Back To Back And From The Back: Patrick Emerling Wins NASCAR Modified Tour Thompson 150

THOMPSON – Patrick Emerling rolled the dice, and then sliced and diced perfectly Wednesday at Thompson Speedway. 

Emerling came from the last starting spot in the 27-car field to eventually leave the field far behind in checking out to a dominant victory in the NASCAR Modified Tour Thompson 150 Wednesday at Thompson Speedway. 

After taking the lead on lap 125, Emerling bested the field by 2.5 seconds at the finish,. 

“I think we had good speed,” Emerling said. “This beautiful No. 1 car had some dominant speed the last five races or so. We were the fastest car on the track, long run speed. We just had a lot of inopportune cautions and just a little bit of stuff. We got bounced around a little bit. A little bit of stuff happened to us. 

“There wasn’t a caution. We were expecting it because that’s the way last year went here and that’s what Thompson normally likes to do. And we let our good, raw long run speed shine tonight.” 

Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. Was second and Kyle Bonsignore of Bay Shore, N.Y. third. 

“Only a win is a win, but that’s pretty good progress for us here at Thompson in general,” Hirschman said. “Not a track where we’ve had great results, especially with this car and series in particular. … Most of the other runs we’ve left kind of with our heads hanging. Tonight isn’t a win, but definitely our heads are up, our chins are up with a good strong performance.”

It was the 750th NASCAR Series event since the division’s inception in 1985. Emerling also won the August series event at Thompson in 2024.

After qualifying ninth, Emerling’s crew decided to to some tuning to his car after qualifying. That post-qualifying adjustment meant the Orchard Park, N.Y. drive would have to fall to the back of the field for the start. 

“We had a little bit of a motor issue,” Emerling said. “We weren’t running correctly in practice or even time trials. I was like ‘Man this car is really good, we’re just not getting down the straightaways that good.’ We were working on it, working on it. We were finally able to tune it up after qualifying. We had to go to [the rear] after doing that, but it was definitely well worth it because we fixed our problem.” 

It was the second victory of the season for Emerling and the ninth of career in 170 series starts since 2011. 

Emerling was in a position to win in both series events at Monadnock Speedway on July 19 and July 20. In both events issues on the track with other drivers knocked him out of the lead. 

“We had such a great car these past several races and we just, in these races you can have the best cars and stuff still has to pan out,” Emerling said. “Today, we started last so we did battle a lot for track position, but we made the right strategy call and we were able to use our speed and dice back up through there.” 

With six races remaining this season, Emerling was able to jump from fifth to third in standings and cut his deficit to the lead from 29 points to 19 points. Austin Beers (seventh) extended his points lead from four points to five points over four-time series champion Justin Bonsignore (eighth). Hirschman is fourth in the standings, 24 points off the lead. 

Pole-winner Ron Silk controlled the pace on the opening lap. 

Justin Bonsignore stayed clenched to Silk’s bumper over the first seven laps as the pair got away from third place Kyle Bonsignore. 

The first caution flew on lap 15 when the seventh place car of Eric Berndt and eighth place Luke Baldwin made contact on the frontstretch, sending Berndt’s car up the wall. 

Silk was able to fend off Justin Bonsginore on the lap 24 restart. Behind them Chase Dowling overtook Kyle Bonsignore for third. 

Caution was back out on lap 35 for the slowing car of Dylan Slepian. The caution period saw Jon McKennedy (fifth), Beers (seventh) and Jake Johnson (ninth) leading a group of cars to pit road. 

Silk continued to set the pace out front on the restart with Kyle Bonsignore making the jump from fourth to second. 

Justin Bonsignore worked his way back to second past Kyle Bonsignore, but at the front it was Silk opening a 1.5 second lead by lap 58. 

With Silk checked out, Justin Bonsignore in second and Kyle Bonsignore in third, Jon McKennedy moved by Dowling on lap 62 to move into fourth. 

Caution returned on lap 69 when Baldwin got into the turn two wall hard. The red flag came out very soon after the caution. 

After the caution returned, it set off a mass rush to pit road. McKennedy stayed out and assumed the lead with Austin Beers moving to second, Tyler Rypkema to third, Stephen Kopcik to fourth, Teddy Hodgdon to fifth and Jake Johnson to sixth. 

Matt Hirschman won the race off pit road and restarted 10th with Justin Bonsignore 11th, Patrick Emerling 12th and Silk 13th. 

McKennedy controlled at the front on the restart with Beers and Kopcik battling for second. Kopcik grabbed second on lap 76 with Johnson moving past Beers to third. 

On Lap 83 Kopcik got under McKennedy into turn one and drove McKennedy nearly into the turn two wall. Johnson made the diving move under both of them to come out of turn two with the lead. McKennedy dropped to seventh and was back to 10th a lap later. 

By lap 94 Johnson had opened a 1.5 second lead over Kopcik, with Beers and Patrick Emerling right on Kopcik’s bumper. Emerling got by Beers for third on lap 95 and went by Kopcik for second on lap 97. 

Johnson’s lead over Emerling was up to 1.9 seconds by lap 103. 

Hirschman moved past Beers into fourth on lap 109. 

With Johnson working heavy lapped traffic by lap 110, Emerling was able to close the lead down to just under a second. By lap 120 Emerling had closed the lead down to half a second. Emerling found Johnson’s bumper on lap 124. On lap 125 Emerling was able to overtake Johnson and quickly get away at the front. With three laps of taking the lead Emerling opened a one second lead on Johnson. 

As Emerling checked out Johnson faded with Kyle Bonsignore moving to second and Hirschman to third. Emerling’s lead over Kyle Bonsignore was 2.5 second on lap 136. 

Hirschman got by Kyle Bonsignore for second on lap 139 but by then Emerling’s lead was up to 2.7 seconds. 

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