Eric Goodale celebrates his first career Whelen Modified Tour victory Saturday at Riverhead Raceway (Photo: Adam Hunger/Getty Images for NASCAR)
A homecoming proved the perfect recipe for Eric Goodale to finally break through to victory lane on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
In his 78th career series start, Goodale, of Riverhead, N.Y., won the Hoosier Tire 200 Saturday at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway.
“It feels great to win in front of the family,” Goodale said. “My crew, everybody on my crew is from around here so it feels extra special to get the first win here. … My crew chief Jason [Shephard], he gave me a heck of a car to run here today. All I had to do was keep calm and drive it for 200 laps.”
Ted Christopher of Plainville was second and Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. third.
Goodale used a lap 170 restart to get the advantage on Christopher at the front and led the last 25 laps on the way to the checkered.
Goodale’s best finish in a series points event before Saturday was a second place at Riverhead last June.
“We’ve had so many good runs with so much momentum going in the past and we’ve had mechanical failures and just things out of our control that have just absolutely killed us,” Goodale said. “But my team doesn’t give up. We’re all good friends on and off the racetrack. It’s a family atmosphere. This win, I can’t even be happy for myself, I’m just happy for my crew that I can repay them with a victory.”
Ryan Preece of Berlin, who came into the event riding a three-race series winning streak, was fourth.
Justin Bonsginore, who came into the event holding the series points lead, lost that top spot in the standings after getting caught up in a lap 102 crash. Doug Coby, who finished sixth, took over the points lead by seven over Bobby Santos III. Bonsignore is now third in the standings, one point behind Santos. Christopher is third in the standings, two behind Bonsignore.
Nice to see Eric get his first tour win. Well done!