Just one week after parting ways with Goodie Motorsports, Woody Pitkat has formed a new team that will debut at the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Stafford 150 on August 5.
Pitkat has combined forces with his former SK Modified owner Steve Greer and his current Modified Racing Series owner Dan Stebbins to form Gunsmoke Stebbins Racing. The car will be a No. 52.
“We put together a team with Steve Greer, who I have a good relationship with from winning the SK championship at Stafford back in 2013, and he’s been a sponsor of mine ever since,” Pitkat said in a press release. “He owns one of the cars in the Danny Stebbins stable that I run on the MRS and MTS and he had been looking for a Troyer chassis car to run on the MTS. An opportunity came up where we could get a turn-key car from Jerry Solomito that was ready to go and has only been raced two or three times.
“We bought the car for the Modified Touring Series but with my situation losing the 46 ride on the Whelen Tour, I wanted to try to stay up in the points if I can and with Stafford being my home track, what better place to try the new car and team combination out? I’m still looking for a Tour ride because this is a car that we’re going to focus on the MTS with.”
Pitkat is currently ninth in the NASCAR standings after seven events. He hopes to run every race this season and is exploring options to put such an effort together.
“Danny Stebbins is going to help us out so I’ll have some of my MTS/MRS crew along with some of Steve’s guys and we’re looking for sponsors for tires, fuel, and travel costs,” Pitkat said. “I think it’ll be a lot of fun to come to Stafford with some guys that I’ve worked with in the past couple of years and I’m really appreciative of Steve Greer’s continued support and Danny Stebbins helping us out.
“Instead of Gunsmoke Stables, which is Steve’s deal, we’re going to call it Gunsmoke Stebbins. We might run the two Stafford races and maybe Thompson if we come out of Stafford good and I’m still looking to see what else is out there for the remainder of the season.”
Stafford was the best possible place for Pitkat to debut the new team.
Of his three career NASCAR victories, two them came at Stafford with the 2014 150 and the 2015 Spring Sizzler. In addition to his two wins, Pitkat has scored 30 SK Modified wins, 40 Late Model wins, 3 DARE Stock wins, and 2 Modified Racing Series wins at Stafford for a grand total of 77 wins to go along with his two Late Model track championships and his SK championship.
He hopes that’s the foundation of at least a top-10 next weekend.
“I’m excited about it but we’re not going to come out and win our first race,” Pitkat said. “I think if we can get a good qualifying lap in the top-10 and then finish in the top-10, that would be like a win for us. We’re looking to have some fun in 2 or 3 races this season and for myself to get a little confidence because I haven’t really had a great showing on the Tour this year…
“We should have a pretty good notebook to work off of to be fast right out of the box and we can tweak here and there on the setup to be fast. I’ve been struggling a little with the group qualifying this year and only changing one tire per pit stop should help us out with only having a couple of guys to go over the wall instead of a full team. Hopefully we won’t have any issues with the car and my goal is to finish the race in tech inspection. If you can be in tech and have the car taken apart and looked at, that’s a good thing and we can move on to the next race.”
