NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150 Results

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour concluded the 2021 season Saturday night at Stafford Motor Speedway for the NAPA Fall Final 150. The championship came down to Justin Bonsignore and Patrick Emerling.

Anthony Nocella won the pole in qualifying, Justin Bonsignore started second, and Patrick Emerling started fourteenth.

Anthony Nocella dominated early in the race, leading 76 laps before Justin Bonsignore passed him on lap 77 for the lead and led the rest of the way. Despite getting the lead, Bonsignore’s crew worried about running out of fuel.

With fourteen laps to go, the first caution came out for debris at turn three. Everyone went to pit road during the caution. Justin Bonsignore pulled away on the restart at lap 136, while Doug Coby took second from Matt Swanson. Matt Swanson fell further back as Anothony Nocella took third and Patrick Emerling fourth.

The second caution came out with four laps to go when Woody Pitkat made contact with Matt Swanson, sending him around at turn two. After that, the race went into overtime.

On the restart, Justin Bonsignore got a great restart. He went on to win the race by .365 seconds over Doug Coby. It was Bonsignore’s first win at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Justin Bonsignore will also be taking extra hardware home as he won the 2021 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship. He beat Patrick Emerling, who finished fourth by sixteen points.

Once Justin Bonsignore made it to victory road, “I’m so glad we got that win. Three-time champion. I can’t get past winning at Stafford and to beat Doug. He beat me at Riverhead this year to get his first win, so it’s only fitting we were able to outrun him.” Bonsignore added, “I didn’t want to see the caution at all, and then four to go, you didn’t want to see another caution. Car was just really good on the long run. Just trying to do whatever I could to save fuel and make sure we were not going to run out if it stayed green the whole time.”

When Bonsignore was asked about fuel, he replied. “We were doing everything we could to slow our pace on that long run cause you just don’t know. We never had to go a full 150-green, and it’s been close a couple of times. I had a big enough lead to manage my gap and fuel.”

Justin Bonsignore’s engine was from Robert Yates Racing. Bonsignore races for Kenneth Massa Motorsports. Robert Yates Racing provides engines for the ARCA, the Whelen Modified Tour, and the NASCAR Pinty’s Series. Justin Bonsignore finishes the season with five poles, two wins, eleven top-five, and twelve top-ten finishes.

The second-place finisher Doug Coby said, “We tighten the car up, but then we were just too tight and just watched Justin smash the gas and drive away. I decided I had to drive it even harder, and the caution comes out there in the end, and I just feel like home turf; I should’ve been able to defend it. I’m really disappointed.” Coby added, “You guys know I always made fun of Justin for not getting a win here. He stuffs it in my face by winning the championship. We have a friendly rivalry. Hats off to the 51 team.”

The third-place finisher Patrick Emerling “We were a little bit off to start. We didn’t have good track position to begin with. My guys did an awesome job gaining a ton of spots on the pits and really getting me out there and give me an opportunity to be in contention. Congrats to Justin; those guys have been the fastest car all season.”

The rest of the top ten positions were Kyle Bonsignore fourth, Craig Lutz fifth, Anthony Nocella sixth, Tyler Rypkema seventh, Ron Silk eighth, Eric Goodale ninth, and Ronnie Williams tenth.