Justin Bonsignore barely held off Doug Coby at the finish line to win the Mohegan Sun 100 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Bonsignore and Coby traded the lead multiple times as the laps wound down after a late caution put all the race’s contenders up towards the front. The margin of victory was a miniscule 0.045 seconds.
Bonsignore started on the pole and remained up front for the early part of the race. Coby, Ron Silk and Anthony Nocella provided strong competition for the polesitter and three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, as no driver was able to pull away. On lap 35, however, Bonsignore reclaimed the lead and set sail.
Bonsignore led the next 41 laps, and was leading when a popup rainshower struck the track on lap 69. With darkness coming soon, and the race being past halfway, it seemed like Bonsignore would be declared the winner quickly. But the rain stopped as quickly as it came, and the sun returned. NASCAR began drying the track, and quickly got the racing surface into raceable condition.
Pit stops left Bonsignore in the middle of the pack, and he charged towards the front in the remaining laps. Coby and Silk had claimed the lead following the pit cycle, and Bonsignore joined them in the closing laps to make it a 3-way battle for the coveted win.
“I’m glad we got it back going again for the fans that stuck it out,” Bonsignore said. “We have a good rivalry but there’s a lot of respect involved. They came over and congratulated me. We went really conservative, stayed patient, and got the lead. I knew where I wanted to be on the last lap.”
Coby finished second and missed out on a win by inches. Ron Silk maintained his Modified Tour championship point lead with a third place finish, but Bonsignore has closed to within 8 points of the top spot.
Austin Beers and Patrick Emerling claimed the last two spots in the top 5. Saturday was a fantastic day for Emerling. Earlier in the day, he drove his underdog entry no. 35 for Emerling-Gase Motorsports to a 14th place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the speedway– then scored a top 5 in his modified machine in the evening.
Anthony Sesely finished in sixth place. NASCAR Cup Series regular Corey LaJoie finished in seventh, and could never fully get a handle on the car to make his way towards the front. Matt Swanson, Andy Seuss, and Jake Johnson rounded out the top 10.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will race again in two weeks at Claremont Speedway on Saturday, July 29th.
About Me: Ethan Miller is 17 years old and resides in Pennsylvania. He aspires to become a sports writer following high school, and views writing for Speedway Digest as the next step towards a career in journalism. Ethan currently hosts the QuickPitPodcast with a few fellow NASCAR fans, which can be found on all major podcast platforms.
Twitter: pit_quick
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