Throwdown: Whelen Mod Tour Title Fight Set For Sunoco World Series At Thompson

Doug Coby greets fans Sunday at Stafford Motor Speedway prior to the running of the Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150

STAFFORD – Sunday at Stafford Motor Speedway the leading contenders in the hunt for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship spent much of the NAPA Fall Final 150 near each other battling for positions in the top-10, nicely.

“We were all kind of nice to each other because I think we all knew we had to get out of here in one piece,” Doug Coby said of himself, Justin Bonsignore and Timmy Solomito.

Solomito, of Islip, N.Y., was fifth Sunday, Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y. was sixth and Coby, of Milford, seventh.

It sets up a title showdown at the top of the standings between the three at the Sunoco World Series 150 on Oct. 15 at Thompson Speedway.

Coby is looking for his unprecedented fourth consecutive series title and fifth overall. He became the first driver to win three consecutive titles last year. He also won the series championship in 2012.

Bonsignore and Solomito are each looking for their first series title.

Bonsignore sits 10 points behind Coby in second place in the standings. Solomito is third in the standings, 12 points off the lead.

Ryan Preece of Berlin, the 2013 series champion, is fourth in the standings and goes to Thompson as the long-shot in the fight, 19 points off the top spot. Preece has started 13 of 15 events this year with a series high five victories. He’s the only driver in the top-five in the standings who hasn’t started every event this year. Eric Goodale, the winner Sunday at Stafford, is fifth in the standings, 25 points off the lead.

“We’ve got to get the car fast enough,” Coby said. “If we’re not fast we’re going to lose. If we run like we did today we’ve got a good shot at losing because we’re going to have a good shot at getting caught up in crap. That could have happened today, to all of us you could say because we were all racing each other. We were a little off today and we just can’t be that far off at Thompson because it’s going to be a slugfest.”

Solomito has four victories this season and Coby has one. Bonsignore is winless. None of three have won at Thompson. Preece has won two of the three events this year at Thompson.

“Thompson’s a lot closer than I want to be, but it’s still nice to be the guy that’s up 10 [points] and not down 10 [points],” Coby said. “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

Bonsignore said the mindset revolves around one word.

“Win,” Bonsignore said. “If we win I would say we’d be in good shape. But we haven’t done that yet this year. We stayed in it on consistency. We do usually have good speed at Thompson. This year has been a bad year for us there. But I think if we go there with what we know works for us and what we’ve done in the past we should be fine. We’ve kind of been out in left field there with stupid stuff this year. If we just go to Thompson and do what we did last year and make them race. Last year he didn’t have to race, he could just ride around. This year he’ll have to stay in the top-five and race and we’ll keep him honest. We’ve kept him honest all year, well the last half of this year. They’ve all had bad finishes this year and we’ve just been consistent and that’s the only reason we’re still in this.”

Like Bonsignore, Solomito is focused on winning and letting everything else fall where it may.

“Lead every lap and win,” Solomito said of his thoughts going to Thompson. “We didn’t gain enough points today that we needed to. But we’re still in it. That’s all we can really do. We’ve been strong at Thompson all year. We’ve just got to lead the most and win the race and see where it ends up from there. That’s really all we can really do now.

“[Coby’s] been a dominant force the last couple years and I feel like the rest of the field is kind of catching up a little bit, which is good. Hopefully it will be a good show. Doug knows what he has to do to seal the deal and that’s probably what he’ll end up doing at Thompson. But we’re going to try to keep him honest there too.”

Comments

  1. It’s definitely gonna be a slugfest and it’s gonna be good.

  2. darealgoodfella says

    It is the 2’s championship to lose.

    This is exciting… three cars contending instead of two.

    The 2 can’t make a mistake. It has to run up front, it will go for the bonus points.

    The 16 or 51 have to lead the most laps and get the bonus points, and hope the 2 has some bad luck. The 2 is not going to have bad luck.

  3. geoffrey doppelgänger says

    Will they pull the specially polished flux capacitor out of the locked box with the red velvet interior?

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