Pennsylvanian Earns Title At Connecticut’s Stafford Speedway
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| Rowan Pennink captured his first track title at Stafford in 2015. |
Rowan Pennink captured his first track title at Stafford in 2015. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The seeds of Rowan Pennink’s track title were sewn in the late summer of 2014. The harvest this season was bountiful.
In 2015, Pennink earned Stafford Motor Speedway’s Division I championship, his first career NASCAR Whelen All-American Series crown. Although he turned in six wins behind the wheel of the No. 99 Van Wickle NAPA Auto Supply/Hitchcock Pool Water Chevrolet this year, it was a triumph in July 2014 that set him on a path towards success.
A veteran of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since 2007, Pennink returned to weekly competition at the Connecticut half-mile last year for the first time since 2006. It was a challenging reintroduction to Stafford’s SK Modified Division as his team struggled early to find success.
“To begin the 2014 season it seemed like we couldn’t stay away from the bad luck,” Pennink said. “They built a new car and we ended up flipping it three races into the season. From there it seemed like we couldn’t even finish a race until the middle of the season.”
The turning point was a breakthrough victory in Stafford’s inaugural SK 5K in July, an extra distance special event the track it added to the schedule for 2014. From that point his team was the hottest in the ultra-competitive division the rest of the season.
“We won that SK 5K race and from then on out things have fallen into place,” Pennink said. “The car was fast even whenever we were having bad luck this year, we just couldn’t finish the races. Including that SK 5K, we’ve won 11 races since. They give me a great car every week and every time we go out there we have a pretty good shot at winning.”
Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, found success right out of the gate in 2015 with a checkered flag in the season-opening NAPA Spring Sizzler weekend. A five-race run in the middle of the year saw him win three times and finished second twice. It sent a message that his No. 99 team was a leading title contender.
Although he topped the standings for the vast majority of the season, Pennink didn’t have much margin for error heading into the season finale with a 12-point lead over Preece. A fourth-place effort in the NAPA Fall Final weekend secured his first Stafford title by the margin of 946-936.
“We had a car that had over 15 top fives so I figured if we could just go out and get one more top five we would win the championship,” Pennink said. “I knew we were capable of that, but the nerve-racking part is you don’t know what everyone else is going to do around you. We just went out and ran a race like we would normally run and was able to get a top five in a championship out of it.”
In addition to his six wins, Pennink recorded 17 top fives and 19 top 10s in 22 starts – numbers that propelled him to 12th in the Whelen All-American Series national standings and fourth in Connecticut points.
This is actually Pennink’s second go-around at Stafford. He earned SK Modified division Rookie of the Year honors there with his family-owned team in 2006 before moving on to the Whelen Modified Tour the subsequent season. Over time Pennink regained a desire to compete in the division on a regular basis.
This current stint for Pennink, 30, is with car owner Kelly Iverson. Crew chief Jimmy Fuller prepares the cars out of Bob Hitchcock’s garage in Charlton, Massachusetts, with additional assistance from crewmen Richard Mason and Paul Blackwelder.
“When I raced at Stafford originally I still had a lot to learn as a driver,” Pennink said. “I never really had a shot to win races, we were kind of just learning. With the competition being so tough there, and watching the races there through the years, I always wanted to give it another shot. When Bob and Kelly were looking for a driver we ended up getting together and putting together a deal, and it’s been working out good.”
Pennink relishes the level of competition at the historic half-mile.
“One of the main reasons that I always wanted to go back to race at Stafford is because of the history and the competition there,” Pennink said. “Many of the best drivers in the Northeast compete in the SK division there.”
“It’s really tough to win there and you only have 40 laps to do it. If you run good there on a weekly basis, with the handicap most of the time you’re starting no better than 14th or 15th, so it’s quite a task to get from there to the lead in 40 laps. That’s why I love going up there.”
Commuting to central Connecticut on a weekly basis from his current residence in New Egypt, New Jersey, Pennink also appreciates how the facility is operated.
“The Arute family has a great facility and they run it very professionally, and that also makes it a great place to go weekly racing,” Pennink said.
Pennink will officially be recognized as the 2015 track champion at the 46th Annual Stafford Speedway Champions Awards Ceremony to be held on Friday, Nov. 20 at Maneeley’s in South Windsor, Connecticut.
Pennink will also be honored for his Stafford crown along with other track and state/province champions from across North America as part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards on Dec. 11 at the Charlotte Convention Center and NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Established in 1982, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. In all, 58 paved and dirt tracks throughout the United States and Canada participated in 2015.
Connecticut-based Whelen Engineering is the series’ title sponsor. Whelen Engineering is a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and emergency vehicle lighting. NASCAR tracks and pace cars are among the many showcases for Whelen products.
- Credit to NASCAR Home Tracks for this article.
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