Fan think as a team owner, you get to sit back and enjoy it all when the season is over, but that is not the case. "Portenga said" We are all anxious to get ready for the next season, and it seems like there is never enough time to get it all done. We are ready for the first year of the new millennium and comes new challenges with new tracks being added to the NASCAR Winston West schedule.
The first stop on the NASCAR Winston West schedule is Phoenix International Raceway. Portenga is excited to return to Phoenix to attempt to break his on record. On March 17th 2000 Steve Portenga not only took the Bud Pole Award for the NASCAR Winston West race at Phoenix, he did it up big by breaking the track record. Steve's qualifying time was 27.822 - breaking the existing record of 27.843, previously set by Craftsman Truck Driver Mike Wallace.
Portenga - who resides in Bakersfield, Calif. got his start in NASCAR
Racing in 1988 earning Rookie of the Year Honors and a NASCAR Winston
Racing Series Track Championship at Silver State Raceway in Carson City,
Nevada. A 2-year veteran of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Portenga
earned honors as the youngest rookie to finish in the Top 5 in a race as
well as the highest placing youth in the series (13th of 103 competitors
in 1995). He is the 1992 NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series Rookie of
the Year and two time Series Champion (1994 & 1998)
