 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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