Nocella scores first ever win in the Whelen Engineering Manufacturing Made in America 100 at NHMS
Story and photo by: Matthew Wiernasz
LOUDON, NH- Anthony Nocella scored the win in the Whelen Engineering Manufacturing Made in America 100 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday night. It was Nocella’s first win in 53 starts. The 29-year old out of Woburn, MA avoid a last lap crash coming off of turn 4 as Eric Goodale and Patrick Emerling were battling for the win. They both would make contact as Nocella used all 65 feet of the frontstretch wall and beat Kyle Bonsignore to the checkered flag by 0.071 seconds as fans saw another wild finish in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event.
” It means a lot. We’ve been working hard for this tour win kind of on and off for years. Pretty awesome to finally get one of all places here. Some people told us we were kind of crazy coming here with this car and this motor. I knew whatever shot. We could keep ourselves in contention. We were able to stay close all day. Stay up front. We needed that one yellow to make an adjustment to get ourselves back in contention. We were able to get it there with about 15 (laps) to go.” Nocella Said
Patrick Emerling talked about the final lap.
” We put ourselves in a position to be there at the end. We were in position. We were winning and then I don’t know. I felt myself spinning. Someone got in my left rear. Went really hard. I got hooked. That was it. There was no one saving that. It’s frustrating. We put in a good effort. We were there. We had the race won. I got to look at the video. Just stinks. Just frustrated, we’ve been so close too many times.” Emerling Said
Eric Goodale gave his thought about the final lap.
” Just had a really good car. Obviously knew it was going to come down to a last lap pass. We came off of (turn) 2. I was a little tight. Emerling got a good run on me. Shifted down into (turn) 3 and I let him get in there and tried to cross him over. He just threw the block coming off of (turn) 4. We hooked bumpers. I think me or the 07 (Emerling) should’ve won that race. We wrecked about 20 feet too short to cross the line first. Nonetheless a fun day, we led some laps.” Goodale Said
The next event for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be on Friday, July 29 at Claremont Motorsports Park.