(Press Release from NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)
Doug Coby (Photo: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Separated by just 36 points at the top, the top three drivers in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour standings are putting on a show as the season roars through its stretch run into the F.W. Webb 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, this weekend.
In each of the last two races on the schedule, Doug Coby, Justin Bonsignore and Timmy Solomito have occupied all three of the podium spots at the checkered flag. Coby and Solomito have four wins apiece this season — including Coby’s win at Oswego Speedway and Solomito’s win at Seekonk Speedway in the two most recent races — with Bonsignore sandwiched between the two of them. Coby, of Milford, Connecticut, leads Bonsignore by 20 points and Solomito by 37.
Coby, Bonsignore and Solomito finished 1-2-3 at Oswego, and then the trio finished 3-2-1, respectively, at Seekonk. In the race at Riverhead, prior to the stop at Oswego, Bonsignore and Solomito finished first and second.
Nobody is giving an inch, and they now take the championship battle to Loudon, one of the few tracks on the schedule where wild point swings are common. Last season, for instance, Coby — who has four career Loudon wins — qualified on the pole but was caught up in a mid-race accident and finished 30th.
Even though Bonsignore and Solomito are searching for their first wins on the largest oval on the schedule, everyone knows that Loudon is once again key to any serious championship aspirations.
Race: F.W. Webb 100
Place: New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire
When: Saturday, September 24
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Track Layout: 1.058-mile asphalt oval
2015 Winner: Doug Coby
2015 Pole Sitter: Doug Coby
EVENT SCHEDULE: Friday, September 23 – Garage opens: 6 a.m.; Practice: 10-11:20 a.m.; Qualifying: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, September 24 — Garage opens: 10:30 a.m.; Driver Autograph Session: 11-11:45 a.m.; F.W. Webb 100: 3:30 p.m.
TWITTER: @NHMS
EVENT HASHTAG: #FWWebb100
FAST FACTS
The Race: The F.W. Webb 100 is the 15th of 17 championship points events in the 2016 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. It is the second and final race of the season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The Procedure: The starting field is 36 cars, including provisionals. The first 32 cars will qualify through the two-lap time trial qualifying process while the remaining four spots will be awarded through the provisional process. The race will be 100 laps, spanning 105.8 miles, and there will be a 5-minute break at or near Lap 51.
The Track: This is the 65th race for the Whelen Modified Tour at the 1.058-mile slightly banked oval, dating back to September 1990. The Tour has held two races annually at the the track every year since 2001, with the lone exception coming in 2011 when three races were contested at the track.
Race Winners: There have been 20 different winners in the 64 previous Whelen Modified Tour races at Loudon. Mike Stefanik leads all drivers with eight career NHMS wins.
Pole Winners: There have been 26 different pole winners at NHMS, led by Jan Leaty with six career poles. Doug Coby has four career starts from the top spot.
F.W. Webb 100 Notes
Coby Is ‘Magic’: Three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion and current point leader Doug Coby of Milford, Connecticut, has won the last two Tour races at ‘The Magic Mile,’ including the most recent race at the track in July. In this race last year, Coby started on the pole and led 88 laps en route to the victory. He has won four of the last eight races held at New Hampshire dating back to this race in 2012.
Not Much History: While New Hampshire Motor Speedway held it’s first Whelen Modified Tour race in 1990, Timmy Solomito doesn’t have a lot of experience with the track. Solomito, of Islip, New York, has made five career starts at Loudon and has yet to post a top-10 finish. He has three consecutive finishes of 12th at NHMS dating back to the start of last season. But, Solomito’s breakout season this year hasn’t slowed — he earned his first career Tour win at Thompson in the season opener in April, and he’s currently tied with Coby for the series lead with four wins this season, including the most recent race at Seekonk.
Kryptonite: New Hampshire Motor Speedway hasn’t been kind to Justin Bonsignore’s championship hopes over the years. The Holtsville, New York, driver has made 14 career starts at NHMS with only three top fives and five top 10s. The good news for Bonsignore is that recent history suggests he’s turning a corner — he finished fifth in this race a year ago and was eighth in the July event this summer. In 2014, Bonsignore finished third in the final Tour standings, his best career championship finish, but he finished 25th in this race that year to derail his title hopes.
He’s An All-Star: Bobby Santos III only has one official win this season, at Thompson in the second race of the season there, but he also has a win at Loudon. Santos won the annual Whelen All-Star Shootout at NHMS in July, the day before the New England 100 points-paying event. Santos might be on an upswing heading into Loudon, where he has one win and 10 top 10s in 20 career starts, after finishing fifth in the most recent race at Seekonk. That finish was the first top five for the Franklin, Massachusetts, driver since finishing third at Thompson in August.
Winning: Doug Coby, Timmy Solomito and Justin Bonsignore are the only Whelen Modified Tour drivers with multiple wins this season, with Coby and Solomito having Tour-leading four wins through the first 14 races. Bonsignore has two wins, both in the second half of the season. Ron Silk, Bobby Santos III, Jimmy Blewett and Eric Goodale won the other events on the schedule.
NASCAR Home Tracks: New Hampshire plays host to K&N Pro Series East annually
While this weekend’s F.W. Webb 100 is a companion event to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, New Hampshire Motor Speedway also plays host to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East once each summer. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races there twice a season.
Only 23 modifieds listed for New Hampshire? Why such a small field for one of the bigger events?
I noticed the southern tour is also racing on the same day. (so much for any crossovers)
NH Mod, don’t look at the Fall Finale entries yet; there’s only 14 (!?!). Hopefully there will be some late entries for NHMS. It would have been nice if the WSMT was not racing; we’d at least probably have Andy Seuss added to the field. I’m sure it will still be the best race of the weekend, as always.
23 cars and that includes Newman. The 01 already has a vibration so back down to 22. Only one week off since July has a toll sometimes. This is huge for Coby. He gets a top 15 at worst. The 16 and 51 needed good luck and big car counts. The Southern tour always runs this weekend. That’s not the issue. Still a lot of good cars to make things fun up front. Sure would like to see Matty, Todd, Chuck, TC etc. It is what it is though.
The rumored TC entry did not materialize. Does anyone have info re: his decision?
this race in the day had almost 50 cars signed in to the pits and payed out around $17.000 to win. now it pays a lot less and is the same distance race. the only difference is then you had not 50 caution which made the racing much better.
Fast Eddie,
I agree with you the mods always put on a good show at Loudon. It’s just a big track for 20 cars.
I feel like the Pointer Sisters because I’m so excited for this weekend!
NH Mod: I completely agree. The “full field” number is 36, which we may never see again. But it would be real nice to see 30 or so.
Thats what you get when you have 5 modified touring series in one region. Whelan, VMRS , roc, tri track, and outlaw the one preece won and now is having a tire test in October to see if they can get a date at New Hampshire on an off NASCAR weekend. 3 need to go and used the super dirt series as a guide to how to run it. The dirt race at Oswego will probably have 55 big blocks and 40 358 mods on hand.
There are plenty of cars, they just don’t want to run NASCAR.
The ROC, VMRS, TTOMS, and one MTS (outlaw) race are killing the Tour at NH?
Bull hockey!! NASCAR is ruining their own show. 1/2 way breaks and spoon feeding the spec on everybody isn’t good in the long run. Those other series are for people who’s pockets have bottoms.
For once I agree with you dareal, plus the purse sucks. I heard that Bristol paid $6,500 to win and NH is not much better.
Melissa will be ok for this race as I think she still has the 2 cases of Depends.She may be down a half case after the Seekonk show.23 cars at NHMS will not be good at all.There will be 2 packs of cars the whole race.Where is the 29?Will the 24 be there?He was supposed to be at Seekonk.The TTOMS is the way to go,they will have close to 40 at Waterford. They are obviously doing something right as they are the only series drawing the cars.Frank there will be double the amount of cars that you said that would be at Oswego,with them not racing on the mile everyone’s Saturday night car will be just fine.
They had a lot more cars 8 weeks ago. That tells me this isn’t a NASCAR thing or other series thing. Teams are probably just tapped out from a money/travel standpoint.
Up to 27 cars.
Surprised the 29 isn’t entered.
Hopefully there will be more.
I thought I read somewhere that Brendon Bock #29 was back at school. Half of the “missing 8” from July were WSMT cars: JR Bertuccio, Andy Seuss, Bryan Dauzat, & Gary Putnam.
The “bottomless pocket” principle is definitely true. There are plenty of modifieds around given the car counts for the VMRS and the TTOMS. It’s more expensive to play in NASCAR’s yard, and many teams just don’t have the money and/or sponsor backing.
I thought I saw somewhere that Brendan Bock #29 was going back to school so the rest of their season was questionable. Half of July entries not on the current entry list are WSMT teams, J.R. Bertuccio, Andy Seuss, Gary Putnam, and Bryan Dauzat.
The “bottomless pockets” theory definitely has merit. The VMRS almost always has decent to good car counts and the TTOMS always has great car counts, proving that there are still plenty of competitive modifieds around. However, NASCAR’s neighborhood is technologically more expensive to play in.
It would be nice if NASCAR cared that the fans would rather see a full field of competitive cars instead of a field where only some teams can afford all the latest “tricks of the week”. Who knows? Maybe sponsors might find that more enticing as well.
Modified racing is better than it’s been in years. NASCAR sucks.
Nascar is in fact the issue. Jimmy Wilson should be on the phone with all the owners that are not there asking them why they are not coming and on the phone with the owners that are attending saying thank you. Instead he is just running his mouth showing disrespect to all the teams and drivers. He will be in the stands next year if he can afford a ticket! Need a owners group in this division before it’s too late.
Crazy in New York hit it on the head . Spot on .
For those of you taking shots at the 01, that car had its best finish I believe at a Loudon race, ONLY something like 3 laps down.
you hit the nail right on the head billy !!!! back only 8 years in 2008 when the economy was at its lowest…… loudon had over flow fields of cars ….sending cars home !!!!! ed cox long time tour director with a great crew of officals treated people like a big family with the drivers ,owners and crews ……but he was turning the rains over to chad little …who then brought in his own southern officals that knew nothing about modifieds or how how to treat people….no less ones that had been running the tour for 20 years ….the beginning of the end of the tour ….he cut off the head …then this lying piece of crap jimmy wilson replaced him to finish the job …hence a ghost town of what it was…only one car owner left from the hey day …one ….no car owners means no cars…… which means no need for any drivers ….get rid of wilson and all his red-necks ….bring in a northern guy that loves modifieds …knows how the tour was run back when ed cox had it ….bring back those rules ….pay what was payed back in the 90’s ….you will get car owners back …..things have to change at the top first for this to happen to save the tour …and faze out that spec LS corvette motor …..open motors is what belongs in a real modfied !!!!!!! jmo
The car count at this event is some sort of message. Loudon brings out the cars, everyone wants to run Loudon. But when only one car can win, why run? As long as what is going on is not being stopped, the rest of the field is running for second place. It’s been like that all season.
If the 2 didn’t have the incidents/equipment issues, it would have clinched the championship already. No other car would be close. That goes against the parity objective of the SPEC motor, parity has declined dramatically.
The reason why ROC, TTOMS, MRS, MTS exist is because owners are looking for another option to NASCAR. But these other options just aren’t much better. MRS is a dysfunctional reality show and nothing more than a traveling open show series, TTOMS is a miracle, ROC survives, and geography is an issue. But yet there are plenty of cars out there. There needs to be a sanctioning body that is respectful to the local small track racers.
But Modified Racing needs to take responsibility for itself and promote itself. We are no longer in the car centric age of the 60s and early 70s. Kids need to introduced to the sport, the automotive industry is no longer enticing as it was back then. We need more fans in the stands. That is clear.
But back on topic, this race should be a good one. It will be a very tense race between the 2, 16 and 51. If they are close on the track, it will be exciting. Look for good performances from the 44, 4, 82, 3, and the 20.
I do hope that since the field is now dominated by SPEC motors, in the future, the race can be extended to let’s say 125 laps, and get rid of the intermission.
To all racers out there people don,t stay away from LOUDON because they think they can`t win because of the #2 car or any other car. If that was the case they wouldn`t go to any track that these teams race at because those thinking that way are beating already. My thought on this is teams like a challenge and the 16 & 51 are working harder and better to try and beat th & catch the 2 team.These teams know they have the same equipment and so what`s left to beat the #2 You need to work harder and smarter in the shop and From what i have seen in the last month or so they are rising to the challenge and are getting closer to the #2 car and I would say they are doing there homework in the shop and they know Phil will keep trying to make his car better and that`s what drives them to succeed. My point is everyone wants to win but to do so you must drive yourself harder and think about what can i do to make this car faster then the other teams and that`s what Phil and the 2 team does every minute of everyday!!!! These are Only my thoughts
Harold
To all racers out there people don,t stay away from LOUDON because they think they can`t win because of the #2 car or any other car. If that was the case they wouldn`t go to any track that these teams race at because those thinking that way are beating already. My thought on this is teams like a challenge and the 16 & 51 are working harder and better to try and beat th & catch the 2 team.These teams know they have the same equipment and so what`s left to beat the #2 You need to work harder and smarter in the shop and From what i have seen in the last month or so they are rising to the challenge and are getting closer to the #2 car and I would say they are doing there homework in the shop and they know Phil will keep trying to make his car better and that`s what drives them to succeed. My point is everyone wants to win but to do so you must drive yourself harder and think about what can i do to make this car faster then the other teams and that`s what Phil and the 2 team does every minute of everyday!!!! These are Only my thoughts
everyone pretty much agrees the 1990’s were the tours hey-day …well for two seasons 1997-98 mike stefanik dominated the series with 10 wins in 97 and 13 out of 21 races in 98 ….four wins in a row 3 times in 1998 ….something like 19 top 3 finish’s in 98 ….you guys are in a up-roar over coby ? ….. he has only won 4 races to date ….so has the 16 ….no one cared in 1997 and 1998 the car count was huge …..the stands were packed ….everyone loved it …..
P.S. in 1997 he won 6 in a row …..with your thinking everyone should have went home after that ….lol
Harold, they do not have the same equipment.
Heck, even carburetors right out of the box aren’t the same. Everyone knows that.