RPW Exclusive: Emerling Scores At Oswego For Second-Straight NASCAR Modified Tour Win

Column By: MARTY CZEKALA / RPW – OSWEGO, NY – Patrick Emerling took advantage of a lap 69 restart to go back-to-back in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and win the Toyota Mod Classic 150 at Oswego Speedway.

The win is Emerling’s first at Oswego in NWMT competition.

“Absolutely incredible,” said Emerling post-race. “We made the best of that one. We capitalized and did everything we had to do tonight.”

In the go-ahead pass for the win, following the leaders pitting under yellow for tires, Emerling restarted third behind Tim Connolly on older tires and Justin Bonsignore, who had just won the race off pit road. Connolly had a bad jump, which forced Bonsignore to slow, and Emerling took advantage to grab the lead and not look back.

“It was a hairy one,” explained Emerling. “Wasn’t sure how that was gonna pan out. I think the No. 51 had a bad restart and we cut underneath the No. 4 and did our thing.”

Championship points leader Justin Bonsignore wasn’t too pleased with it.

“We got out first, but unfortunately, the No. 4 car didn’t pit and wanted to roll into the box and play games,” said Bonsignore. “I don’t understand that move and it stacked us on the outside lane.”

Both drivers weren’t in the equation early for the lead. Matt Hirschman led the opening 66 laps and had a competitive lead on the field until pit stops took place. After changing rear tires, Hirschman came out fourth in the race off pit road.

Hirschman made his way back up to second and stayed on the bumper of Emerling all race. However, Emerling made no mistakes and kept his nose clean to win by about three car lengths on Hirschman.

“This series is so competitive,” said Emerling. “The 60 is always on point. The name of the game was track position. If we could get out front, we knew we could get it done.”

“A really good performance, but frustrating when you have a car as good as you did,” Hirschman told RPW. “The No. 1 also had that good of a car. We had the track position early in the lead and he had it in the second half. We were never more than hundredths apart in lap times the entire race.”

The championship battle with a handful of races to go remains with Justin Bonsignore out in front, increasing his lead over Ron Silk with a third beating fourth.

“It was a solid night,” said Bonsignore. “We’ve been clicking off top three finishes pretty well this summer.”

While Bonsignore kept his car inside the top five all night, Silk took a risk on the lap 75 yellow to pit for a fresh right front and paid off to finish a spot behind his championship adversary.

“We fought tight all day and after we put rears, I was still tight,” Silk said post-race. “It was the right decision and would’ve faded back if we didn’t pit.”

Rain plagued the 5/8-mile facility in the afternoon, delaying practice to 5:45 p.m. It didn’t affect any major parts of Saturday’s schedule except for the autograph session on the front stretch. Major props to NASCAR’s and Oswego’s track drying team and the drainage system at Oswego Speedway for a quick two-hour turnaround.

Numerous accidents took place in the feature, the most notable being a red flag on lap 28 for Tyler Catalano’s heavy impact into the turn one Styrofoam blocks after he blew an oil line and spun out. Catalano was OK.

Hirschman was a hundredth shy of breaking the series’ track record set by Rob Summers in 2019. The latter clocked 17.550s. Hirschman recorded a 17.559s in qualifying.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to Riverhead Sept. 14 for their next race to honor the late Eddie Partridge.

Classic Weekend concludes tomorrow at Oswego, which features the Budweiser International Classic 200 for the Supermodifieds.