NASCAR SW Touring: Woodside Comes From the Back For a Podium Finish
8 May 2000
May 8, 2000 (Palmdale, CA) - After having to settle for a provisional qualifying position in tonight's Patrick's Carpets/E.R. Carpenter 125 Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring race at Tucson Raceway Park, Sean Woodside worked the #4 REF Motorsports Pontiac through the pack for a second place finish, just one-tenth of a second behind race winner Augie Vidovich. It looked as though Woodside would successfully challenge Vidovich for the lead when a caution on lap 121 of the 125-lap chase required him to tuck back in behind Vidovich for a single file restart. Woodside and Vidovich had been running side-by-side for several laps when the late race caution was called. The green-white-checkered closing laps gave Woodside enough time to go around Vidovich and take the lead briefly, but Vidovich shot ahead one last time to take the checkered flag. Tonight's finish moves Woodside up two positions in the point standings to third place. "We struggled all day, and had a tough qualifying run," said Woodside. "We did what we had to do, and the car was definitely improved for the race." Woodside continued, "If someone other than myself had to win, I was glad it was Augie. He gave me my first Southwest Series win a few weeks ago at Mesa Marin." In that race, then leader Vidovich and the second-place car spun together, opening the door for Woodside to take his and REF Motorsports' first series win. "We'll take a second after where we started," commented Bob Farmer, REF Motorsports team owner. "If we didn't have that last yellow, we'd have had him. I'm just glad they raced each other nice and clean." Visit REF Motorsports' official Web site at http://www.refmotorsports.com for more information. Bob Farmer, owner of REF Motorsports, owns and operates the No. 4 Stick Only Transmissions, Maropulos Racing Engines, Speedway Engineering, Hoosier Pontiac in the Featherlite Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring with Sean Woodside as driver. Woodside won the 1999 NASCAR Winston West series championship after finishing second in the point standings in the series in 1997 and 1998. REF Motorsports finished 6th in the Southwest Series points standings in 1999, with six top five and seven top ten finishes during the season. The team is currently 5th in the point standings in the Featherlite Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring, with one win and one top five finish.