(Stafford Springs, CT)---When the Modified Racing Series came to Stafford Motor Speedway in June for the Inaugural Lincoln Tech 80 MRS event, Stafford SK Modified® regular Todd Owen had a great drive going with his #29 Cooker Construction sponsored entry in the race before rain halted the feature at lap-32. Owen had the fastest car in the MRS practice session, and after crashing in his heat race and starting the feature in 20th place, Owen had climbed his way up through the field into 7th place when the rain came. When the MRS cars return to Stafford on Friday night, August 12th for the resumption of the Lincoln Tech 80, Owen hopes to continue his charge to the front of the field.

"We were going really good," said Owen. "That car always goes good on the bigger tracks, we won with it a couple years ago at Thompson and we were the fastest car in the practice session. We got wrecked in the heat race, so we didn't get to show how good the car was in the heat and we had to start 20th. We definitely had a car that could have won the race, we came from 20th to 7th in 32 laps."

While Owen will be looking to continue his charge towards the front of the field when the MRS field takes the green flag, he and the other 27 cars will be facing an unknown set of circumstances. After the rain halted the Lincoln Tech 80 at lap-32, MRS officials impounded the tires from each car and the field will have to restart the race on the tires they had on the car at the time of the rain.

"It's definitely going to be interesting for everyone," said Owen. "I can't ever remember a race where tires got impounded and then given back to finish a race. But it's not just me, there's 27 other guys who will be out there with the same problem. With 48 laps to go, it's going to be a shoot-out and I don't think you'll see any conserving going on in the race."

While the teams may not know what to expect when they return to Stafford, Owen feels like he may have a small advantage over the rest of the field for the resumption of the Lincoln Tech 80.

"We haven't touched the car since we left Stafford," said Owen. "The series regulars have traveled to several tracks since Stafford and have had to change their cars around, so guys like myself and Keith [Rocco], we might have a small advantage with the car setup by leaving the cars as they were. We might make a minor change there or there, but we're going to go right back to where we were with the car. I don't think that the practice session will be as important for us as some of the other guys. We just hope that we don't end up going backwards as fast as we came to the front when the race gets restarted. No one has a 100% guarantee on how their car is going to be and I'll know within the first lap or two if we have the car as good as we did in June."

In addition to his MRS duties, Owen will also be behind the wheel of his #90 Cooker Construction SK Modified®, where he will look to build upon a 6th place in the CARQUEST SK 150 event. Owen's good finish last week boosted him into the fifth position in the SK Modified® championship points standings and Owen is looking to record his first SK Modified® victory since a win in the SK Modified® 100 in 2006.

"The season has been pretty good for us so far, I'd give it a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10," said Owen. "We're not quite where we want to be obviously, but hopefully in the second half we can get things turned around and get going good again. I feel like the first third of the season we were close and then we struggled a little, but we seem to have gotten it back last week with a 6th place finish. If the 88 [Keith Rocco] and 40 [Ryan Preece] cars keep going like they have been, we're all racing for second place right now. Sixth was a good finish for us and if we can keep on having good runs, the wins will come. A win would stop everyone from razzing me about not having a win in a while, and a win would be good for the whole team."

Tickets for the rescheduled Lincoln Tech MRS 80 event at Stafford Motor Speedway are on sale now and are priced at $25.00 for Adult General Admission, $5.00 for Children Ages 6-14 General Admission, and $28.00 for Reserved Seating. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783, or tickets can be purchased the night of the show at the gate. Stafford Speedway will be honoring all rain checks from the original June 24 date for this Friday night's rescheduled Lincoln Tech 80 MRS event.

For more information, 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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