BRISTOL, TN :: Before Wednesday night, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour rookie Tommy Barrett Jr. had never finished better than fourth in any race in his brief career and had only posted a pair of top-10s at New Hampshire and Monadnock Speedway.
He broke through in a big way at Bristol Motor Speedway, winning the Bush’s Beans 150 after out-dueling veterans Bobby Santos and Justin Bonsignore over the final 20 laps. Barrett chased down the dominant drivers of the day, passing them both for the lead on lap 139 and never looked back.
The 19-year-old New Englander held on for one final restart with four laps to go and created a moment that he will surely never forget.
“This hasn’t sunk in yet,” Barrett said immediately after taking his seat in the media center for the post-race media conference.
“To get my first win here is just amazing — I’m so excited. We were good in practice, had a hiccup in qualifying but had a good car and made it to third by halfway. My team made all the right adjustments and I caught Bobby with 15 to go and just pulled away.”
Wednesday was just his 10th overall start in the Modified Tour and his first at Bristol in the once a year points-paying combination race between the Modified Tour and Southern Modified Tour divisions. Even after completing 150 laps at Thunder Valley, Barrett was amazed by the half-mile coliseum.
“It’s my first time here and I’m wowed by this place,” Barrett said. “It’s so big and so fast — the g-forces that you experience entering the turns. There’s nothing like it.”
Santos held on to finish second while Ron Silk completed the podium. Championship leader Doug Coby finished fourth to extend his championship lead over Justin Bonsignore. Ryan Newman was fifth over Bonsignore over Eric Goodale, Patrick Emerling, Timmy Solomito and Jimmy Zacharias.
Coby was involved in several clean side-by-side battles and called it one of the best Modified Tour races ever at the Tennessee short track.
“I tell people that I typically don’t think we put on good shows at Bristol because it gets strung out and someone who is fast wins by a straightaway after all the other good cars have wrecked,” Coby said. “I thought the side-by-side battles for the lead were fun. It was outside versus inside.”
Coby believes he could have won if not for getting pinned on the inside line for the final four restarts.
“I think I had a car that could have won the race if I was in the same position as (Barrett,)” Coby said. “(Bonsignore) got so tight over the final 15 laps which was weird because he was a rocket before that and all of a sudden — they just fell back to our bumper.”
Unofficially, Coby extends his lead over Bonsignore by a single point to four markers with four races remaining at Riverhead, New Hampshire, Stafford and the Fall Final at Thompson. The complete race results for the Modified Tour race at Bristol can be found below.
- Tommy Barrett, Jr.
- Bobby Santos
- Ron Silk
- Doug Coby
- Ryan Newman
- Justin Bonsignore
- Eric Goodale
- Patrick Emerling
- Timmy Solomito
- Jimmy Zacharias
- Ryan Preece
- Ron Yuhas
- JR Bertuccio
- George Brunnhoelzl III
- Burt Myers
- Luke Fleming
- Spencer Davis
- Cole Powell
- Woody Pitkat
- Ted Christopher
- Glen Reen
- Danny Bohn
- Matt Hirschman
- David Calabrese
- Joe Ryan Osborne
- Jamie Tomaino
- Andy Seuss
- Bryan Dauzat
- Gary Putnam
- Jeff Fultz
- Bobby Measmer, Jr.
- Cale Gale
- Gary McDonald
- Todd Szegedy
- Donny Lia
- Kyle Ebersole
- Wade Cole
- Jeremy Gerstner
- Jason Myers
