One of the most historic streaks in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour history was broken by one of the drivers who will go down as one of the best ever.
Doug Coby earned his fourth victory of the season in the Bud ‘King of Beers’ 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, breaking Justin Bonsignore’s streak of six consecutive wins at the Connecticut oval.
It was Coby’s 28th career Whelen Modified Tour victory, his sixth career at Thompson — and it increased the points lead with just five races remaining in the championship points schedule.
“We just go race to race,” Coby said. “We ran three different cars at New Hampshire, Stafford and Thompson, and I’m really proud of that for my team. He (Justin) would probably have anyone but me snap that streak. It’s really impressive what his team did. They had a great run.”
Coby dominated the early laps after earning his seventh Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award of the season in qualifying. When the caution flag flew on lap 84, Coby was leading the charge over Bonsignore, and both of them led the field down pit road. Coby elected to take his fresh tires on the pit stop, and exited the pits second, behind Bonsignore.
Coby restarted third, after Jon McKennedy used some strategy to earn the lead. He wouldn’t get back to the top spot until the final laps. After former series champion Bobby Santos III took the lead on lap 129, a caution with just 11 laps to go left Santos, Craig Lutz, Bonsignore and Coby at the front. All four of them had led laps, but only three of them would finish.
At the green, Santos stumbled with a broken shifter, Lutz spun his tires, and Coby hung a hard left to clear all of them, into the lead. He never looked back.
READ MORE: The restart that changed the season’s complexion
“When someone messes up in front of you, you hope you have enough room, you crank it to the left, and hope no one is going to spin you,” Coby said of the restart dash.
Bonsignore would come up one spot short of his seventh straight Thompson win, while Lutz settled for third. McKennedy and Timmy Solomito completed the top five.
“The restart got a little bit wild, and Doug was just in a better spot,” Bonsignore said. “You’re not going to win every game (race). We were prepared for this to happen. We lost to the best car this year.”
Jimmy Blewett was sixth, followed by Andrew Krause, Patrick Emerling, Matt Swanson and Woody Pitkat.
Coby leads by 47 in the point standings over Bonsignore and Silk, who are tied for second. The three former series champions have won all but one race this season.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to the track on Saturday, August 31, at Oswego Speedway in New York, as part of the track’s 63rd annual Classic Weekend.
The complete results from the Bud: King of Beers 150 can be found below.
- Doug Coby
- Justin Bonsignore
- Craig Lutz
- Jon McKennedy
- Timmy Solomito
- Jimmy Blewett
- Andrew Krause
- Patrick Emerling
- Matt Swanson
- Woody Pitkat
- Kyle Bonsignore
- Chris Pasteryak
- Eric Goodale
- Blake Barney
- Rob Summers
- Calvin Carroll
- Timmy Catalano
- Andrew Molleur
- Ron Silk
- Sam Rameau
- Ken Heagy
- Wade Cole
- Bobby Santos III
- Mike Rutkoski
- J.B. Fortin
- Tommy Catalano
- Joey Mucciacciaro
- Kevin Shea
- Walter Sutcliffe, Jr.
- Melissa Fifield
- Kyle Ellwood
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