Drama Show: Doug Coby Grabs Pole For Whelen Mod Tour NAPA Fall Final 150 At Stafford

Doug Coby celebrates winning the pole for Saturday at Stafford Speedway for Sunday’s Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150

STAFFORD – On September 24 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Justin Bonsignore turned up the heat on the late season drama of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., won the F.W. Webb 100 in Loudon to close Doug Coby’s points lead at the top of the series standings to a scant 13 points with two events remaining.

Saturday at Stafford Motor Speedway it was Coby and Bonsignore making sure the drama remained through qualifying for Sunday’s Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150 at the half-mile oval.

One and two in the standings will start one and two when the field takes the green Sunday at Stafford.

Coby, of Milford, completed a season sweep of Whelen Modified Tour poles at Stafford by putting up the fast time in qualifying Saturday.

Coby toured the half-mile oval at Stafford in 18.607 seconds (96.738 mph). It was the fifth consecutive Whelen Modified Tour pole at Stafford for Coby dating back to last season’s NAPA Fall Final.

“I just drive what the track and the car give me,” Coby said. “We’ve been just a tick better than everybody. I think everybody was thrown for a loop there on that particular qualifying session and we just got it a little better.

“I was a 18.29 [seconds] in practice about an hour and half [before qualifying] and I did an 18.60 [seconds] for the pole. So obviously the track slowed up and it was real free. It’s not even like loose, it was just not a lot of grip. I did my best on the second lap to take a line that I knew was safe and would get me as much forward drive as I could. That’s just experience and knowing that the first lap felt a certain way and I had to make an adjustment for the second lap.”

Bonsignore was right on Coby’s heals in time trials at 18.651 seconds (96.510 mph).

“We’ve got a really good car,” Bonsignore said. We came here with something totally different than we’ve ever run here. Same package we ran at Loudon and it worked obviously. We’re swinging for the fences this weekend. We know we have to win to beat him and what we had was good, just not good enough though. But we’re definitely in the ballpark now compared to usual in qualifying. We made our day a lot easier for tomorrow to start up front.”

Coby said he and Bonsignore joked about the simmering drama of points on pit road before qualifying. The season closes out on Oct. 16 with the running of the Sunoco World Series 150 at Thompson Speedway.

Coby is looking for his third consecutive series championship and fourth in the last five years. Bonsignore is trying to win his first series title.

“It’s the drama,” Coby said. “It is what it is. This usually happens at the end of every season where the two guys who are battling – or last year it was three guys – battling for the championship, there’s a reason why after [15] races we’re leading the points the two of us. And that’s because we’ve got teams that can make adjustments to track conditions like this. It didn’t surprise me that he was second. I’d rather he be third, but it is what it is. We both know that we have to get to Thompson next week. It’s the same issue as last year. … If you want to win a championship you’ve got to get to Thompson. You’ve got to get through Stafford in one piece. It will be fun.”

Said Bonsignore: “We’re doing our best to make it exciting for everybody. It’s definitely a story. … Hopefully we can duke it out for the win with him. We’re going to be aggressive like we were at Loudon, but at the same time we don’t want to do anything stupid. We’re just going to keep the pressure on. That’s all we can do.”

Ron Silk of Norwalk will start third after putting up a fast lap of 18.672 seconds (96.401 mph).

Whelen Modified Tour Qualifying Results at Stafford Motor Speedway