Coby Edges Solomito For NASCAR Whelen Modified Title

Doug Coby (left) secured his fourth straight NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship on Sunday at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, while Timmy Solomito (right) scored his fifth series victory of the season. Photos by Adam Glanzman/NASCAR

Back in April, Doug Coby walked away from a wrecked race car without even completing one lap in the Icebreaker 150 at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

Six months later, Coby capped the season at Thompson by completing an unthinkable comeback to win his fifth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship.

Sunday’s fifth-place finish in the Sunoco World Series 150 was enough to completely erase his disastrous start to the season and wrap up his fourth straight title.

The Milford, Connecticut driver becomes the first driver since the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour began in 1984 to accomplish the feat and only the third in the history of NASCAR Modifieds, joining NASCAR Hall of Famers Richie Evans and Jerry Cook.

“We just kind of tugged away this year,” Coby said. “We won one race in 2014 when we won the championship and we only won once this year. We were just so consistent.”

Timmy Solomito, who entered the race third in the championship standings and one of six drivers still in contention for the crown, used a pass with just two laps remaining to capture the victory the race that was pushed to 155 laps because of a late caution.

The victory was the fifth of the season for the Islip, New York, driver but it wasn’t enough to get him the title.

Coby finished with 604 points, six ahead of Solomito. Justin Bonsignore finished third, 10 points back of Solomito, while Rowan Pennink and Eric Goodale rounded out the top five in the championship standings.

Coby was determined to control his own destiny. The points leader entering the finale, he started on the front row with polesitter Chase Dowling and immediately jumped to the front to lead the first 82 laps to clinch the bonus points for most laps led.

After his first pit stop, he restarted outside the top 10 and wasn’t able to get all the way back to the front. But it didn’t matter. A late charge was enough to hand him the championship behind the wheel of his No. 2 Mayhew Tools Chevrolet.

“We were good all year and we were kind of under the radar. This was a different championship because we to crawl all summer because we had to get back in it,” Coby said. “We had to chip away this year. The common denominator in all of these titles was a team that never quit.”

Dowling finished second – crossing the finish line .043 seconds behind Solomito — while Ron Silk was third and Pennink fourth.

Andrew Krause finished sixth, followed by Woody Pitkat, Dave Sapienza, Jamie Tomaino and Bonsignore.

Ryan Preece finished 26th in the race and fell to sixth in points. However, he was able to wrap up the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour owner’s championship for Ed Partridge.

Preece missed two races – one for his wedding and one to run the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kentucky Speedway – and combined with George Brunnhoelzl III and Jon McKennedy to win the title for Partridge’s No. 6 TS Hauler Chevrolet team.

Coby and Partridge will be honored as champion of the unified Whelen Modified Tour as part of the champions celebration in Charlotte, North Carolina in December.

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park – Thompson, CT
Sunoco World Series 150 – October 15, 2017

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*Denotes Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender

RACE STATISTICS

Fastest Qualifier: Chase Dowling, Time: 18.991 Seconds, Speed: 118.477 mph

Time of Race: 1 hrs., 29 mins, 0 secs Average Speed: 65.309 mph Margin of Victory:0.043 Seconds

Caution Flags: Laps 1-8; 14-17; 30-32; 62-65; 80-84; 88-92; 105-110; 126-130; 132-135; 138-140; 142-146; 148-152.  12 for 57 laps.

Lap Leaders: Doug Coby 1-82, Craig Lutz 83-107, Ron Silk 108-144, Justin Bonsignore 145, Ron Silk 146-153, Timmy Solomito 154-155.

Total Laps Led: Doug Coby 82, Ron Silk 45, Craig Lutz 25, Timmy Solomito 2, Justin Bonsignore 1.  5 changes involving 5 drivers.

Top 10 Driver Points: Doug Coby 604, Timmy Solomito 598, Justin Bonsignore 588, Rowan Pennink 570, Eric Goodale 566, Ryan Preece 562, DaveSapienza 511, Matt Swanson 484, Rob Summers 474, Craig Lutz 429