Column By: BRITTANY NUTILE / RPW – THOMPSON, CT – Justin Bonsignore wins the final race of the 2018 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Bonsignore is only the fourth person in modern day tour history to ever get four wins at Thompson in one season. Steve Park in 1996, Mike Stefanik in 1998, Doug Coby in 2015, and now Justin Bonsignore in 2018. All drivers except Park also won the tour championship the same season.
Bonsignore is also your 2018 NWMT champion. He clinched the championship at Stafford Speedway during the fall final a couple of weeks ago.
“I think we have a really good car for the race tomorrow, it’s a wait off our shoulders to be able to do it with one race left and takes the stress off for the last race. Going to be hard to pull off the 4 peat but it would be such an honor and it would be cool to have my name on that list of people”.
Jon McKennedy started the race 5th, was very consistent throughout the race and did a late pitstop to get tires and was coming through the field and ended up 2nd.
“Had a good call throughout the whole weekend and race today, Tommy made a great call with 30 to go. If we had 2 or 3 more laps, we could have had the win but, good to end the season with a 2nd place finish”. McKennedy said during an interview after the race.
Ron Silk started the race 9th, had a very fast car and kept the car up front all day to finish 3rd.
“We had a good weekend, ran the top five most of the day and were in a good position at the end”.
They qualified 9th, made a mistake with going out to late and only got two laps to qualify but, Silk said before the race he said they had a good car and should be in contention to win or at least be in the running for it.
Doug Coby qualified 6th for the race. He looked to have a very good car all day running up front and battling for the lead at multiple occasions during the 150 laps, Coby finished 4th in the race and was 3rd in the point standings to finish the season.
“Qualifying was a little frustrating, having 11 cars all try to get a good lap in three minutes, we should be pretty good in the race and have a good outside starting spot and settle in the top couple spots and see how the race unfolds”.
Ronnie Williams got his second career pole Saturday during tour qualifying for today’s race. Both poles Williams won this year were both at Thompson Speedway. He finished 14th in the race.
“Wasn’t sure we were going to get the pole today but, it’s pretty special to win the pole here for the last race, we will see what tomorrow brings for the race”.
Chase Dowling qualified 6th but, had an ignition problem which led them to be sidelined for the remainder of the race. Chase Dowling had a good year with winning his first year at NHMS in September and finished 2nd in the point standings for the year.
“We struggled yesterday really bad, made changes and went too far but, we should be pretty good for the race today”. Dowling said during an interview before the race.
