Won For One: Patrick Emerling Wins Whelen Modified Tour Event At Thompson Speedway 

Through the first nine races of the 2024 season for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour there had been six different winners. 

Though it’s fair to say the one driver who had not recorded a victory but seemed almost weekly to be on the verge of getting there had been Patrick Emerling with his first year Rich Gautreau owned No. 1 team. 

Over the first nine events of the season Emerling had a second place, three third place finishes and two fourth place finishes. Emerling had finished in the top-nine in all but one event. 

Wednesday at Thompson Speedway Emerling finally found the magic he has seemed so close to finding all year, and he did it in thoroughly dominating style. 

Emerling won the pole and then led every lap on the way to victory in the Whelen Modified Tour Thompson 150 Wednesday at Thompson Speedway. 

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Emerling said. “We had a dominant car the last three races, we’ve been building momentum. This is our first year racing as a team. Back in November we got with Rich and [crew chief Dale Headquist] and everybody and we put this team together. I was just so incredibly excited. For a first year team, we executed pretty good here. We had the fastest pit stop. To have a car like that, was probably the best car I’ve ever driven in my life. Awesome to finally get a win here at Thompson.” 

It was the fifth career series win for Emerling, of Orchard Park, N.Y., and his first Sept. 18, 2021 at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway. Emerling had three wins in 2021. His only other victory came in 2017 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. 

Emerling became the seventh winner in 10 series events this year, joining Ron Silk (three wins), Bonsignore (two wins), Austin Beers, Jake Johnson, Trevor Catalano and Matt Hirschman. Emerling was the seventh consecutive different winner in Whelen Modified Tour action dating back to Johnson’s victory at Monadnock Speedway on May 4. 

Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., was second. 

“[Emerling’s] car was just really really good,” Bonsignore said. “Congrats to them. It’s awesome for a new team to win in their first year. This has really been mixing it up this year with the new strategies. A lot of good teams, I think that’s seven different winners in a row. That’s awesome for the series.” 

Craig Lutz of Miller Place, N.Y. was third. 

“All in all a great day for my team,” Lutz said. “We’ve had a lot of speed this year but haven’t put a finish together. Today we had a really good car. Time trialed second. We were there in the beginning, lost a little bit on pit road, but gained it back on the race track.” 

Bonsignore, a three-time series champion, came into the event second in the series standings, behind reigning series champion Ron Silk by one point. Silk ended up seventh, moving Bonsignore into the standings lead by four points over Silk with six events remaining. Emerling moved from fourth to third in the standings and sits 31 points behind Bonsignore.

The first caution of the event flew on lap 20 for the slowed car of Dave Sapienza. On the lap 27 restart Emerling was able to control out front with Bonsignore making the move from fourth to second. 

By lap 43 Emerling and second place Bonsignore had checked out from third place Lutz. 

With the leaders working lapped traffic, caution flew on lap 60 for the spinning car of Woody Pitkat in turn two. Caution flew with Emerling leading, Bonsignore in second, Lutz in third, Matt Swanson in fourth and Beers in fifth. 

Under caution all the leaders headed to pit road. Emerling won the race off of pit road with Bonsignore coming off in second and Chase Dowling in third. Swanson fell from fourth to 12th. Ron Silk, who came onto pit road in  11th, stalled getting off of pit road, and fell to 16th. 

On the lap 68 restart Emerling was able to control the pace out front, with Bonsignore holding second and Beers moving past Dowling to third. Dowling quickly fought back to get back to third. 

Caution flew once again on lap 76 for ninth place running Johnson’s hard wreck into the turn one wall. 

On lap 85 restart Emerling continued to control the pace out front with Bonsignore continuing to stalk him in second. Behind them Doug Coby was up to fourth behind Beers. By lap 90 Lutz had moved back by Coby for fourth with Jon McKennedy slotting to fifth and Silk up to sixth. 

By lap 106 Emerling had opened more than a second lead over Bonsignore out front with Lutz in second, McKennedy in fourth and Silk in fifth. 

Emerling held a one second lead over Bonsignore for much of the closing segment. Bonsignore closed the lead down to .750 of a second on lap 139. Bonsignore cut the lead to under .7 of a second on lap 141. But Emerling quickly bumped his lead back to a second two laps later and had that lead to a 1.5 seconds by lap 147. 

“Track position probably would have been nice if I could have got the lead on that [final restart],” Bonsignore said. “I showed a nose on him one time and he kind of drove off on us. Our car, we were starting to run him down with 15 [laps] to go a little bit and then I got stuck in lapped traffic a little bit, a little bit worse than he did, and my car just kind of gave up with the rear tires with about eight or nine [laps] to go.”