Whelen Mod Tour Notes: Dowling Keeps Rolling; Santos Grabs Fifth Place

Chase Dowling (15) leads Justin Bonsignore (51) during the Whelen Modified Tour Bud King of Beers 150 Wednesday at Thompson Speedway (Photo: Fran Lawlor/RaceDayCT)

By Polly Reid & Shawn Courchesne 

THOMPSON – Other years, there’d be a likely chance that Chase Dowling’s ultra-consistency behind the wheel on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour would have him right in the thick of a battle at the top of the series standings.

But other years haven’t included the hurricane of success in 2018 that has been Justin Bonsignore.

Like so many times this year, it was another race with a great finish, but another week of looking up and seeing Bonsignore celebrating in victory lane for Dowling Wednesday at the Bud King of Beers 150 at Thompson Speedway.

Dowling was fourth Wednesday at Thompson, recording his fifth top-five of the season and ninth top-10 in 10 events this year. Dowling, who continues to look for his first career series victory, sits in second place in the standings, 58 points behind Bonsignore, who has won five of 10 events this year.

“Overall, a pretty good day,” said Dowling, who led 63 laps in the event. “This race is like how our whole season has been going – just missing it. We have to keep doing what we’re doing, we have to lead laps, try and qualify on the pole and run up front. That’s what we’ve been doing, it’s going to come eventually.”

Dowling qualified third at Thompson and went by Bonsignore for the lead on lap 16, and stayed out front until lap 79.

Dowling, who drives for Rob Fuller Motorsports and works fulltime at LFR, is looking forward to heading to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the Bush’s Beans 150 on Aug. 16. Last year he finished fourth at Bristol driving for team owner Eddie Harvey.

“Rob [Fuller] was the crew chief, we qualified second and finished fourth,” Dowling said. “We’re definitely excited to go back down there. It should be good.”

Santos Grabs Top-Five For Tinio Motorsports

It was a night of fives for the No. 44 Wednesday at Thompson.

Bobby Santos III, making his fifth series start of the year, started fifth and finished fifth in the Bud King of Beers 150.

Santos got up to second behind Bonsignore just after the lap 100 mark, but restarting on the outside for a late restart cost the Franklin, Mass. driver some crucial positions.

“We were good honestly all day,” Santos said. “The guys worked hard, I’ve got to thank Doug Dunleavy for an engine, that definitely helped us out the last couple of weeks. Overall, we had a good solid race car, just restarting second on the bottom is so hard, it’s tough. It was a good day, a top five is always good.”

Santos will make his next series start in the Musket 250 on Sept. 22 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Santos won the Eastern Propane & Oil 100 at NHMS on July 21.