The 2022 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver’s championship will be decided in the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers 200 Thursday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
The fight for the title is between four drivers with Jon McKennedy topping the standings by six points over Ron Silk. Justin Bonsignore sits third in the standings, 11 points off the lead, with Eric Goodale in fourth, 13 points behind McKennedy.
Today’s poll question asks, who do you think will win the 2022 Whelen Modified Tour driver’s championship? Vote below.
Being from Long Island, NY my entire life (75 years old now), naturally I’m rooting for a local driver. However, there’s something else. And I saw it live. Justin Bonsignore showed me a lot at the September 17th Tour race at Riverhead NY Raceway. His patience in traffic, ability to drive on the outside and move forward consistently, and timely pit stops helped him win the event. Many drivers do that, but for 256 laps? Go Justin !!
Go Ron
McKennedy has been “all in” on the WMT this year, I think he’ll seal the deal.
Nobody is going to outrun anybody else.
It’s all about bonus points and no mistakes.
Good luck to all!!!!
anybody but Bonsignore…
the old school Island Clan (Freddy Harbach, Charlie J, Jim Hendrickson, Tiger Tom) are turning in their graves at Bonsignore being the representative of Long Island modified racing! he’s a spoiled kid. he has the best of everything and his races are won off the track with that crew chief and all that $$. in too many races, when he’s faster than the guy in front of him and that driver gives him the room he needs, he still cant pass and has to resort to dumping.
this current long island clan is an embarrasment to the past greats from the great Long Island! Fortin and Lutz are punk kids as well.
Eric Goodale is the exception to the rule! lets go eric, bring home the championship!!
(note.. my evaluation is only of LI WMT regulars, not the Riverhead regulars whom i respect and always root for!)
Didn’t some astute RaceDayCT reader figure out Eric Goodale points was incorrect after Thompson. Was that corrected or did we figure out why he didn’t get the points we thought he should? Just wondering what the the result of that was.
I am pulling for Goodale but think he may be too far back to pull it off. I wouldn’t mind McKennedy or Silk. JBon lost me when he bumped Hirchman out of the lead at White Mtn.
OH yeah . of course Jon is my pick….. Gotta stick with my pre-season Pick .. McKennedy is now appreciated by the Tour Crowd… except Doug … LOL
Chip Stockwell forever …Jon is an EXPERT at finishing races and taking care of His equipment and finishing Races is His strong suit … He can work on them too.. Chassis guy in every respect.. Dale is Great Crew Chief and will get the # 79 to turn at the PAPERCLIP…. Funny that 2 brand NEW TEAMS are in line for a Championship ….. That doesn’t happen to OFTEN on the MOD TOUR >>> If you sit under the roof at Martinsville ear Muffs are a MUST.. or EARPLUGS… The sound is PUNISHING up under the Grandstand .. TRUST ME … like OSWEGO ….. sound just explodes in volume under the covered grandstands… What ? What ? did you say ? my ears are ringing…. LOL Good LUCK # 79 ,, >> Bring the TITLE back to MASSACHUSETTS … How many Tour Champs come from MASS ??????
“Chip” Stockwell huh…good one. I stipulate that SJ is a smart man with a winning history in racing with insights that are more often then not spot on. Me, an old mid pack Street Stocker that goes so far back even Stafford has a hard time remembering the era I raced, jack of all trades, master of none. But I did see “Chip” aka Chick Stockwell alot, Richie Evans as well 1980 to his death. Just one fans opinion for sure but an informed one so in this instance young grasshopper these are my observations.
At Danbury RaceArena they raced solid front axle, flat head engines that were a bear to get handling correctly. Technology so basic and Southern New York Racing Association rules so strict that getting a significant technical advantage was nil. It was a snake pit every week with heat’s, consi’s, semi’s where simply making it to the feature was a challenge among 50 cars on a weekly basis. To see him negotiate the carnage successfully weekly then make it to the feature and win a lot was magical. Richie Evans would never set foot at Danbury RaceArena. His specialty as a full time professional was to cherry pick races all over the place then beat farmers and average working guys with day jobs, the orange 61 usually having a significant equipment advantage. Grasshoppers no matter how smart they are cannot know of what they have not seen. Chick Stockwell—greatest modified driver ever—-in my view.
My tiers, my rules. J. Bonsignor, Coby, M. Hirschman, Preece, Silk and Santos in the top tier. Winning in the MRS long ago when it was barely a second banana to the NWMT and going like a bat out of hell in a Super beating 9 other cars in just about every race is irrelevant to top tier tour modified status. Nor is a a stellar career in the much more competitive late models like Pitkat (4 NWMT wins) who is in my second tier. Along with McKennedy (2), Lutz (4), Goodale (5) and Emerling (4).
Does a championship get McKennedy to my top tier is the question? We’ll see if he wins it but there sure is a good case to be made.
I wouldn’t agree McKennedy is a finisher. If he were he’d have a win in the Thompson 300 and more Tour wins then Lutz, Pitkat, Goodale and Emerling. Are the 79 and 16 “brand new teams” ? Maybe in the NWMT with an asterisk. They each did race the prior year in various non Tour races both with occasional success.
Oh yeah can definitely relate to the noise as well as fume accumulation in covered grandstands Danbury RaceArena same thing.
McKennedy, Silk, J. Bonsignor and Goodale. Forget the tiers how lucky are we to have it come down to one race where anything can happen? The pressure on each team to prepare to perfection, avoid unforced errors, execute the game plan as a team and above all not choke off the charts. You know, exactly opposite the full choke the Patriots turned in last night.
Zoom, zoom!!
My money is on Eric Goodale, . he won there last year and if he can dominate like he did at Thompson hopefully the points will go his way and he wins it.
Richie didn’t set foot in Danbury because he couldn’t. Danbury was a closed club. Outsiders couldn’t just show up and race if they didn’t belong.
Most of Richies career was running NASCAR and they had penalties if you were caught running a non nascar track on the same day a nascar track was running.
That being said, I too enjoyed the great racing at Danbury. I’ve never seen fans as loud and passionate as at that joint. If you were a Lajoie fan you better not sit in the Stockwell section and vice versa. Good times.
If Ron Silk doesn’t win the race but still ends up getting enough points to win the championship I believe this would be a first in the history of the tour where a driver wins the title without winning a race
Doug said:
Richie Evans would never set foot at Danbury RaceArena. His specialty as a full time professional was to cherry pick races all over the place then beat farmers and average working guys with day jobs,
that’s the most misinformed and ignorant comment ever posted here
not to mention, 100% incorrect
get a clue pal!!
Can’t tell you how much that hurts. First from “pal”. Secondly I’ve gotten this far in life without a clue and it’s worked out pretty well so why get one now?