THOMPSON, Conn. (WWLP)- Ryan Preece passed Ron Silk on the outside of the closing laps of the Thompson 150 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour but a late race caution came out and Preece ran out of fuel. Silk was able to hold off Justin Bonsignore on a green-white-checkered finish and took down the win in the 150 lap race on Thursday night.
It was Silk’s first win of the 2020 season as his last win came at Stafford last August. It was his 14th career win on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Silk talked about the win to 22News
“We had a great car. He was showing the bottom there and my car didn’t fire off on that restart really good. I figured another lap and he was going to really try and it send it on the bottom and I pulled down to protect it a little bit before I knew he was up on the outside of me in the preferred groove. Really happy for my guys. This is a brand new car. I really think they gave me the best car out there,” Silk said.
Silk’s spotter did menton to him about Preece running out of the fuel in the closing laps.
“My spotter and his spotter are friends. The yellow came out and they were sitting next to each other and he kind of knew there might be an issue with fuel. I would’ve rather tried racing him and try to beat him that way and having him not be able to compete. It what it is and we won.”
Bonsignore finished the race in second. He talked about his second place finish to 22News.
“Really good start of the race. Got the lead there. Guys had a great pit stop and I thought we could make one small adjustment there and have the car to beat at the end. That’s what great about this series is even though we won a handful of races. If we miss it by a touch, everyone is that close and you could finish fourth of fifth pretty easily. Obviously just missed the adjustment a touch and we were getting shuffled back a little bit. Kind of had some racing luck at the end there with Ryan (Preece) running out and Craig (Lutz) having his issues got back to second. All in all happy with the event. Glad to be back here at Thompson,” Bonsignore said.
Jon McKennedy finished in third. He talked about his third place run to 22News.
“Overall a solid run. We started way back. Got a top three out of it. We were too tight in the long run. Guys did a great job on pit road. Gained a bunch of positions. We were right there. A little bit off,” McKennedy said.
Chris Pasteryak finished in fourth and Doug Coby rounded out the top five. Sixth through tenth were Dave Sapienza, Ronnie Williams, Anthony Nocella, Matt Swanson, and Tyler Rypkema.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next Saturday as part of the Full Throttle Fall Weekend for the Musket 200.
