LOUDON, N.H. – Tyler Rypkema proved Saturday that it’s not what the car looks like in victory lane, it’s just about the car getting to victory lane.
Rypkema made his first NASCAR Modified Tour victory one to remember on Saturday, taking the checkered flag as the race winner while wrecking with Justin Bonsignore at the conclusion of the Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“It sucks that the car is tore up, but I wasn’t lifting until I was across that start/finish line,” Rypkema said. “We got it.”
Rypkema, of Owego, N.Y., was making his 83rd career NASCAR Modified Tour start on Saturday.
“It’s huge,” Rypkema said. “This track is the pinnacle for Modified racing.”
Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., was second and Craig Lutz of Miller Place, N.Y. third.
A lap 94 caution setup a green-white-checkered overtime restart with Bonsignore at the front, Rypkema in second, Lutz in third and Mike Christopher Jr. in fourth.
On the lap 100 restart Lutz gave Bonsignore a push, but Rypkema was able to slot back into second past Lutz into turn three. Christopher pulled to the apron in turn one on lap 100 with a motor issue. On the final lap Bonsignore set up a low block down the backstretch. Rypkema was still able to find a lane under Bonsignore through turn three and hold the bottom and the lead off of turn four coming to the checkered flag.
Bonsignore had an outside run coming down the frontstretch. Rypkema moved up to slow the run resulting in Bonsignore getting into the back of him and pushing the pair into the wall. Rypkema’s right front tire came swinging off the rim and into the catch fence just before the pair crossed the finish line pushed up against the wall.
“Historically here usually there’s a handful of cars that are pushing each other coming to the checkered flag,” Rypkema said. “This race is usually won by a couple feet, not a car length. So I made the move down into [turn] three and I was able to hold bottom off of [turn] four because historically a couple cars will get a good run off of [turn] four on the bottom. I kind of held off the wall and then I looked up and saw him move off me and go to the top and so I knew I had to defend and it was a late block. I haven’t seen the replay yet to see if it was a little late or not. Not knowing if he had help pushing, it doesn’t take long that they’re next to you and by you so I knew I had to defend that as hard as I could.”
Said Bonsignore: “He had too good of a run. I didn’t have a good [turns] one and two and he was closer than he’d been all day. There’s not much I could do. I tried crossing him over and I just didn’t get a good exit. He had me clear off of [turn] four, I just don’t why he decided to go to victory lane junk. But congrats to him, he did a good job, he executed well.”
Rypkema drives the iconic Ol Blue No. 3 for Boehler Racing Enterprises. It’s a team that still builds their own chassis in house.
“It’s no question, we’ve been really really struggling this year,” Rypkema said. “Our best two finishes before this was sixth this year. That’s pretty pitiful. It is not at all from a lack of effort from anybody. These guys aren’t calling up Fury on Monday and saying ‘Hey guys, we’re struggling, what do we need to do?’ These guys are going back in and they’re plotting out geometry and pickup points and stuff on the car and they’re redesigning stuff to try to make the car better. These guys work so hard and I think it really came together today obviously.”
Series points leader Austin Beers was ninth and remained atop the standings. Bonsignore, who came into the event 17 points behind Beers in second, cut that Beers lead to seven points with three events remaining this season. Lutz is 23 points off the lead in third. Matt Hirschman (fifth at NHMS) is fourth in the standings, 25 points behind Beers.
Bonsignore controlled the field at the start from the pole with Rypkema going from fourth to second on the first lap.
By lap five the field had strung out single file with Bonsignore leading, Rypkema in second, Lutz in third and Ron Silk in fourth.
Doug Coby was stopped on pit road on lap six with an engine failure. On lap 13 Silk went by Lutz for third place. On the next lap Sik made a bid to get under Rypkema for second but was stopped.
Caution flew on lap 16 for the smoking car of then fifth place running Jake Lutz on the backstretch. Under caution the leaders headed to pit road on lap 21.
The variety of pit stops put Silk to the lead, Patrick Emerling to second, Jon McKennedy to third and Anthony Nocella to fourth. Bonsignore restarted sixth with Craig Lutz in seventh. Rypkema fell to 22nd after getting both fuel and tires.
Silk early cleared Emerling on the lap 27 restart. Nocella was able to overtake Emerling for second. On lap 29 Emerling got back by Nocella for second Caution returned on lap 30 for the stopped car of Joey Cipriano.
Emerling made a diving move into turn one on the lap 36 restart to move past Silk for the lead. On lap 38 Silk fought back into turn one to regain the top spot from Emerling.
On lap 41 Stephen Kopcik got under McKennedy to move into third. On lap 46 Emerling used a turn three dive to get by Silk and move back to th lead. A lap later Silk came right back and grabbed the top spot back from Emerling.
Bonsignore went by Lutz for fifth place on lap 48. Caution flew on lap 52 for the spinning car of John-Michael Shenette. The bulk of the field headed to pit road under caution on lap 54.
Emerling won the race off of pit road, followed by Rypkema, McKennedy, Silk and Craig Lutz. Kopcik fell from third to 17th. Eric Goodale and Sam Rameau stayed on track to assume the front row for the lap 58 restart.
Rameau got by Goodale for the lead initially, but Rypkema quickly rolled up on Rameau to take over the top spot. Rameau regained the top spot again, but Silk fought back on lap 59 to go back to the lead. Kyle Bonsignore worked up to second.
Caution flew on lap 60 with the fourth place car of Rameau spinning after contact with Rypkema.
On the lap 65 restart Kyle Bonsignore got the edge on Silk in turn two.
Coming off of turn two Silk made contact with Kyle Bonsignore. Silk then was then hit by Emerling’s right front. Silk ended up hard into the wall.
“I just ran out of talent,” Silk said. “Got loose off of turn two and thought I could control it and kind of hit the fence right rear first. … I was just along for the ride after that.”
Under caution second place Emerling went to pit road with crew members checking his right front tire and suspension.
On the lap 73 restart Kyle Bonsignore chose the outside lane for the restart. Coming to green Kyle Bonsignore came down aggressively on McKennedy. Justin Bonsignore, behind McKennedy, made contact with Kyle Bonsignore, sending Kyle Bonsignore pinning and into the outside wall.
On lap 78 the field was brought down pit road and officials went to work looking for a car leaking car. While cleanup on track continued the red flag was shown.
On the lap 81 restart McKennedy got the push to the front. In turn three Rypkema got by Justin Bonsignore for second. On lap 83 Chase Dowling got by Craig Lutz for fourth. On lap 84 Justin Bonsignore went by Rypkema for second and then got by McKennedy for the lead into turn three.
Mike Christopher Jr. moved past Dowling for fourth on lap 87. On lap 88 Christopher moved by McKennedy for third. On lap 92 Rypkema remained glued to the bumper of Justin Bonsignore with Christopher stalking in third.
On lap 94 Christopher made a diving move to get under Rypkema. The pair came side-by-side off of turn two with Rypkema fighting back on the outside. A wiggling Christopher then made contact with Dowling, sending Dowling into the wall and bouncing back down the track into McKennedy to bring the caution out.
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First thing I thought of was Evans v Bodine at Martinsville in 81. Two hard nosed guys going at it and each other for the win. A guy having never won this before vs one who has multiple times. Last half of the last lap ..not pretty but he didn’t crash the 51 so hats off to Tyler and the Ole Blue team. I had a feeling he had a fire in him after the 06 took him high high in two at the 59 restart. But Tyler “paid” him back next lap by not lifting (when he could have) and touching Sammy just enough to spin him. Wasn’t exactly Mudd Lanes best day but Austin takes a slim lead into Riverhead so next week will likely be another “interesting” battle. WMT @ NH is NASCAR’s best show ANYWHERE…change my mind
Forty three laps run under caution. Almost half the race was run under a yellow flag because NASCAR insults on counting caution laps. This is totally unacceptable. Fans travel long distances(130 miles for me) only to watch a 100p lap race go almost half way at a snails pace. Can someone explain this ridiculous rule to me? I can see counting caution laps on a longer distance Cup/Xfinity/Truck race but when race is only one hundred laps this rule destroys the entertainment factor of the race and rips off the fans.
nascar doesnt need the gimmick of being green flag laps only. a lap is a lap.
if you traveled that long with 0 understanding of what you are going to see, thats on you.
At an event like Loudon, the tour will have a time frame that is based on hours and minutes, not laps.
The finish was a little after 11am. They were approaching the time they have to be done for the truck series, regardless of what green flag lap number it is. would you have rather the race be time-limited on lap 60/100?
I think you may be mistaken about the green white checker. I was on the star/finish line and the restart was on lap 98 per the scoreboard.
Also, whoever decided to run a major race at 9: 15 in the morning should be keel hauled. Ridiculous abuse of race fans.
Steve Jesus,
The race was 101 laps at completion. The green-white-checkered was laps 100 and 101.
Beautiful day in New Hampshire for Saturday racing. The mods were the star of the show. The trucks were eh. Heim domination.
The crowd was quite large and definitely exceeded expectation. Great to see. Heck of a race. Passing from start to finish from the front and back. Good for Rypkema. What a finish! Christopher Jr. had a chance of pulling that out until his motor blew up. Impressive run in that beautiful 13.
One last note: NASCAR please stop treating the mods as a “red headed step child” the officiating was garbage along the caution lap run time. If they are under your banner, treat them as an equal to every other series.
That was a great race, and a really great day at the track. Did the officials just give the 1 crew all the time they needed to replace his shock mount or whatever they were working on. That seemed like such a long cleanup on the track. Cars parked on pit road and no red flag? The caution periods seemed a little long to me. A single car spin in turn 4, and they pour speedy dry all over the track and sweepers and blowers are running for a half hour. Even when the 3 was sitting in turn 2 after the race they sent 3 wreckers and a flatbed, 10 guys and it took forever to get the car to victory lane. It took about 2 hours to run the race and it seemed like about a half hour of racing and 1-1/2 hours of blowers/ sweepers
Four engine failures. SPEC engines.
Lots of fluids and oil put down on the track. Those fluids caused spins, accidents, yellow flags, and the LOOOOOOOOOONG caution periods.
It was a gorgeous day in New Hampshire.
What happened with the 7NY?
I expected that car to go out early, but not that early, and not because of car problems.
Expect much better car preparation from that owner.
Ole’ Blue ran a great race. The car looked incredibly strong, handled well.
Rypkema showed patience and picked his moves carefully.
Congratulations to the Ole’ Blue team!!!!
I too was really surprised at how large the turnout was in the stands for the early start time (yes Shawn, I swallowed my pride lol, they won)
Picture perfect weather day. Yup, I thought nascar finally did something right, bringing the cars down pit road and stopping them so as to not burn caution laps that count. So I thought, until reading the recap on the way home on Racedayct. Oh well.
So there are some things to be disappointed about with the track, with nascar, we all have our peeves. But man, the modifieds at NH just never disappoint. No matter what the circumstances. We were at the end of the straightaway just as it transitions to turn one. Ole Blue went by all banged up after taking checkers. Rypkema stops in the middle of turn 2 jumps out of the car pumping his fists and everyone, at least at our end of the track is on their feet giving him a standing o. It was electric. You just cant get that feel from Flo imo.
My appreciation for all the teams and drivers that spend all their time and effort and expense, to travel and put on that show. Thank you all.