WINCHESTER, N.H. — Years of patience and hard work culminated in victory lane for Tommy Catalano, who won Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Monadnock Speedway.
Catalano triumphed in his 96th career start, with his victory coming a year after his younger brother Trevor won at the same track.
Catalano was tasked with fending off Patrick Emerling during an overtime restart while on older tires. Emerling briefly took the lead from Catalano, but a nudge to Emerling’s back bumper knocked him out of the groove just enough for Catalano to earn an emotional breakthrough victory by the slimmest of margins – .007 seconds.
“I didn’t really want to get [Emerling] like that into [turn three],” Catalano said. “I was hoping to kind of move him up the hill a little bit. Everyone was kind of tight right there. Justin [Bonsignore] was right on my bumper. It’s unbelievable.
“Hopefully this isn’t the last one.”
As Catalano celebrated, Emerling felt a mix of frustration and disappointment with his second-place effort.
“We had the best car today,” Emerling said. “We led basically the whole race and the whole team executed really good. We were doing exactly what we had to do and had the race won in the last corner but got smashed out of the way. That’s not the type of racing that I do, but I guess that’s how it goes.”
Catalano was the eighth different winner in eight races this season.
Kyle Bonsignore finished third in his 100th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start, followed by his cousin Justin Bonsignore and Austin Beers.
