Dowling Gets First Whelen Victory
Crash On Last Lap Clears Path
LOUDON, N.H. — The theater that is last lap drama for the Whelen Modified Tour at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is part of NASCAR legend.
But when it was announced that the Whelen Modified Tour would run a 250-lap event at the inaugural Full Throttle Weekend at NHMS, many wondered if extending the distance of the race 150 laps beyond the norm for the division at the track would sap away the drama.
The answer came Saturday in the inaugural Musket 250.
No matter the distance, the drama remained.
In an epic closing lap, it was Chase Dowling avoiding the first- and secondplace cars wrecking in front of him through the final corners to win.
It was the first career Whelen Modified Tour victory for Dowling, 20, of Roxbury, who was making his 55th career start Saturday. Before Saturday’s event, Dowling had five second-place finishes over the previous 14 tour events dating to the final race of 2017.
Dowling works full time for at Rob Fuller’s LFR chassis company and his Rob Fuller Motorsports team.
“You go through a frustrating patch,” Dowling said. “I work on these cars full time in the shop. You make this your life, and you’re working to do this stuff. I was pretty fortunate to have someone like [Fuller] that I can work for and drive the race cars on the weekends. You get back to the shop, and you grind through the weeks, and you have bad runs, and you have good runs, and you finish second, second, second, and people ask you all the time, ‘When are you going to win?’ When you finally do it, you get relieved a little bit.”
Patrick Emerling of Orchard Park, N.Y., was second and Burt Myers of Walnut Cove, N.C., third.
Dowling collected $25,000 in purse money for the victory and another $5,400 in bonus money for leading 54 laps. Emerling earned $10,000 for second place.
The victory proved to be sweet redemption for Dowling, who finished second by inches to Bobby Santos III in the most recent Whelen Modified Tour event at NHMS on July 21.
But with a half lap left, it hardly looked like Dowling would end his winless streak. Series points leader Justin Bonsignore looked to be on his way to victory until the closing moments of the final lap.
With Preece closing on him heading into turn three, Bonsignore went low to block a possible run under him. Preece nearly put his car into the grass in an effort to get even lower. From there, Preece’s right front climbed over the left rear of Bonsignore, sending both cars heading to the wall.
Dowling went low and avoided the fray. From there, Dowling had to defend a low run by Emerling off of the final corner in a drag race to the checkered.
“Just a normal last lap at New Hampshire,” Bonsignore said. “[Preece] had a run, and we had to block the bottom. You want to be in the lead these last few years here. I went to the bottom, blocked the bottom. I didn’t give him an option. He drove through me. He was doing what he had to do to win the race, and it didn’t work out for either of us, unfortunately.
“It’s been the last three or four years here where the leader just blocks, and it works out for them. Unfortunately, today I guess the second-place car learned that if you just keep driving through them until they’re completely gone. It’s just a product of New Hampshire. I don’t blame Ryan at all. I would have done the same thing. It’s just unfortunate it didn’t work out for either of us.”
Asked what happened on the last lap Preece said: “Loudon.”
“Him leading, he’s going to put me in the grass, and if he was in second, I would have put him in the grass,” Preece said. “It’s just, you never want to say that because, at the end of the day, two race cars got pretty much killed, but who knows if I’m ever going to have a shot to win the Musket 250 ever again.
“… Him and I know that we’re never going to wreck each other intentionally. That was one of those deals where there was a lot of give and take the entire race, and when there’s one corner left and you have a huge run, you’re not really going to give much. You’re going to take a lot. It’s racing. You don’t want to say it’s racing, but today that was racing.”
Said Dowling: “I saw Ryan, he was going off on the bottom. I saw dust rolling. That’s how he low he was. I knew it wasn’t going to end well. I saw Patrick stay up high, and I said, ‘They’re probably going to wreck.’ And then they did. You don’t have time to think, just react. I thought they were going to wreck, so I went low. The car turned really good down there.”
With only six cars on the lead lap late, Preece, of Berlin, ended up fifth. Bonsignore, of Holtsville, N.Y., was sixth.