Fake It Till Ya Make It: Justin Bonsignore Grabs Whelen Mod Tour Win At Oswego Speedway 

There’s few around the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour that would question the driving skills of three-time series champion Justin Bonsignore. 

But Saturday at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway it might have been Bonsignore’s acting prowess more than his skill turning the wheel that helped him more in scoring his 34th career Whelen Modified Tour victory. 

Bonsignore faked a move to pit road under caution with 28 laps to go, inherited the lead and then held off the charges of Chuck Hossfeld over the closing laps to win the Whelen Modified Tour Bud Mod Classic 150 at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway. 

“We’ve been struggling with where we feel we should be running this year,” said Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y. “That’s not to be whiney or anything like that, we just hold ourselves to a high standard. It’s been an up and down summer. We had a few issues that put us behind and we just haven’t had the speed or the consistency week in and week out. Just from run to run we’re chasing the car. We got it good tonight. I wasn’t too happy with it after qualifying but I just stuck with it.” 

It was the third win of the season for Bonsignore, the reigning series champion who came into the event sitting fourth in the series standings. 

“We’ve kind of been like a bunch of brothers that have been on each other and giving each other a lot of crap lately,” Bonsignore said. “This is good medicine to solve that I think. … I guess we’re not out of it on the points. We’ll go on to Riverhead and see what happens.” 

Chuck Hossfeld of Ransomville, N.Y. was second and Craig Lutz of Miller Place, N.Y. third. 

Doug Coby looked to have a fourth victory of 2022 in hand before caution flew with 29 laps remaining after Andrew Krause spun out of sixth place. Coby headed to the pits along with third place McKennedy, fifth place Ron Silk and seventh place Matt Hirschman. The move to the pits handed Bonsignore the lead. 

“I don’t know if Doug just got tired of winning or I faked him out,” Bonsignore said. “I faked like I was coming to pit road, but we weren’t coming.”

Coby said he wasn’t faked by Bonsignore’s move. 

Coby got stuck in traffic on the ensuing restart and couldn’t claw his way back to the front. He ended up seventh.

Hossfeld got by Kyle Bonsignore for third with 10 laps to go and went by Lutz for second with five to go, but couldn’t find a way by Justin Bonsignore at the front. 

“All these guys did a great job,” Hossfeld said. “Joe [Bertuccio], our car owner, didn’t even come today. My buddy Mike said ‘Who gives the checkbook and car and all their tools and stuff and goes to a wedding and says have fun?’ What a great team and what a great owner.”

Hossfeld was making his second series start of the season. He was third at Richmond Raceway on April 1. 

It was the second podium finish in the last three races for Lutz, who won at Thompson Speedway on Aug. 18. 

“It was pretty eventful but luckily we had a pretty good car and we were able to stay in the top-five most of the night,” Lutz said. “Those late race restarts, Justin was making it as wide as possible to make everyone else’s job that much harder, and he did. But my guys gave me an awesome car again tonight. The last three races we’ve really been building some momentum.” 

Kyle Bonsignore ended up fourth and Hirschman fifth.

Jon McKennedy, who came into the event leading the driver’s championship standings, was sixth. Ron Silk, who came into the event three points behind McKennedy in second place in the driver standings, was 13th. After the race the standings had McKennedy remaining on top and extending his lead over second place Silk to 10 points. Justin Bonsignore moved past Eric Goodale into third place in the standings, 17 points behind McKennedy. Goodale, who was ninth, now sits 27 points off the lead in fourth after coming into the race 24 points behind. 

Kyle Bonsignore jumped from seventh to fifth in the standings. 

Tommy Baldwin Racing remained atop the owner’s championship standings, holding a 32-point lead over the Tim Lepine owned team with McKennedy. 

The first caution of the race flew on lap 28 for the smoking car of Tyler Rypkema. After a lap 33 restart the caution was flying again on lap 35 for a front stretch multi-car spin involving Bobby Santos III, JB Fortin and Ken Heagy. 

Pole sitter Hirschman held the top spot with Coby on his bumper after the lap 42 restart. Caution flew again on lap 70 for a Gary McDonald spin. The caution period sent all the leaders to the pits. 

On pit road it was Coby’s Tommy Baldwin Racing team getting him out on top with Justin Bonsignore coming out second. Behind him a slow pit stop from the Hirschman team dropped him back to ninth for the restart.