Confidence Booster: Justin Bonsignore Returns To Victory Lane At Thompson With Whelen Mod Tour

THOMPSON – In his last four NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Thompson Speedway before Wednesday, Justin Bonsignore had finishes of second, fourth, fifth and 14th. 

For most drivers that would be a string of finishes that would hardly be deemed disappointing. 

For Bonsignore, those were painful numbers to look at. And understandably so. Starting with the 2018 Icebreaker to the 2019 Sunoco World Series, Bonsignore had seven victories in eight events at Thompson, including a streak of six consecutive wins. To go four events without a victory hurt for the Holtsville, N.Y. driver. The pain was made even worse in last October’s Sunoco World Series 150 at Thompson when he finished 14th, two laps down. 

“When you win seven out of eight, the run we we’ve had here was kind of frustrating for us,” Bonsignore said. “To get lapped here last year was a big wake up call. This is my favorite track. To struggle like we did here I was really down on myself, like not wanting to come. You just don’t know how you’re going to run.” 

“… For a place with so many wins, we really lost our confidence over the last year and half here.” 

Wednesday Bonsignore got to put the frustration behind with a milestone return to victory lane at Thompson. 

Bonsignore held off the challenges of Ron Silk over the closing laps to win the Whelen Modified Tour Thompson 150 presented by FloSports.com. 

It was Bonsignore’s 13th career Whelen Modified Tour victory at Thompson, tying him with Ted Christopher for second place at the track for series wins. Mike Stefanik is the all-time leader with 15 series victories at Thompson. Bonsignore was making his 42nd series start at Thompson Wednesday.

“It feels amazing,” Bonsignore said. “To tie Teddy Christopher on the all-time win list is something we’ve been wanting to do for a couple years now.” 

It was the 38th career Whelen Modified Tour victory for Bonsignore and his third this season. 

Silk, of Norwalk, was second and Eric Goodale of Riverhead, N.Y. third. 

On his cool down lap Bonsignore left the checkered flag in turn one in memory of John Blewett III, who was killed at Thompson during a Whelen Modified Tour event on Aug. 16, 2007. 

“I left the flag up there in turn one, that’s where John Blewett was killed,” Bonsignore said. “I saw Doug Coby do that years ago and I always wanted to do that and today is that day that we lost John all them years ago. He was the biggest badass there was. If we could do anything to honor him, that’s pretty cool.” 

Silk saw his lead at the top of the standings shrink from eight points to two points over Bonsignore. 

“I was just really super loose the first run before the pit stop so we made some aggressive changes to tighten it up and it worked, the car was much better,” Silk said. “But right where he could start rolling in the middle of the corner I had to wait jut an instant and he could kind of get that lunge on the corner. They had a little bit better car than we did, but it was a good effort.” 

Goodale, who won the Sunoco World Series 150 last October at Thompson, had a season best finish but was left frustrated by Silk’s aggressiveness on the late restarts. 

“Got used up out there a little bit. [Silk] clears himself on you a few times, it gets you angry,” Goodale said. “… It certainly didn’t help getting pinballed out there up top. Happy to bring it home third. We were stout all day.” 

Pole-sitter Austin Beers was fourth and Craig Lutz had a season best finish of fifth. 

Beers left Thompson third in the standings, 41 points behind Silk. Coby, who finished, eighth, is 47 points off the lead in fourth in the standings.

The 23-car field was smallest starting field ever for a Whelen Modified Tour event at Thompson Speedway. Wednesday’s event marked the 151st Whelen Modified Tour event at the track since the series’ inception in 1985. The previous low for a Whelen Modified Tour starting field at Thompson was 24 cars, which happened four times.

Coby went to the lead past Beers at the start. Beers fought back and the pair came to the line side-by-side to complete the first lap with Coby edging Beers at the line. Beers was able to get by Coby through turns one and two, but an incident in turn two involving Anthony Nocella and Matt Swanson brought out the caution and put Coby back out front. 

On the lap eight restart Coby was able to hold the top spot with Anthony Sesely moving from fourth to second past Beers. 

By lap 30 it was Coby checked out by nearly a second from second place Beers with Bobby Santos III in third, Goodale in fourth and Silk running fifth. 

After stalking Beers for 15 laps, Goodale got a run on Beers off turn four on lap 48 and completed the pass for second place through turns one and two on lap 49. 

Caution flew for the second time on lap 50 for the stopped car of Anthony Bello on the backstretch with Coby leading, Goodale second and Beers third. 

On the lap 56 restart it was Coby holding his advantage out front with Santos moving past Beers for third and Eric Berndt going from sixth to fourth. 

After getting to fourth on the restart, Berndt went on a tear to the front of the field. On lap 63 Berndt got by Santos in turn three to take over third. A lap later he used the same move to overtake Goodale for second. And on lap 65 Berndt found the lane under Coby to take over the lead.

The third caution flew on lap 68 when Max Zachem, running near the back of the field, spun just in front of the leaders in turn four. 

The caution sent almost all of the the leaders to pit road. Justin Bonsignore, who came in fourth, won the race off pit road with Goodale coming off second and Coby third. A slow stop dropped Berndt from the lead down to 15th. 

“We just had a miscommunication between me and the crew,” said Berndt, who was making his first series start since 2013. “I thought the crew was done. I popped it in gear and it fell off the jack. … It put us behind the eight-ball.” 

Sesely stayed out under caution and assumed the race lead. On the lap 76 restart it was Bonsignore immediately overtaking Sesely with Coby following to second and Silk moving to third. 

With Bonsignore, Coby and Silk running 1-2-3, caution came back out on lap 86 for the spinning car of Woody Pitkat in turn four. 

On the lap 91 restart mayhem ensued on the backstretch. Fifth place running Goodale slowed setting off a chain reaction that sent Kyle Bonsignore flying over the car of Andrew Krause. The crash ultimately collected at least seven cars, including previous race leader Berndt and brought out an extended red flag for cleanup. 

Justin Bonsignore got the jump on the lap 97 restart with Coby falling victim to the inside lane. Silk got by Coby for second with Beers following to third and Goodale to fourth. Coby got back in line in fifth. 

On lap 106 Silk got a run down low under Justin Bonsignore in turn one but backed out of the challenge for the lead. 

Caution flew once again on lap 110 for the spinning cars of Pitkat and Dave Sapienza in turn two with Justin Bonsignore leading Silk and Beers in third. 

Justin Bonsignore was able to get away on the lap 116 restart. Behind him Santos made the jump sixth to fourth. By lap 125 Justin Bonsignore and Silk had checked out from third place Beers. On lap 126 Goodale was able to get back by Santos to retake fourth. 

The seventh caution flew on lap 132 for the stopped car of Sapienza in turn four. On the lap 137 restart Justin Bonsignore was able to get the jump on Silk with Goodale getting by Beers for third.