Doug Coby celebrates in victory lane after winning Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Monadnock Speedway. Photo: Nick Grace/NASCAR
It only took three races during the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season for Doug Coby and Tommy Baldwin Racing to return to their winning ways.
Coby, who won three NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races in a part-time role with the team in 2022 and is running the full schedule this season, took the lead on lap 13 and cruised to victory on Saturday at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, New Hampshire.
The race served as the opening round of the Whelen Granite State Short Track Cup, a special mini-series created by JDV Productions.
The driver from Milford, Connecticut, credited his early years racing quarter midgets at the Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Meriden, Connecticut, for preparing him to race at a track like Monadnock.
“I’m a quarter midget kid man. Silver City is opening their season today, a tight little bullring,” Coby said after his 35th career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory. “That’s where you start when you’re five or six years old and learn how to get around these quarter miles. I’ll tell you what, I’ve won at some big race tracks, but it’s the little ones that mean the most and really make me think of my roots and where I started.”
After starting fourth, Coby made quick work of the drivers that started in front him. He moved by Ron Silk to take second on lap 8 and it only took him five more laps to move past Bonsignore to assume the lead.
While he led the rest of the 200-lap event, that doesn’t mean he went unchallenged. He had to fend off multiple challenges from Bonsignore and other drivers during several restarts.
“This thing was just awesome,” Coby said. “I had to fend those guys off on restarts. Justin was pretty nice to me that one or two times he got under me. He probably thought it was a little too early to push the issue.
“We race each other hard and sometimes we know when it’s time to push and when it’s not. I knew with 50 to go that he wasn’t going to lift the next time he got under me. We just had enough car to drive away and clear the lap cars.”
Saturday’s victory is Coby’s second at Monadnock, making him the second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver with multiple victories at the quarter-mile bullring. Bonsignore has four Tour victories at the track.
Jon McKennedy, the defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, made a late charge through the field to finish second. New Smyrna Speedway winner Ron Silk finished third, followed by Richmond Raceway winner Austin Beers and Bonsignore.
Sam Rameau, Eric Goodale, Kyle Bonsignore, Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling completed the top 10.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season resumes with the first of two trips this season to New York’s Riverhead Raceway on Saturday, May 20.
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
Monadnock Speedway – Winchester, NH
Duel at the Dog 200 – May 6, 2023
1. Doug Coby
2. Jon McKennedy
3. Ron Silk
4. Austin Beers
5. Justin Bonsignore
6. Sam Rameau
7. Eric Goodale
8. Kyle Bonsignore
9. Matt Hirschman
10. Patrick Emerling
11. Tyler Rypkema
12. J.B. Fortin
13. Brian Roble
14. Jake Johnson
15. Woody Pitkat
16. Craig Lutz
17. Tommy Catalano
18. Justin Brown
19. Ken Heagy
20. Matt Kimball
21. Kyle Ebersole
22. Andrew Krause
23. Gary McDonald
24. Tim Connelly
25. Anthony Sesely
26. Melissa Fifield
27. Anthony Nocella
28. Jacob Perry
29. Cory Plummer
30. Dave Sapienza
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