Joey Polewarczyk, Jr.: ACT Albany-Saratoga Speedway Race Preview

(From team release)

Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., will try and earn Ford Racing its first ACT Late Model Tour victory when he opens the 2010 season in the Albany-Saratoga 100 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., on Sunday, April 25. The track was renovated from a dirt track in the offseason and made into a flat, .400-mile asphalt oval in time for this year, and this will be just the second event held at the new speedway. The originally scheduled season-opening NH Governor's Cup 150 at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H., last week was postponed by weather. Polewarczyk enters his sixth season with ACT and has four career wins, including two at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, and he has finished inside the top-5 in nine of his last 24 starts.

WHO: Joey Polewarczyk Jr., Hudson, N.H.
TEAM: Pole's Automotive/NH Precision No. 97 Ford
BEST CAREER ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY FINISH: N/A
LAST RACE AT ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY: 2010 event is first ACT event at track

WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour Albany-Saratoga 100
WHERE: Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. (.400-mile oval)
WHEN: 1 p.m., Sunday, April 25

ACT Late Model Tour
LAST RACE: N/A
NEXT RACE: Sunday, May 2, Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.

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JOEY, IS THE TEAM HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING GEARED UP FOR A DELAYED SEASON OPENER?

Not at all. We're going at this weekend with the same attitude we had last weekend (before the Lee USA Speedway race was rained out). This is our sixth year on the Tour, and we want to be right there no matter what the track is. We want to go out and win the championship and get a win for Ford.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY?

It's definitely flat. Obviously, on a flat track, the biggest thing is overdriving the corners. A big track like that, it's easy as a driver to overdrive the corner because you have so much straightaway speed going in -- and you overdrive the flat corner and go right up the bank.There will probably be a lot of cars racing single-file. It will be like a big freight train coming if you overdrive the corners.

TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF RACING ON A TRACK NOBODY HAS RACED ON BEFORE.

I know that a couple of guys have tested (at Albany-Saratoga Speedway), but we're all still on an even playing field here. No one's really raced here, and I think our team really excels at taking on tracks that are new to us. Obviously, we would have loved to have opened at Lee USA, but we're just as excited about going somewhere new, too.

I think last year at Twin State Speedway (Sept. 4) was the last time I went to a track I'd never seen before. It was that mid-part of the season where we were struggling for some reason, anyway, but it was kind of where we got things turned around for us. We struggled really bad in practice, and I had to go through the consi to qualify. We started like 23rd or something, but we went out and finished seventh.

We're usually pretty close setup-wise at new tracks, and that's what I'm hoping we'll be -- especially with the long practice session they're giving us on Saturday. We'll be well-prepared, no matter what.