A classic short-track battle on a Saturday night on Long Island.
Justin Bonsignore and Timmy Solomito both cut their teeth racing Modifieds at Riverhead Raceway, and Saturday, they battled for the victory in the 13th race of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season at their home track.
Bonsignore wasn’t the dominant car all night, but a restart in the final stages gave him the chance to slide around Solomito, who was itching for his first win since 2017. In the midst of it all, the Whelen Modified Tour championship chase closed up a bit more heading for the final three races.
All of this and more in the Rapid Rewind from the Miller Lite 200 at Riverhead Raceway.
READ MORE: Justin Bonsignore returns to contention with Miller Lite 200 win
While Coby Struggles, Bonsignore Inches Closer in Title Chase
It was the fourth straight win at Riverhead for Bonsignore — as the Holtsville, New York, driver became the only driver in series history to win four in a row at the New York oval. But the storylines from this win are endless.
Not only did Bonsignore add his fifth win in the first 13 races of the season, and his 25th career in Whelen Modified Tour action, he closed the championship battle to just 19 points behind Doug Coby with three races to go. The defending Whelen Modified Tour champion is back within striking distance heading for the stretch, while Coby struggled, spinning twice and finishing outside the top 10 for the first time this season in 15th.
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Early in the race, the two championship contenders were racing hard for position inside the top five, when Bonsignore made contact with the wall, then made contact with Coby a few corners later. Coby would spin off Turn 4, sending him to the tail of the field, and starting the swing in the title battle.
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Meanwhile, Bonsignore would ride behind track regular Tom Rogers Jr. and Solomito early, then pounce on Solomito on a late restart, taking the lead, and holding Solomito off in overtime to score the victory.
“I wanted to give him a shot to let him know he didn’t have to put me in the fence on lap five,” Bonsignore said of the incident with Coby. “Unfortunately, it turned him around.”
Bonsignore was approaching Solomito for the lead in the final 30 laps, but with lapped cars playing in a role in front of both of them, it was going to be a difficult task for Bonsignore to make a move to get around him. That all changed when the yellow flag came out. That gave Bonsignore the chance to restart to the outside of his fellow home track favorite.
“The restarts were really weird tonight, getting back to second late, I ran Timmy down, but it was going to be tough to get by him I think,” Bonsignore said. “I was able to pin him down getting into turn one and beat him off two.”
COMMENTARY: The NASCAR Modified has a championship battle, for real
With three races left, it is still comfortable lead for Coby, but Bonsignore has sliced nearly 30 points off it in the last two races.
“We’ll see what we can do the rest of the year,” Bonsignore said. “We’re not out of it. We have a lot good tracks in a row for us. New Hampshire will be tough — it’s definitely a wild card. It’d be nice to try and get the Musket 250 as a little bit of redemption from last year’s race.”
Coby, who was not pleased with his 15th place finish, spoke with NASCAR.com shortly after the checkered.
“We did make some contact, but never my front bumper to someone’s back bumper here, and a couple of other guys have done that to me here before, always seems like I’m on the short end of the stick,” Coby said. “I don’t expect much when I come here — anytime I come here and get out of it with a top five, it’s okay. I was proud of our car coming through the field.”
“It’s going to get down to every position counting. Up until this point, we’ve had a good cushion. If it closes up even tighter, or we have a bad race at New Hampshire, we might be second-place in points. No matter what, it’s going to be close.”
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NASCAR Modified Tour Standings
- Doug Coby Ldr.
- Justin Bonsignore -19
- Ron Silk -45
- Craig Lutz -70
- Eric Goodale -106
Solomito Nearly Breaks Back Into Victory Lane
So, so close.
Timmy Solomito was just laps away from scoring his first Whelen Modified Tour win since Thompson Speedway in October of 2017. Almost two years of struggling, fighting and clawing to get back to the top. And he was there on Saturday before Bonsignore took it all away.
Solomito started third, his best qualifying effort of the year, but got kicked back to the bottom of the top five early. He worked his way back to the front, and trailed the back bumper of Rogers through lapped traffic for most of the first half of the race, before a restart played to his advantage. Solomito passed Rogers for the lead on lap 146, and was in prime position to score.
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