OSWEGO, N.Y. — Despite now being a part-time competitor on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, Ron Silk now has more victories than any other driver on the 2025 season.
The two-time champion earned his third checkered flag of the year at Oswego Speedway on Saturday evening after cycling to the front after a sequence of late pit stops. The triumph was Silk‘s third at Oswego and 29th overall with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, moving him into sole possession of eighth on the all-time win list.
RELATED: Complete results from the Toyota Mod Classic 150
With Matt Hirschman dominating the opening 100 laps of the Toyota Mod Classic 150, Silk knew the inevitable pit stops would prove pivotal. Silk successfully capitalized when he opted to make two pit stops to for a total of three tires, a decision that allowed him to add a third Oswego win to his stellar resume.
“We were a little bit tight that whole first run,” Silk said. “Our car was good, but I figured there probably wasn‘t going to be another yellow, so we needed to take as many tires as we could. My guys had a great stop and got us out first of all the guys that took three [tires].”
SILKY SMOOTH OPERATOR!
Ron Silk wins the Toyota Mod Classic at @OswegoSpeedway! pic.twitter.com/WnFskcV9LU
— NASCAR Regional (@NASCARRegional) August 31, 2025
Ever since returning to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule in 2016, Oswego has been one of Silk‘s best tracks.
In seven prior Oswego starts, Silk‘s only finish outside the top 10 came in 2022. Silk secured his first Oswego victory in 2021 after a dominant performance that saw him lead 111 laps in Kevin Stuart‘s No. 85 Modified. Two years later, Silk was back in Oswego‘s Victory Lane, this time with his current team, Haydt-Yannone Racing.
Unlike his first two Oswego wins, Silk needed to exercise patience around the Steel Palace on Saturday evening. Passing proved to be at a premium throughout the event, which initially forced Silk to follow in Hirschman‘s tire tracks as he waited for the right opportunity to get his Modified in clean air.
Tommy Catalano‘s spin with less than 50 laps remaining brought the field down to pit lane for what would be the only round of pit stops. After his Haydt-Yannone pit crew got him the track position he needed, it only took Silk a few laps for him to overtake Austin Beers and pull away from the field with no resistance behind him.
Here comes Ron Silk for the lead at @OswegoSpeedway!
📺 @FloRacingpic.twitter.com/Qhd1VNd2jn
— NASCAR Regional (@NASCARRegional) August 31, 2025
The closest challenger to Silk in the Toyota Mod Classic‘s final moments was Craig Lutz, who built off the momentum from his Richmond Raceway victory to finish second. Although he did not have enough time to chase down Silk, Lutz was thrilled to see his team‘s hard work pay off with another solid result.
“We had a really solid car,” Lutz said. “The guys had an awesome pit stop, so it put us in contention. We fired off a little tighter than we needed to for that first run. The last two races have really turned the momentum around, so I can‘t thank everyone enough who gets the car here. All in all, an awesome effort by us, but we just came up a little bit short.”
The time Silk has spent away from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has not disrupted four years of chemistry he has carefully curated with Haydt-Yannone. That cohesion is what gave Silk confidence in his pit crew to execute a perfect pit stop and give him the opening he needed to finish the job on track.
“Everyone on my team did a fantastic job all day,” Silk said. “The pit crew won us the race and got us the track position. It‘s pretty tough to pass [at Oswego], so I want to thank all the guys who volunteer their time to come do this.”
Emerling followed Silk and Lutz home in the third position, with Beers and Hirschman rounding out the top five.
Jake Lutz, Stephen Kopcik, Kyle Bonsignore, Trevor Catalano and Justin Bonsignore were the rest of the top 10 finishers.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will be back in action next weekend with the series‘ second and last visit of the season to Riverhead Raceway. The green flag for the Eddie Partridge 256 will wave at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday evening, with FloRacing providing live coverage of all the on-track action.
Read the full article here