Eight years ago, Bobby Santos III was holding the championship trophy on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
After winning four races driving the iconic ‘Mystic Missile’ in 2010, Santos celebrated his first title.
Fast-forward nearly a decade and he is with a new car owner running a partial schedule on the Whelen Modified Tour while touring the country competing with various different racing organizations.
Simply put, he’s living any racer’s dream.
Tinio Motorsports decided to step away from full-time competition and scale back to part-time action with Santos in 2016 and the decision seems to have been the right one. Since the move, Santos has 14 starts, with three wins, seven top fives and 10 top-10 finishes. He’s been driving the No. 44 Tinio modified for six years.
“We chased the whole thing for a handful of years, and it came down to Sully (team owner) just deciding that he didn’t want to chase the whole thing anymore,” Santos said. “We decided last year to go to the tracks that he enjoyed and those that were closer to home.”
The Franklin, Massachusetts, driver has five starts this season, and one of them ended with a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in July. The win was his third straight in competition at the ‘Magic Mile,’ and he’s heading back there this weekend looking to make history.
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When the Whelen Modified Tour takes the green in the 250-lap, $25,000-to-win inaugural Musket 250 as part of Full Throttle Weekend, Santos will look to become just the third driver in series history to win at least four straight races at the 1.058-mile oval. Reggie Ruggiero won five straight from 1992-1994 while Ted Christopher won four straight events from 2004-2005.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Santos said when asked how he was able to win the last three straight. “We’ve just been there at the right time I think. We’ve had good cars everywhere the last two years. I think we just did a better job of putting ourselves in position to win when we were at Loudon.”
Santos hasn’t been the dominant car the entire race over the last two years, but he’s been in position when it mattered most. He’s led a combined 15 laps across his last three victories at the oval, and often finds himself using the grip put down on the track to climb up the running order.
But, that grip won’t be out there on Saturday.
“The last two years with the grip down on the track, it kind of threw a curveball out there for everybody. I feel like that might have benefited me a little bit,” Santos said. “I feel like the first few times I figured it out before everyone else. This race in itself is going to be totally different, it’s hard to predict how it is going to go. I think the last few races I figured out where to be at the right time. I think this time around, it’s going to be a whole different race track for everyone. There are going to be completely different strategies. I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a green flag pit stop at some point.”
The inaugural Musket 250 will put both pit crews and drivers up against the ultimate test as they try to navigate the longest distance in series history. Santos, who has run modifieds for nearly his entire career, is one of many excited to see how it plays out.
“It’s pretty cool for the modifieds. The modified group as a whole deserves a race like this. As far as I am concerned, the talent in the pit area at a modified race is as good as, if not better than any racing in the country,” Santos said. “I believe that the modifieds deserved a high-profile, high-paying race. It’s just going to be interesting with how many cars will be on the lead lap, how many will finish, and how it is going to go. It’s a long race.”
What would it mean to accomplish that goal and become the inaugural winner?
“It’d be awesome,” he said. “It’s a huge race and it’s definitely going to be our biggest race of the year. It’s pretty neat that New Hampshire is putting this deal together, even without the (Cup) guys being there, still able to run there twice a year. It’s going to mean a lot for our team, and I feel that we have as good of a shot as anyone.”