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JUSTIN
BONSIGNORE SEEKING FIRST
STAFFORD WIN IN NAPA FALL FINAL |
For
Justin Bonsignore and the #51 Phoenix Communications
/ M3 Technology team, the 2016 NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour season has been a stark contrast to
their 2015 season. Although they won 2 races last
season, Bonsignore finished in 10th place in the
points standings and was never a championship
contender. Fast forward to 2016 and Bonsignore and
the #51 team have again won 2 races but are now
second in the standings behind Doug Coby. Bonsignore
has 3 races remaining to make up a 20-point deficit
and with three top-5 finishes at Stafford, including
a second place finish in the most recent NWMT race
in August, he is looking to collect his first career
Stafford victory in the NAPA Fall Final 150 on
October 1st & 2nd.
“We have Loudon before we go to Stafford and with
bonus points being so important in our series, we’re
going to try to win each race left on the schedule,”
said Bonsignore. “Bonus points are a big chunk of
why we have a 20 point deficit to Doug. You never
know when someone else might drop out of a race or
have a bad day so you don’t want to do anything
risky. We need to get as many bonus points as
possible and winning is the best way to do that. Our
first couple of races at Stafford were issue plagued
and we were able to battle back and get top-5
finishes and then the last race we were decent. We
have a lot of speed in our car, and confidence is
really high at the moment. We’ve had a lot of races
at Stafford where we’ve been close to winning and it
would be a real clutch time to get our first win at
Stafford.”
Not only would a Stafford victory be important for
Bonsignore’s championship hopes, he would also like
to add Stafford to his win list, a feat he has yet
to check off his list.
“I really want to win at Stafford,” said Bonsignore.
“It’s right up there with any other track that I
haven’t won at yet. At this time of year it would be
really important to get a win. All you can ask for
at the beginning of the year is to have a shot at it
and we have a great shot at it. We’re going to need
to have three really good runs and hopefully we can
pull that off but it’s not going to be easy by any
stretch.”
With Coby and the #2 team having another strong
season, as they go for 3 championships in a row and
four in the last 5 years, perhaps no team has been
stronger over the last 9 NWMT races than Bonsignore
and the #51 team. Since a second place finish at
Riverhead back at the end of June, the #51 team has
8 top-8 finishes with the only blemish a 22nd place
finish at Bristol after a crash. Bonsignore’s
average finish over that stretch is 5.1 while Coby’s
avg. finish in the same time frame is 7.0. While 2
positions doesn’t sound like much, it has allowed
Bonsignore to go from 33 points behind to 20 points
behind and they are looking to continue their
positive wave of momentum in the final 3 races of
the season.
“We really haven’t been doing anything differently,”
said Bonsignore. “We started off the season pretty
consistent with some top-5’s and we had a couple of
crashes that put us a little behind, but for the
most part we’ve been a top-5 car every week. We
haven’t finished worse than third since Bristol, a
lot of it is just confidence and momentum for us.
Our cars are well prepared in the shop and everyone
is jelling together really well. The guys are doing
an awesome job. We hope we can keep it up.”
The NAPA Fall Final will be different from the
majority of the races that comprise the 2016 NWMT
schedule in that it is a 2-day show with practice
and qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday
with no car impound after qualifying. That will
allow teams to tweak their car setups to best match
the conditions for both qualifying and the feature
but Bonsignore says that he’s going to stick with
what has been working for them in the first 3 races
at Stafford and he knows that Coby will be among his
primary challengers for the checkered flag.
“It’s going to be pretty much business as usual, we
typically don’t change all that much for a 2-day
show with no impound,” said Bonsignore. “There will
probably be a little fine tuning on the car and
we’ve had a good package at Stafford the last couple
of years so there’s no reason to mix that up.
Without a doubt [Doug’s team] has been near perfect
all season long at Stafford and they’re the team to
beat almost every week. You also can’t count out
Timmy Solomito, they’ve been just as hot as us the
last month and there’s still plenty of other guys
who can win on any given day other than us three
going for the championship. There’s probably 10 or
12 cars on the Tour that can win on any given day.”
The NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Weekend gets underway
on Saturday, October 1st with practice sessions for
Stafford’s Whelen All-American Series divisions,
Legend Cars, TQ Midgets, Mr. Rooter Truck Series,
and the Whelen Modified Tour. Action continues with
Coors Light Pole Qualifying for the Whelen Modified
Tour cars, along with heat races for all divisions
with feature events for the SK Light, Limited Late
Model, DARE Stock, Legend Cars, TQ Midgets, and Mr.
Rooter Truck Series divisions wrapping up Saturday’s
on track activities. The Legend Cars feature will be
a national qualifier event. The NAPA Fall Final
continues on Sunday, October 2nd with the NAPA Auto
Parts Pit Party from 11am-12noon followed by
Stafford’s SK Modifieds® and Late Models joining the
Whelen Modified Tour in feature action.
Tickets for the NAPA Auto Parts Fall Final Weekend
are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets
are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission
tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children
ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when
accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be
priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices
include 10% CT Admission Tax. Visit your local
participating NAPA Auto Parts Store for discount
tickets.
For more information on the 44th Annual NAPA Auto
Parts Fall Final, or to order tickets,
contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at
www.staffordspeedway.com.
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Source:
Scott Running / Stafford Motor Speedway
Posted:
September 22, 2016 |
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