LOUDON, NH :: The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour put on a thrilling 100-lap race with drivers trading the lead back and forth lap after lap. But when the dust settled it was Bobby Santos using a last corner move to score his first win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Ted Christopher had the lead on the green-white-checkered restart with Santos to his outside. Santos stayed behind Christopher until they went into turn three. He went in high and Christopher slid up the track in front of him. Santos dove to the bottom and took the lead from Christopher as they came off turn four and headed towards the checkered flag.
Christopher’s loss of momentum in the final corner made him slip back to third as Doug Coby got by on the outside coming to the line.
“That was just awesome,” said Santos. “I’ve never been in position on the last lap to win one of these things. This was just our Super Bowl. From whatever happens the rest of the season here on out we won at Loudon.”
Almost all day long the leaders chose the outside lane on the restarts, but Christopher took the inside every time he was out front. That put Santos on the outside for the final restart which he said was right where he wanted to be.
” I knew Teddy was going to send it in and protect the bottom,” said Santos. “I knew that on the last restart I wanted to be in second. Teddy didn’t do anything wrong. He’s the best. He doesn’t make many mistakes and in my opinion he didn’t make a mistake. If the roles were reversed he probably would have beaten me.”
Christopher methodically worked his way to the front of the field picking drivers off one by one. But that all changed once he got into the top five.
On lap 47 he took fourth going into turn one, then took third coming off turn two. Then he drove it deep into the corner and went from third to the lead in turn three. Christopher stayed up in the top three for the rest of the race.
But Christopher didn’t really know what to do on the green-white-checkered. He said there’s a bunch of different strategies to use.
“You could think of all the scenarios in the world that you want to do,” said Christopher. “Obviously I picked the wrong one on that one. But it’s definitely something to build on.”
The win is the third of the season for Santos. He scored victories in the Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway and at the Waterford Speedbowl.
Sunoco 100 Results:
1. Bobby Santos
2. Doug Coby
3. Ted Christopher
4. Ryan Newman
5. Ryan Preece
6. Justin Bonsignore
7. Tommy Barrett Jr.
8. Andy Seuss
9. Ron Silk
10. Chuck Hossfeld
11. Timmy Solomito
12. Matt Hirschman
13. Jimmy Zacharias
14. Jamie Tomaino
15. Wade Cole
16. Save Salzarulo
17. Rowan Pennink
18. Donny Lia
19. Eric Goodale
20. Patrick Emerling
21. Gary McDonald
22. Todd Szegedy
23. Glen Reen
24. J.R. Bertuccio
25. Woody Pitkat
26. Ken Heagy
27. Ron Yuhas Jr.
28. Spencer Davis
29. Melissa Fifield
30. Mike Stefanik