Bobby Santos III
STAFFORD – The king of qualifying at Stafford Motor Speedway continued perfect defense of his throne on Saturday at the half-mile oval.
When it comes to NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour time trial qualifying at Stafford Motor Speedway its hard to bet against Bobby Santos III, and the Franklin, Mass. driver showed why that is once again Saturday.
Santos led the way in Whelen Modified Tour qualifying Saturday to put his Tinio Motorsports ride on the pole for Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final 150 at Stafford Speedway.
It was the third consecutive Whelen Modified Tour pole effort at Stafford for Santos and his sixth pole in the last eight events at the track for the division.
Santos has 16 Whelen Modified Tour poles in 92 career series events, with nine of those poles coming in 24 events at Stafford Speedway.
“I guess, I’ve just adapted to this place from when I first came here,” said Santos, who is in his third season driving for Tinio Motorsports. “I say it every time, but it’s really just a testament to the people that I’m driving for. When I drove [for team owner Bob Garbarino] they always had a good setup for here and these guys, just right out the first time we came here they were fast here. I think this track suits my style.”
Santos was the last of 22 cars to hit the track in qualifying Saturday and he toured the half-mile oval with a fast lap of 18.506 seconds (97.266 mph).
Rookie Tommy Barrett Jr. of Millis, Mass. was second in qualifying (18.529 seconds, 97.145 mph). Series points leader Doug Coby of Milford will start third (18.548 seconds, 97.046 mph).
Santos also led the way in the Whelen Modified Tour’s only practice session Saturday at Stafford.
“People can say what they want, but when you’re fastest in practice it means something,” Santos said. “It gives you confidence going to the next round of things and it means something.”
Santos, the 2010 series champion, goes into Sunday’s penultimate Whelen Modified Tour event of the season fourth in the standings, 39 points behind Coby. He is 13 points behind second place Justin Bonsignore and five behind third place Ted Christopher. Santos has three series victories this year, including a win in the NAPA Spring Sizzler 200 on April 27 at Stafford.
“The big picture for us is to win this weekend,” Santos said. “Realistically, unless [Coby] has major problems he’s going to win it and he deserves it for the great job he’s done this year. Big picture for us is just to win. Our goal was to get the pole today and our goal tomorrow is to win. Whatever happens after that happens.”
Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final 150 Qualifying Results
22 cars, that’s a shame
22 cars… that’s sad.
I remember when cars would go home because they did not qualify for the race
That’s what happens when you have two tours. Same thing happened in indycar with the IRL and CART. One needs to go. No need for two.
Not sure what the attraction is to nascar for the car owners???
Two tours gives you more races which is good, back in the day, points was not a factor not sure what has changed