(Press release from Kenneth Massa Motorsports)
With the offseason finally in the rear-view mirror, Justin Bonsignore begins the quest for his third NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship on April 8 at Martinsville Speedway. The Holtsville, New York, native leads a list of over 35 of his closest Modified competitors back to the Virginia oval for the first time since 2010 — as Bonsignore and the Kenneth Massa Motorsports team look to get the season started off on the right foot.
For the opener, Bonsignore will carry sponsorship from Coastal Fiber, LLC, a local Virginia company that is a full service fiber optic construction and splicing company. Already an established part of the team, Coastal Fiber founder Mark Langevin also is the owner of Phoenix Communications, Inc., Bonsignore’s primary sponsor on the Tour.
“I am very excited to partner with Coastal Fiber and return to the track with my entire KMM team at Martinsville,” Bonsignore said. “After a long winter, I can’t wait to begin chasing our third championship together.”
In one previous start at Martinsville, Bonsignore drove the Kenneth Massa Motorsports machine to a second-place finish in 2010. With some experience in his pocket, Bonsignore hopes to better that by one spot this time around. With 29 career Whelen Modified Tour wins, currently tied for sixth all-time with six-time series champion Doug Coby, Bonsignore has become the top contender on the tour. In the last three years of tour competition, the 33-year-old has 17 wins in 41 starts — ending up in Victory Lane an astounding 41% of the time. He looks to become just the fifth driver in the history of the series to win back-to-back titles.
To start the season at Martinsville, one of NASCAR’s most historic tracks, has Bonsignore more than excited.
“To open the season down at Martinsville just makes everything even more special and adds to the prestige of the Whelen Modified Tour and this event,” Bonsignore said. “To win at Martinsville would be huge for all of us. I’d love to take the grandfather clock home back to New York.”
The only practice sessions runs from 2:30-4 p.m., while single-car qualifying will take place at 6 p.m. The feature is scheduled to take the green flag at 8 p.m. The Whelen Modified Tour opener is just the start of a full weekend of NASCAR racing at Martinsville that will include both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series.
The Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 will have a tape-delayed broadcast on NBCSN on Wednesday, April 14 at 5 p.m.
For more information on Justin Bonsignore, visit JustinBonsignore.com and follow him on Facebook.
A couple active Cup drivers, a Hall of Famer, the old man in a modified adding to his unbreakable NWMT start record, teams from every corner of modified East including a Riverhead top gun and even mighty Max a very satisfactory substitute for the wildly popular Santos. Now let’s have no more talk of the NWMT not cutting the mustard.
This is sounding like a super competitive race. It will be very interesting to see where young Max M finishes. With Cup owners and teams in the house IF he runs up front and challenges for the win he could earn a chance to move on up very soon. I think he has the talent but this race will be a big test.
Rich,
Pretty sure Max is part of the Toyota Development Program so I’m not sure there’s a lot of wiggle room as far as the pipeline up the ladder goes.