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08/23/2012 |
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NASCAR WHELEN
MODIFIED TOUR - UNOH PERFECT STORM 150
Bristol Motor Speedway
by
Polly Reid |
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 The
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Southern
Modified Tour met at the high banked ‘world’s
fastest half-mile’ for their combined event, the
UNOH Perfect Storm 150. Ron Silk from Norwalk, CT in
the Ed Partridge owned, Calverton Tree Farm/TS
Haulers sponsored Chevrolet won the Coors Light pole
award and finished off the night crossing the line
for a victory, his second of the 2012 season.
Following Silk across the strip was Todd Szegedy,
Ryan Preece, Justin Bonsignore and Ron Yuhas, Jr.
Leading the 36 combined Tour field to the green,
Todd Szegedy in the Mike Smeriglio Ford edged out
Silk to become the first leader of the evening on
the first circuit, Ted Christopher falling into
second and Silk third. The complexion of the race
changed immediately on the fourth lap when a solo
spin by Ryan Newman on the front stretch, running
sixth, forced the entire field behind him to take
evasive action.
A massive pile up brought out the red flag, the
night suddenly over for Mike Stefanik who posted
fastest time in the second practice, Rowan Pennink
who was making his way forward along with John
Smith, Burt Myers and Tim Brown.
Szegedy, Christopher, Silk, Ryan Preece and Jon
McKennedy led the restart with Christopher in the
Boehler entry taking over as the new leader on lap
thirteen becoming the car to beat. Szegedy kept
Christopher within striking distance as the UNOH
Perfect Storm continued, Szegedy using a restart
strategy taking over the lead on lap 59. It was
shortly after that when Christopher coming out of
turn two made contact with Ryan Preece running
third, Christopher cut down a tire and going around,
became the fourth caution of the evening. Preece was
able to maintain his position.
At the half way mark, Szegedy led the way down pit
row for the mandatory half way break as teams took
on tires, fuel and made adjustments on lap 75.
Lining up for the green, Szegedy, Silk, Preece,
Bonsignore and Ron Yuhas led the way for the final
segment. A red flag and another caution kept Szegedy
from completely driving away from the field. It was
just after a restart with less than 25 to go that
turned up the half mile heat. As Silk was making his
move low for a pass, contact with Szegedy was made.
The spin sent Szegedy to the rear of the lead lap
cars for what turned out to be the final restart of
the night, 17 laps to the checkers.
Inheriting the lead, Silk pulled away from the pack
as Preece and Bonsignore battled for second.
Meanwhile, Szegedy, using the outside groove, blazed
his way forward and with nine laps to go, passed
Bonsignore for third, then Preece for second with
three to go. Closing the gap to Silk leading,
Szegedy simply ran out of time. Silk crossed for the
win, Szegedy second, Preece, Bonsignore and Yuhas
the top five.
“I got a run down the backstretch,” explained Silk
about the incident with Szegedy. “I don’t know, I
haven’t seen the video but I’m pretty confident in
the fact that I got down under him, I had a wheel
under him, held my car as low as I could on the
racetrack – I was far enough where I wouldn’t lift.
I don’t even think he knew I was even there the way
he turned down. Todd is a good friend of mine, he is
one of the few people I really respect, I understand
him being upset and disappointed at the end there,
I’ve done things like that too. I think when he sees
it, he might have a different opinion.”
Szegedy made an outstanding comeback through the
field and if there were a few more laps, there could
have possibly been a different outcome. Catching up
with Szegedy after the event, there was no masking
his disappointment. “I’ve got nothing to prove
except to win races,” said Szegedy. “To me, this is
a loss because no matter how I came back through the
pack, it doesn’t matter, I finished second and
that’s the most painful thing. The good thing is, my
team gave me a good car, a car that could win.”
The UNOH Perfect Storm win is Silk’s ninth career
victory. “It’s awesome,” said the defending
champion.
“This and Loudon are definitely the two coolest
places to win races. Now being able to say I’ve won
at both of them is definitely awesome. It’s an
awesome feeling driving up to the roof of that
building where victory lane is and now I’ll have the
trophy that says Bristol Victory Lane forever.”Silk
continued, “We’ve got a good team, we’ve been
experimenting with a lot of stuff this year and kind
of still are but we have it going in the right
direction and Thompson is one of my best tracks,
I’ve finished first and second so far there this
year so hopefully we can go get another win.”
Winning crew chief Tom Grasso talked about their day
that started with an 8:30am practice session. “We
started out pretty good, actually we usually don’t
come off the trailer here and run all that good.
Today, when we rolled off the trailer the car was
the best it was all day. We adjusted a bunch of
stuff on the car during the two practices and we
never really found anything better than when we
first rolled out so we switched it all back, run
what we came with. It seemed to work, put it on the
pole, made a few adjustments for the race- the car
was a little free in the first segment, tightened it
up some for the second segment, he was still a
little free but it worked out ok. The track is
demanding and unforgiving on the driver and the race
car. You would think it was an easy place to drive
because of all the banking but the banking and the
speed actually makes it much more difficult. It’s
tough on setups, there is a lot of diversity on the
setups on the cars here. We just had everything
right today.”
Winning at Bristol? “Right up there, one of the
biggest. This is just as big as Loudon and this is
such a tough track to run on it kind of means a
little something extra.”
Car owner Ed Partridge echoed Grasso’s thoughts of
winning at Bristol. “It feels great. We’ve been
struggling here a little bit. We came with a brand
new shock package- I didn’t think we would run as
good as we did. Szegedy was coming pretty hard, a
little contact with him, Ron tried to back out then
they touched and he spun. But overall we had a great
finish. Teddy was strong in the beginning, then he
had some trouble. Ryan was strong then he faded a
little. Bonsignore was coming, there were a lot of
guys challenging there at the end. They just for
whatever reason had some issues. Szegedy was coming
back up as you can see, he caught us in the end.”
Preece in the East West Marine Ford closed out his
night third after a brush with Christopher before
the half way mark. “Teddy just got real loose and
things happen so fast here. I was trying to turn
down but I was still trying to go through the corner
there – when you check up, you’re already into the
guy there. It ruined his day, screwed up our day- we
probably would have been really good in that second
half if that didn’t happen. I’m happy we ended up
third. We’re going to keep going forward and just
keep trying to knock off some good finishes.” Damage
after the contact with Christopher kept the Flamingo
Motorsports team busy during the break. “We tried to
get the toe on the front end as close as we could
get it. We have an awesome team, everyone behind us
and we’re going to look forward to Thompson. We know
we have a really good car there- I want to win the
pole and the race there for sure.”
George Brunnhoelzl III crossed the line as the first
NASCAR Southern Whelen Modified Tour entry taking
home an overall sixth place finish. Starting 10th,
Brunnhoelzl III was able to escape the carnage of
the early pile up on the front stretch going on to
take claim his fourth NSWMT win of the season.
“The guys did great, we had a good car. We struggled
here for the last three years, we got a little bit
better this year but apparently we are still
searching.”
Brunnhoelzl III from West Babylon, NY in the Howard
Harvey owned, Phoenix Pre-Owned sponsored Chevrolet
remained consistent in the first half coming in
seventh at the half way break. “We tried to tighten
it up a little bit (during the break) and it just
wasn’t enough. The track changed from earlier today,
I don’t know maybe it was just my car, but it
definitely got a little different. Brunnhoelzl III
will be the first to tell there were a lot of close
calls out there today but his philosophy, especially
regarding points, remains the same. “We set out to
win every race and hope the points fall where they
fall. Winning is always the best way to do anything
with the points.” The NASCAR Southern Modified Tour
heads to Langley September 1st, Brunnhoelzl III
leads the series in points by 52 over Danny Bohn.
Following Brunnhoelzl was Danny Bohn seventh, Ken
Heagy eighth, Thomas Stinson ninth and Michael
Speeney tenth.
Next up for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is the
Town Fair Tire 75 at Thompson International Speedway
September 9th.
“You lose respect for how fast you’re going until
you have to stop” Ron Silk, Bristol Motor Speedway
August 22, 2012. |
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Source: Polly Reid / TheChromeHorn.com
Posted: August
23, 2012 |
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