NORTH WOODSTOCK, N.H. — Entering Sunday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at White Mountain Motorsports Park, it had been nearly two years since Kyle Bonsignore last visited Victory Lane.
It wasn’t a stat he was particularly proud of, so he set out to do something about it.
Bonsignore dominated the Thunder in the Mountains 200 at White Mountain on Sunday, taking the lead for the final time with less than 20 laps left and holding off a challenge from Stephen Kopcik to register the third NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory of his career.
RELATED:Complete results from the Thunder in the Mountains 200
The race was the first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event held at White Mountain Motorsports Park since 2020 and only the third at the track in the history of the series.
“Before Riverhead, Andy up in the booth told me it was 22 months since my last win,” Bonsignore said. “I guess we just stuck it in there because it’s still June. Hopefully it’s only 22 days or something before the next one.”
Starting third, Bonsignore was quick to assert himself as a contender Sunday at White Mountain. He took the lead from polesitter Jake Johnson on Lap 31 and would hold the lead until the second caution flag of the night waved for a multi-car crash in Turn 2 on Lap 175.
Like most of the field, Bonsignore opted to to hit pit road for a fresh left-rear tire during the caution period. The lone holdout was Trevor Catalano, who stayed on track and inherited the race lead.
Lining up on the front row to Catalano’s outside, Bonsignore wasted little time regaining the lead. He slipped to Catalano’s inside on Lap 189 to grab the top spot, but he suddenly found a fast closing Kopcik in his mirror as the final laps clicked off.
Kopcik got to Bonsignore’s bumper and hounded him for the final five laps, but he couldn’t find a way past. Bonsignore crossed under the checkered flag to capture the victory by 0.172 seconds ahead of Kopcik, who matched his career-best finish of second.
“After that last caution we took a left rear (tire). It was a lot of, you know, how far back, what’s their lap time, what’s their line. My spotter did an awesome job letting me know,” said Bonsignore, who became the sixth different winner through the first six NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events this season. “It was close. We might not have made the right call on the tire. I don’t know, but it worked out good. I can’t complain.”
The runner-up finish for Kopcik was his second of the season and came after a difficult race two weekends ago at Riverhead Raceway. He finds himself fourth in the series standings, 11 points behind championship leader Justin Bonsignore with 10 races left in the 2025 campaign.
“Towards the end of that run I think we were both just doing the best we could with what we had as far as laps on our tires,” said Kopcik. “I couldn’t be happier. We had some ups and downs today. The guys worked hard and stuck with it. To come out second that close to a win, you can’t complain about that.”
Polesitter Johnson finished third after leading the first 30 laps. Matt Hirschman continued a recent string of strong finishes in fourth, with Austin Beers overcoming a late incident to finish fifth. Craig Lutz, Luke Baldwin, Catalano, Jon McKennedy and Justin Bonsignore completed the top 10.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season continues on Saturday, July 12 with the running of the Nu-Way Auto Parts 150 at Lancaster Motorplex. The green flag will wave at 8:30 p.m. ET live on FloRacing.
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