RACE PREVIEW: Whelen Modified Tour Set To Hit The Track at Oswego Speedway
ATTLEBORO, Mass. — NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour teams are set to roll back to the state of New York for the second time this season on Saturday, June 12 — this time to visit Oswego Speedway. Some of the top Modified talent in all of the Northeast is expected to converge on the tricky oval, with the series championship points battle heating up, and drivers looking to build on four different winners in the first four races of the season.
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour winners so far this year include Eric Goodale, Patrick Emerling, Doug Coby and Justin Bonsignore. Three of them will be in the field for Saturday’s Steel Palace 150 — a race promoted by Josh Vanada and the team at JDV Productions. This is the second of three events that the JDV Productions team will promote in 2021 — coming off a successful event at Jennerstown Speedway on May 29 — and looking towards an event at Maine’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on August 21.
Goodale, who won at Martinsville, will be joined by Emerling and Bonsignore — as those two drivers enter first and second in the standings, with Emerling leading by a mere one point. Coby, a six-time series champion, will skip Oswego and compete with the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) at Stafford Motor Speedway, while he tabs Chase Dowling to wheel his No. 10 Mayhew Tools machine in competition.
They will be joined by Matt Hirschman, a former Oswego winner, Woody Pitkat, NASCAR Cup Series star Ryan Preece, Kyle Bonsignore, Timmy Solomito, Max McLaughlin, Anthony Nocella, Ron Silk and more. Bonsignore, Preece, Hirschman and Coby are the four winners in tour competition at Oswego in the last three decades. The talent level in the pit area on Saturday will also include the stars of Oswego’s Supermodified division to compete in their own feature race.
“It’s a tough track, you have to hit your marks every single lap to be comfortable,” two-time champion Justin Bonsignore, and former Oswego winner, said. “It has a lot of character, and a lot of bumps, and in the past, when they have sprayed the track down the groove will move around during the race. There is a lot to the track. We just have to get the setup right for the long run and with a different tire this time, we will have to work on it.”
Bonsignore, who is only one-point back in the standings, says it is never too early in the year to consider the points.
“We are always conscious of the points situation but we don’t go out there and points race until it’s necessary if that’s something we have to do,” Bonsignore said. “We just go to each race and try and win, and if we can’t win, we go for the top-three, or the top-five. The points will take care of themselves during the season. We don’t wanna put ourselves in a bad spot out there.”
Saturday’s schedule includes Whelen Modified Tour practice from 3-4 p.m., followed by Mayhew Tools pole qualifying at 6 p.m., to set the starting lineup. Then, the Oswego Supermodifieds will take the green, followed by the fifth race of the season for the Whelen Modified Tour, the Steel Palace 150.
Advanced general admission tickets are available for $40 for adults at JDVProductions.com and also will be available at the track. Pit passes will also be open to the public for purchase. For those who can’t make it to the track, the race will air live on NBC Sports Gold through their TrackPass platform.
Sources: Souza Media/Kyle Souza
Oswego Speedway during the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Toyota Mod Classic Presented by McDonald’s on Aug. 31, 2019 at Oswego Speedway in Oswego, New York.