LOUDON, NH :: Ryan Newman and Justin Bonsignore traded the lead back and forth multiple times on the final lap of the inaugural Whelen All-Star Shootout for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but it was Newman who would prevail.

Bonsignore dove underneath Newman as the pair headed into turn one on the final lap and took the lead off of turn two. But almost immediately Newman was back underneath Bonsignore and they went side-by-side down the backstretch. Newman sent his no. 7 machine deep into turn three and took the lead back from Bonsignore to take the lead and the win.

Newman said that he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get back by Bonsignore because he didn’t know if somebody would be following Bonsignore.

“I didn’t know if he was being pushed,” he said. “I really can’t see that. I can see somebody showing their nose and the spotters are talking to me, but it’s kind of hard to process all of that at once. Once he slid by I knew I was going to get some kind of tow off of him.”

Newman said that his car was really tight in this race and because of that he expected Bonsignore to be right back on him as they went towards the checkered flag.

“I thought he would be closer coming back to the line,” said Newman. “It really kind of lined up right for us.”

Meanwhile, a second place finish for Bonsignore in this race was pretty impressive. His team made the decision to not run the event earlier in the week, but changed their minds after the first practice session. He drew the 12th starting position but he said he dropped to the back just to let everybody settle down.

“I’ve really never been in position to win a race here,” said Bonsignore. “So I figured the best way to not tear up a bunch of cars would be to take the lead going into one. I kind of assumed Newman would get back by me, and I tried to throw the block down the backstretch but he had a good head of steam.”

The race was scheduled to run 40 laps, but it did have a hard time limit of 30 minutes. The race saw one long caution flag for a crash by Donny Lia, so NASCAR shortened the race by three laps. 37 laps were run officially.

Lia was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation after his crash.

Results:

1. Ryan Newman

2. Justin Bonsignore

3. Mike Stefanik

4. Ron Silk

5. Bobby Santos

6. Ryan Preece

7. Chuck Hossfeld

8. Todd Szegedy

9. Ted Christopher

10. J. R. Bertuccio

11. Cole Powell

12. Doug Coby

13. Andy Seuss

14. Rowan Pennink

15. Matt Hirschman

16. Patrick Emerling

17. Donny Lia

18. Ken Heagy

19. Glen Reen

20. Jamie Tomaino