Story By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – SEEKONK, MA – Justin Bonsignore wins from the pole at the Seekonk 150 in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. This is Bonsignore’s second win of the season.
Bonsignore won the pole with a lap of 11.925 seconds. He led a race- high of 100 laps. Justin Bonsignore and Matt Hirschman were the only two drivers that led during the race. “We had a good car right off the trailer. Group qualifying is really tough, having to play cat and mouse with the other drivers is tricky”. “Track position is really important here, hopefully we can stay out in front, lead the most laps and hopefully have a shot to win”. Bonsignore talks about his thoughts on winning the pole and thoughts on the race during an interview.
Two drivers who had difficulties at Seekonk were Jon McKennedy and Ryan Preece. Jon McKennedy who started 5th, left the race with a power steering problem. In an interview before the race he talks about how he had a decent qualifying run and felt pretty good, starting 5th out of 31 cars isn’t too bad. Ryan Preece who started 15th also didn’t finished due to an engine problem. “I think we have a good car, even though qualifying didn’t show it, we hope to be there when it counts”.
It wasn’t a good points day for both drivers, before the race McKennedy was 4th in points and Preece was 8th in points. After Seekonk McKennedy moved two spots down to 6th in the standings and Preece is now 12th, dropping 4 spots in the points standings.
A guy who had a consistent day at Seekonk was Ronnie Williams, driver of the 21 car. He started 7th and finished in 6th place. “We are starting off 7th in the inside, the car has been pretty good all day hopefully we can stay up front and stay out of a mess if there is one,” Williams said in an interview before the start of the race. He had a good points day at Seekonk. Before the race he was 12th in points, coming out of Seekonk he is now 9th in points.
A driver who didn’t do very well in qualifying, but had a good race was the driver of the 16 car, Timmy Solomito. He started off 17th in the race and finished 7th. After qualifying he said they weren’t too good but, they were decent in practice. “Really only one way to go, towards the front. I think we will race fine, and see what happens.” Solomito was 6th in points before Seekonk, now he’s 4th in the standings.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s next race is the Thompson 125 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Wednesday June 13th.