On Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, Justin Bonsignore won the Whelen Modified Tour Virginia Is For Lovers 200, in the process clinching his fourth series championship. The victory also moved Bonsignore into sole possession of second place on the Whelen Modified Tour all-time win list. Today’s poll question asks, what is the most impressive career statistic for Justin Bonsignore? Vote below.
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Related: NASCAR Releases 2025 Whelen Modified Tour Schedule
Related: Whelen Engineering Extends Partnership As NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Title Sponsor
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Impress season
Congratulations
Old coot reminiscing alert! Use discretion in reading further.
There are a lot of old Tour races on YouTube and especially Sizzler’s. It just blows my mind how loaded they were with talent deep into the field. 1999 was Tony Hirschman’s last championship and included 21 events where he was competing against a who’s who of big names. The best way to describe how competitive it was is to mention John Blewett. He competed in all 21 races winning one, 3 top 5’s, 7 top 10’s and came in 16th in the final points.
Bonsignor’s Tour career kicked off for real in 2010 with Massa. 13th in points that year it was a start and to be fair the competition was still pretty brutal including Santos, Stefanik, Christopher, Preece, Silk and a bunch of other top teams. A few years coming in the 7th to 10th range in points. Then the breakthrough coming in 2016 and from then on never finishing below 4th in points.
Over the years Massa consistently putting more and better resources into the team. It pays off the first championship 2018 where the 51 teams wins by just under 100 points. The reality is that in the most recent era there has been no more the two and sometimes one team with the resource commitment to compete with all that Massa has put into winning.
If you look at the year by year record of champions in the NWMT series certain drivers stick out stringing together periods when they’ve been very successful and the 51 team is one of them. In my view however it’s apples and oranges. It’s not possible to compare the array of heavy hitter Tony Hirschman beat out for example with the one or two teams Bonsignor has competed with on the same level. His career unique in being with such a great owner for so very, very long and accomplishing a lot. But it is just the one team with the one very well resourced owner competing against fewer and few teams in quantity and quality. Starting at the front or near it the majority of races with the top crew to make sure pit stops don’t put them back in the field in the vast majority of races.
Winning any race or championship is hard. But no, in historical context these 4 championships do no rise to that of many others in my view. If you ask is Tony Hirschman, Mike Stefanik or even Doug Coby a great driver most would say sure. They beat an array of talent and some with different teams. Ask the same question of Bosnignor it’s probably more difficult. All that was accomplished was with one team and the competition at the same level thin to put it mildly.
Doug , I gotta agree the talent was full of Drivers and teams all operating on a Budget kinda the same, race to race, backyard , junkyard , service station teams with good drivers.. The higher financed teams Like Richie, Bodine , Casella & Boehler Teams… Did grab plenty of Wins and Championships… Doug Coby was on a run for a number of years with His
Owner Mike Smeriglio Racing was spending Millions per year winning 5 Championships and then abruptly got out of racing ..ok that’s enough….
I would guess at today’s prices your 1.5 or 2 million to get a championship these days..Good thing they increased the prize money by 256% for 2025.
11,000 to win and 2000 to start an event and more money through the field maybe that will entice Big Money to run the full Schedule in 2025..?? That i would love to see..We will see how long Massa can stomach spending that kind of cash every year just for more titles, Time will tell…
He’s a real good driver and has a great crew chief and team but only has one guy too beat for the last few years for the championship.
I agree that back in the 80s the competition was much better throughout the field. And I agree that Richie the GOAT and stefanik should be in the hall of fame. But I hear Jbons name being thrown around for that honor. How many AAA players are in the baseball hall of fame??
Musings about the future of the HYR team based on superficial observations.
Silk and the HYR team had a second championship within their grasp. Got a win at Riverhead and with four races to go looked set up perfectly for the stretch run. What happened was a head scratcher, not in relationship to the 51 but the 1 and 64 as well neither of which they competed successfully with on average.
Average start and finish the last four races.
51….Start 3, Finish 2.75
1…..Start 7.5, Finish 5.5
64….Start 2.5, Finish 5.25
16….Start 8, Finish 9.5
Starting an average of 8th in the last 4 races dismal and that includes Thompson where they got the poll with qualifying canceled. Racing is fickle, hitting or missing determined by decisions made on an array of variables each measured within a minute range. But it’s Phil Moran and a team that has been at the top of their game you just don’t expect what happened. Like at North Wilkesboro missing the setup and struggling for the entire race hoping for a caution that never came. Or at Martinsville using a “built” engine according to the announcing to possibly take advantage lower fuel consumption in case the race goes like it did at North Wilkesboro. May be that was the right call. A shot in the dark knowing they would not be able to compete with the 51 based on the prior two years results at Martinsville. On the other hand there were 10 cautions in the 2023 race at the track and 8 in 2022 so what were the odds the strategy would pay off?
To be clear what the HYR team has accomplished is nothing short of astounding. Their first full NWMT season was 2022, they had done their homework the prior two years and blasted right into contention finishing runner up to McKennedy that year. Follow that up with a championship and this last year a second place. Becoming synonymous with the Massa team in terms of quality who had been doing it since 2010 just to put it in perspective. Not just a second place in 2024 they were actually the “Big Money” team cashing in on a number of non Tour race wins.
Was it burnout or heading toward a different strategy in 2025 perhaps part time. Using up what you have maybe a little weary of pouring more money into something like a fresh motor for a race or two. At the MMTTS finale last year at Stafford but taking a pass on the Haunted Hundred Saturday. If you follow the HYR Facebook page it appears they’re completely satisfied with the results in 2024 and looking forward to next year.
Probably nothing to see here just trying to read the tea leaves in the bottom of a cup when it’s just a cup that needs a good cleaning. Or maybe otherwise we’ll see.