The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship battle took a dramatic turn on Lap 68 of the Bush’s Best 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway when points leader Timmy Solomito was involved in a two-car incident with Bobby Santos.
The entire ordeal began when Santos spun off Turn 4.
Solomito couldn’t tell if Santos would stay high or drop down the banking and ultimately ran into the side of the No. 77. Solomito slowed down but did just enough damage to warrant having to get out of his No. 16 and go to the infield care center.
“I just broke the lower bolt and NASCAR has the rule that you have to go into the infield care center and get checked out,” Solomito said. “We wasted 10 laps sitting in the infield care center. I guess when we tried to get going again, the gears slipped and the transmission jammed up. Just a bad day. I guess you have those.
“It really wasn’t any of our doing either.”
It turned out to be a really bad day, because the 15th-place results cost him the entirety of his championship cushion. He entered with a 10-point advantage over Rowan Pennink but leaves with just a two-point lead. Ryan Preece is nine points back and Doug Coby is just 17 back. Justin Bonsignore is 19 back.
That’s five drivers within 19 points.
Pennink finished seventh, and after several months of trading the top spot with Solomito, he’s expecting a dogfight for the remainder of the season.
“Timmy and I have been swapping the lead back and forth all year,” Pennink said. “The car we had today was a little bit edgy during practice, so we just raced the track today.
“We didn’t worry about our speed in practice and qualifying — just wanted to get to halfway. We’ve crashed out of so many of these races at Bristol that I thought we would benefit from a different mindset. So we raced the track instead of the competition.”
While Pennink didn’t contend for the win, his P7 was just as valuable, given that only 15 of 26 cars finished — only 10 of them on the lead lap.
“Obviously, we’re going to go for wins, top-5s, or whatever finish we can get,” Pennink said. “But if we have a day like this, we’re going to just take what the car gives us and get the best finish we can.”
Before Wednesday, Solomito has only finished outside of the top-10 in two of the first 10 races. The first was a P11 at Stafford and the other was a disastrous P29 at New Hampshire. Before the race, Solomito said he couldn’t afford an early DNF at Bristol due to the large entry list.
Fortunately for his championship lead, the Starrett Tools team worked to get Solomito back on the track. He gained five positions once he returned to the track.
“We had a better car than half the guys who were out there in front of us,” Solomito said. “Real shame. I thought we would have a top-5 or top-6 day but I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles. We just have to fight hard the next few races and see how it plays out.”
As for Preece, third in the standings, he’s going to likely miss the September 23rd race at New Hampshire. But reigning champion (four-times over) Coby and Bonsignore sense an opportunity.
Of course, Coby needs to snap his year-long win-less streak first.
“It’s game on,” Coby said. “These guys are letting us get back in it. I’m just trying to win races right now. I’m chipping away. This is late August and we’ve been in contention every single race. These races will come down to one small adjustment the rest of the season.
“These are some of my best tracks remaining, but the same could be said of these guys too. I don’t know where I’m at in the points and I really don’t care. There’s too many races left.”
Bonsignore concurs.
“These guys are getting rid of us and that could come back to bite them,” Bonsignore said. “We won nine races between us last year and that hasn’t been the same this year — them for bad luck and us for other reasons. But we’re both getting real close.
“This stretch coming up will determine everything. This is any man’s game now.”
NASCAR Modified Tour standings
Timmy Solomito Ldr.
Rowan Pennink -2
Ryan Preece -9
Doug Coby -17
Justin Bonsignore -19
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