Voting has officially opened for the 2024 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Most Popular Driver Award, which will run until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, Nov. 21.
Fans will be able to vote five times per day (per unique address) for their favorite driver on NASCAR.com or on the mobile app.
For drivers to be eligible for the award, they must have declared NASCAR Cup Series points and be eligible for championship contention during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The winner of the 2024 NMPA Most Popular Driver Award will be announced during the NASCAR Awards banquet on Friday, Nov. 22 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott has won the Most Popular Driver Award for the last six seasons (2018-23).
Additional information about the NMPA can be found at nmpaonline.com.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — When the time came for the now-customary photo op with the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs grid at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Tyler Reddick’s son, Beau, took the sticker with father’s name on it and placed it on the board with precision. The elder Reddick’s name had just become the latest to join Joey Logano’s in the Championship 4 field, and the 28-year-old driver slapped it twice to make it count.
The extra emphasis added an exclamation point to the rambunctious Victory Lane celebration for his 23XI Racing team. Just like his dazzling, winning pass through the sweeping third and fourth turns, Reddick made damn sure it stuck.
Reddick will be among the four drivers competing for a Cup Series championship for the first time in the Nov. 10 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, converting his bid for a title shot with a remarkable pair of passes that brought him from third place to first, bypassing fellow postseason contenders Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney in a nerve-fraying final lap. The victory — his third of the season — came on friendly turf at the South Florida track, a place that produced his pair of Xfinity Series crowns and one that has allowed him to be at his aggressive best.
Watch and marvel. Clarence Reddick’s been doing it ever since his son first turned a wheel in anger at age 4. Nick Payne, his spotter, has had his eyes firmly on the No. 45 Toyota driver’s talent ever since the two joined forces at 23XI in 2023. NBA legend and 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan has taken special delight in celebrating Reddick’s most recent accomplishments, which could soon include the organization’s first championship in two weeks’ time.
“What you saw there was Tyler doing what Tyler does,” Clarence Reddick told NASCAR.com. “They’ve talked about it for years: He’s way better at 130% than he is just running 110. He loves that.”
All saw brilliance from different vantage points at the end of Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400, the middle race in the postseason’s Round of 8. Reddick had benefited when a late caution period for Kyle Larson’s long slide out of a battle with Blaney for the lead had flipped the final stage’s pit strategy. No. 45 crew chief Billy Scott opted to run long before the team’s final scheduled stop, and when the yellow flew, Reddick stayed out to retake the lead. On two-lap-older tires, Reddick slipped briefly in the seven-lap run to the end but somehow summoned the needed momentum by the time the white flag flew.
Clarence Reddick, sitting alongside Jordan on pit road, could only see his son sail off into Turn 1, where the No. 45 Camry dove low and carried enough speed to clear Hamlin’s No. 11 by the time the front-running trio reached the back straight. He couldn’t see his son’s fateful move — a resurgent blast around the top side that foiled Blaney’s feint to the middle lane in the final corners.
“At the end, I wasn’t sure we were getting there, and then all of a sudden, we were there,” Clarence Reddick said. “I watched him come off (Turn) 4 with the lead, and I was surprised as maybe anybody was. I was cheering because I didn’t know that we had ran the wall and passed Ryan. I was thinking at that point when we were going in, it was going to maybe take Ryan and Denny to wrangle it up a little bit and let us get by. But that’s not how it went. He just went beast mode and just wasn’t going to be denied.
“He’s done that here. This is one of his best race tracks. This track, he’s talked about it before. It so rewards his aggression. The more aggressive he gets here, the better things that happen for him.”
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Payne watched from the spotters’ stand, a more precarious job than normal this weekend because of a fluke infestation by a swarm of bees on the Homestead-Miami roof. His view of the late-lap proceedings was essential, and he relied on both his instincts and the hunch that even at a slight tire disadvantage, his driver had the goods.
“Man, if there’s anybody who can go up there and make it stick, there’s two people: It’s Tyler and it’s Kyle Larson,” Payne told NASCAR.com. “The moment we were chasing the 12 (Blaney), I kind of knew that, man, this could get pretty big here or it could work out well. It’s one of those high-risk, high-reward things, and thankfully, we kind of took the patient approach and we were just going to eat the fact that we may not get to the line first. As soon as we did that, we got to his right-rear, and I knew the moment we got to his right-rear, it’s a drag race to the line.”
Jordan made his way from his pit-road perch and strolled along the narrow, elevated pit-wall walkway to reach the frontstretch victory celebration. There was a reason that partners Jordan and Hamlin had recruited the California hotshot as they crafted the next stage of 23XI’s evolution, to create more moments like these.
In Reddick, it turns out, Jordan has found a kindred spirit — someone else who can knock down a big shot in the clutch.
“To be able to reward him with the days like we had today, it’s a true honor,” Reddick said of the NBA Hall of Famer. “It was really cool to see how happy he was. We’re all very happy about it. He believed in me. He believes in this team. The people, him, Denny, everybody else, has put together to create what 23XI is. He’s put a lot toward it. It’s really cool in these critical moments to be able to deliver for him and for everybody else that’s a part of the team.”
Reddick had shoved aside several weeks of adversity, ever since he gutted out a valiant performance over Labor Day to seal the Regular Season Championship by a single point. Since then, the playoffs have presented a rocky road, including a wild rollover crash last weekend at Las Vegas that left him facing a 30-point deficit to the elimination line heading into Sunday’s 400-miler.
Sunday, all those hurdles were set aside with a winning ticket.
“Man, we’re chipping away at it. Tough times don’t last, tough people do, and we said that all week, and that’s kind of been our mantra through this,” Payne said. “It’s been tough. We’ve tried things, we’ve had some success, we failed. We’ve done a lot of things this year, and these guys just don’t give up. Pit crew, crew guys, engineers, everybody at Airspeed. It’s a testament to everything they’ve done. They work their tails off, week in, week out, every single week, and I’m just fortunate to be a small part of it.”
Reddick’s journey now includes a first-ever Championship 4 berth — both for him and his 23XI group. The opportunity to hoist the Bill France Cup comes in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway, a place where he’ll race two-time champion Logano and two other hopefuls for the Cup Series title. Those slots will be decided in next Sunday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
The 2024 campaign has already been a season of great achievement for Reddick, who has risen higher on the postseason ladder than ever before. He now has a signature moment at Homestead-Miami to thank for that chance.
“We have a shot to win the regular season and win that — that’s only going to amp that up further,” Clarence Reddick said. “I mean, he will be charged there. It’ll be just like when you saw the last lap here. So it means a lot. It’s great to reach this level, you know? I mean, I felt like we could always get to Cup, even that’s hard to do, sure. But to be able to be significant in it, I’m very proud of him. I’ve always told him all his life, he’s the best, and so I keep cheerleading for him all the time, but it’s incredible.”
A 267-lap race for the ages at Homestead-Miami Speedway ended with a pass in Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap as Tyler Reddick rode the outside line to the checkered flag, passing Ryan Blaney to punch his ticket to Phoenix Raceway to fight for the Bill France Cup. All Round of 8 drivers were on their A-game at Homestead, with six of the remaining title contenders claiming the top-six finishing spots.
WINNER
Capitalizing on a late-race caution after a Kyle Larson spin, Reddick found a second life on a restart with seven to go as the No. 45 23XI Toyota led the way back to green. Despite falling behind Blaney and team owner Denny Hamlin, Reddick rode the wall on the final lap to get around the No. 12 in perfect fashion to take the checkered flag at Homestead. It’s Reddick’s first trip to the Championship 4.
Ryan Blaney. Like Christopher Bell last week at Las Vegas, Blaney will leave Homestead heartbroken after looking like the man to win it after the final green-flag pit stops. But after a gutsy move from Larson to try to take the lead from the defending champ, the No. 5 driver spun to rack up the field one more time. Blaney was able to grab ahold of the lead on the final lap, but as the No. 12 took entry into the final corner, he chose the slower bottom and opened the door for Reddick to clear on the outside, settling for a runner-up result.
Denny Hamlin. Hamlin nearly stole the show during the final restart as he initially had the advantage before being passed by Blaney and Reddick at the finish. The No. 11 collected a Stage 2 checkered flag, and with his third-place result, Hamlin is just 18 points below the elimination line heading to one of his best tracks in Martinsville Speedway.
WHO’S NOT?
William Byron. Despite another top-10 performance from the No. 24 team, they were among the slowest of the Round of 8 drivers all day Sunday. It was a clean day for Byron, but with Reddick winning, Byron holds just a seven-point gap to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson on the elimination line before the cutoff race at Martinsville.
Kyle Larson. Another grind of a day for the No. 5 team puts them in the hole heading to Martinsville. Always a sure-fire favorite at Homestead, Larson held point early before a flat right-rear tire put him in the wall in Stage 1. Larson failed to collect stage points, but when he was in a position to take the lead and steal the checkered flag, he was too antsy for position and spun trying to squeeze between Blaney and Austin Dillon in Turn 3 for the race lead. Larson settled for a 13th-place result.
HOMESTEAD, Fla – It was pure playoff pandemonium in the final laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway that delivered an all-time moment in Cup Series history.
Ryan Blaney was leading at the bell lap, about to join his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in the Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway to be the second title contender to lock in and find the late momentum he was looking for to defend his NASCAR Cup Series title.
The 2024 Regular Season Champ was breathing down Blaney’s neck through the backstretch on the final lap and went right against the outside wall to ride the high line. Blaney chose the upper-middle lane, which opened the door for Reddick to squeeze by. Carrying an enormous amount of speed through the last set of corners, the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota rocketed around the No. 12 Ford and snatched the lead as they exited Turn 4 to steal the win — and Blaney’s bid — in a matter of seconds.
“It stings,” Blaney said. “How else you want me to describe it?”
It was a fierce battle between Reddick, Blaney and third-place finisher Denny Hamlin as they lined up in the top three spots on the race’s final restart on Lap 261 after the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson spun while attempting an aggressive three-wide move through the middle between Blaney and Austin Dillon — the latter of whom was about to go a lap down.
Hamlin vaulted to the lead when the race went green again, shooting past Reddick, Blaney and Chase Elliott out of Turn 2 in a daring four-wide maneuver. The No. 11 held onto the lead for five of the final seven laps before Blaney then made way past Hamlin on Lap 266 and thought he had a win sealed as he led 38 of the final 78 laps in the closing stage.
“Hard-fought, man, just having to pass the 11 [Hamlin], finally getting by him, I just didn’t have a good last lap,” Blaney said. “I didn’t really get to the bottom like I wanted in [Turns] 1 and 2, and it kind of gave the 45 [Reddick] a little clean air, then he just got a big shove by the 11 down the back.”
The trio of Reddick, Blaney and Hamlin each came to South Beach under the elimination line (Hamlin minus-27, Reddick minus-30 and Blaney minus-47), creating win-or-bust scenarios for all three drivers as they gave it all they had in the waning moments, and the late stages set well for any of them to still have a shot at Victory Lane with one more circuit around the aged Homestead asphalt.
“I sent it in there, and [Reddick] sent it in there miles further, which I cannot believe it stuck,” Blaney said. “The Toyotas could do that all day, just their entry speed was crazy fast and benefited them there. A shame to lose it on the last lap like that.”
The turnaround will be quick for the defending champ, who isn’t wasting time licking his fresh wounds before the penultimate race of the season at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
“I try not to stew over these things,” Blaney said. “I just try to learn from them and be like, ‘Well, this probably would’ve been the best route to do, and maybe if you’re in that spot next time, do that.’ But try not to sit around and let it eat me because then you’re gonna go crazy.”
Blaney led seven times for 47 laps, and his runner-up finish was enough to dwindle his points gap to the elimination to 38 markers. However, he still remains seventh in the playoff table.
While the bright side for Blaney and Co. might be difficult to find, there is hope in the fact that they head to Martinsville next week as the defending winner, where the No. 12 won its way into a Championship 4 spot by dominating the race and leading 145 laps in last year’s contest.
“Tomorrow morning, we’ll re-stack and get ready for Martinsville,” Blaney said. “I was super excited about the speed we had today. I mean, I can’t complain about that. Honestly, last week’s speed, too, was great before we got in the wreck. So hopefully, we can bring that same speed to Martinsville.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — In one of the most dramatic 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs races — featuring three different leaders in the final three laps — 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick made a clutch pass out of Turn 4 on the last lap to claim his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday when it counted most.
Reddick passed his team owner, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, entering Turn 1 on the final lap and then moved high up against the wall to pass Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney in the final corner to claim the Straight Talk Wireless 400 trophy and secure a position in the Championship 4, scheduled in two weeks at Phoenix Raceway.
NBA legend Michael Jordan, his team owner, raised his arms and cheered loudly from pit lane as Reddick celebrated on the frontstretch after the race.
“Little kid [Reddick] drove his ass off, and I’m proud of him,” exclaimed Jordan. “He didn’t let go. He just went for it, and we needed it. We needed it.”
After getting a huge hug from Jordan, Reddick — the Regular Season Champion — was all smiles, proud of his move and his 23XI Racing No. 45 Toyota team, which put him out front for a race-best 97 of the 267 laps — and ultimately handed him the chance at the win after a late-race caution flag forced a restart with only seven laps remaining. It marks his eighth career Cup win and third of the season.
“I don’t know, we were backed in a corner and had no other choice. I knew we were on a tire deficit, and here at Homestead, that’s a death sentence, but I didn’t care,” Reddick said of moving back into the lead after being passed in a four-wide move on the restart only to work his way back to the point in the final six laps.
Because he had just pitted for tires four laps before that final caution flag, Reddick was positioned on the front row for that restart — the only driver who stayed out during that yellow flag waved. He restarted on the front row alongside Blaney but was fourth a lap later in the frenzied final run.
“We did what it took to win this race, and we’re fighting for a championship,” said the 28-year-old Californian, who became only the second driver in 22 years to win at Homestead from the pole position.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he added of the pass. “I just knew I needed to get even with him on his right side door, and he raced me clean, and I appreciate it. I’m just really, really excited having a shot at the championship.”
While the win vaulted Reddick to an automatic playoff berth, it left Blaney and Hamlin in must-win positions heading into next week’s race at Martinsville Speedway. Team Penske’s Joey Logano claimed the first Championship 4 entry last week at Las Vegas, and with Reddick’s victory Sunday, only two positions are still available for the race for the 2024 title.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, who finished fourth Sunday, leads the points standings and holds a 29-point edge on the playoff elimination line. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who finished sixth, is in that fourth and final transfer position in the standings with a seven-point cushion over Hendrick Motorsports’ teammate Kyle Larson.
JGR’s Hamlin is now sixth, 18 points back. The reigning series champion Blaney is seventh, 38 points behind Byron and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott, who finished fifth at Homestead, is ranked eighth, 43 points below the cutoff line.
“Obviously, it’s a disappointment — had a great shot to win and didn’t have a very good last lap,” Blaney said. “Man, I thought I got into [Turn] 3 hard, and the 45 [Reddick] just blitzed up in there, and it stuck for him, which is very impressive.
“Hate to give one away like that, although I don’t know if we gave it away. Got the lead back after losing it on the restart and [the] last lap just didn’t play out for us. Just really stinks. I appreciate everyone on the 12 team for bringing a really fast race car. We had a really fast race car and I had a really great shot to go to Phoenix and still have one more chance.”
Byron placed sixth Sunday, followed by his Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman. Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger was eighth, with Spire Motorsports rookie Carson Hocevar and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece rounding out the top 10.
The Round of 8 will conclude next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Reddick as the Homestead-Miami race winner. The No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch and No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Ty Gibbs will be taken back to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — NASCAR officials said that driver Matt Mills was transported to an area medical facility for further evaluation after a crash in Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In a Sunday update, Niece Motorsports announced that Mills will remain overnight at a local hospital for a second night of observation as doctors continue to monitor Mills’ oxygen levels due to smoke inhalation, the team said in a statement. Mills announced Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he returned home.
“Glad to be out of the hospital. Still a little raspy as you can hear, but just all the overwhelming support and text messages I’ve gotten just mean so much to me,” Mills said on social media. “Definitely didn’t like being in the hospital as long as I was or being in that situation, so having you guys there to support me and help me get through that, just can’t thank y’all enough. Can’t wait to be back at the race track at Martinsville this weekend and continue doing what I love.”
Mills crashed in the 76th of 134 laps in Saturday’s Baptist Health 200. The 27-year-old driver lost control of his No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet after a Turn 3 bump from Conner Jones’ No. 66 ThorSport Racing Ford during their contest for 19th place.
Mills’ truck slammed the outside retaining wall and sustained heavy right-side damage. He gingerly exited the No. 42 Chevy after it skidded to a stop, where he was attended to by safety personnel.
Niece Motorsports provided a statement on Mills post-race: “Matt Mills, driver of the No. 42 J.F. Electric/Utilitra Chevrolet for Niece Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is being transported to a local hospital for further observation after contact during today’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Additional updates will be forthcoming, with no additional comments at this time.”
The Al Niece-owned team indicated Saturday evening that Mills would remain at the hospital overnight for continued observation, adding: “Matt and team are grateful for the outpouring of support.”
Jones, a part-time Truck Series competitor making his 21st career start, lashed out in frustration through his team communications after the contact. During the caution period, NASCAR officials penalized him for rough driving, holding his No. 66 truck on pit road for two laps.
Jones declined comment to reporters after finishing 25th in the 34-truck field, but issued a statement through social media later Saturday afternoon.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Chase Elliott currently occupies the cellar in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs’ eight-driver field, sitting an unenviable 53 points below the provisional elimination line. Two events remain in the postseason’s Round of 8 for him to claim a championship-race berth in the Nov. 10 finale at Phoenix Raceway, but Elliott says a radically different approach to those looming weekends won’t better his case.
Elliott’s next opportunity arrives with Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver aims to give his playoff fate a boost. Going for broke, waving a magic wand and deviating from what’s gotten him here, Elliott says, isn’t in his team’s playbook.
“You get in these situations, and I think everyone just feels like you’re going to reinvent the wheel to go and win a race, and that’s just not how it works,” said Elliott, the Cup Series champ in 2020. “I don’t have a magic ‘go win’ button. If I did, I’d press it every week. So it’s just, that’s just not how this works. So what you do is, you have to have a base of where you’re at and the things that you do well, and you have things that you don’t do well, and you just try to improve, and you try to make it better. For us, we’ve got to get into a position where we’re qualifying better, where we’re leading more laps and running inside the top five more throughout the event.
“Those are all things that give you opportunities to win, not just some ‘Hail Mary’ that you’re going to hit one in a million on and hope that it’s in the next two weeks. That’s just silly. The odds of that happening are slim to none, at least for me. It doesn’t seem like it works out like that.”
Elliott landed in this precarious playoff spot after his No. 9 Chevy sustained damage in a Stage 2 crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The tangle also snared fellow playoff drivers Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney, and all three finished outside the top 30 to tumble onto the negative side of the postseason bubble.
Elliott’s lone victory this season came at another 1.5-mile track, 24 races ago at Texas Motor Speedway in mid-April. He said during a midweek availability that he’s in need of another.
“I think that we’re in a position where we have to win one of the next two,” said Elliott, who would reach career Cup Series win No. 20 upon his next trip to Victory Lane. “That was our thought process going into Vegas. So, while it didn’t work out for us, and we ended up worse than what we went in, I don’t think the goals change at all. So this was really the position that we’ve kind of viewed ourselves in the whole time. So I think we just, yeah, keep the hammer down and try to get a win in one of these next two weeks.”
Editor’s note: Projected finish has been updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions. Kyle Larson replaces Christopher Bell as the projected winner.
The Round of 8 opener wasn’t just the dogfight we all anticipated it would be — it was an all-out war. Joey Logano and the No. 22 crew yet again proved it doesn’t matter how much pace you bring off the hauler, it takes the best team to win and stamp a ticket to Phoenix Raceway.
Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) should be no different; whoever wins will ultimately have to be flawless from top to bottom and may have to take some risk that pays a great reward.
Three drivers who were heavy pre-race favorites last week should be double-circling Miami as must-wins for their title bids. Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick each had a strong case to be in Victory Lane last Sunday, and not only are these three drivers some of the best at riding the fence at Miami, but they opened as the top three betting favorites this week. Granted, most of the elite eight drivers left have been top-tier at Homestead, but that’s why there’s more pressure on Bell, Larson and Reddick to win Sunday — they arguably let one get away, and at this time of year, you simply just can’t let that happen.
In Bell’s case, he enters as the defending winner and has proved time and time again that he thrives with his back against the wall in the playoffs. In other words, he has his sight set on defending his win. The only issue is Miami hasn’t seen a back-to-back winner since Greg Biffle’s three-peat from 2004-06. However, Racing Insights’ early week projection forecasted that to change, with Bell picked as the winner.
Larson has led over 600 laps at Homestead in his last seven starts in South Beach. While he’s had unfortunate luck in all three of the opening round races, the bright side is the No. 5 team has found ways to quickly turn things around. He won six stages there, which is four more than the next-highest driver and won this race two years ago.
Reddick has yet to win at Homestead at the Cup level, though he does have three top-five finishes in his four career starts and has two Xfinity wins there. Plus, he’s not afraid to push it right to the limit when it comes to ripping the fence at Homestead. With Martinsville next week, Reddick should be all-in on going for the win.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
WILLIAM BYRON: Byron, another former Homestead winner, has been red-hot the last four races with consecutive top fives. The No. 24 is hitting its stride at the right time, and the consistent performances Byron’s churned out are what lead to Championship 4 berths. He’s been itching to win and expressed that last weekend, so it’s only a matter of time.
DENNY HAMLIN: Hamlin’s a three-time Homestead winner and has only one finish worse than 12th in the last 11 Miami races. He had a steering failure last year in this race and playoff struggles have only piled up for the No. 11 team this year, he will need to dig deep and find a vintage performance this weekend.
KYLE BUSCH: Rowdy has eight straight top-10 finishes at Miami. While it is certainly difficult for non-playoff drivers to reach a new level and beat playoff drivers this late in the year, Busch has a streak he wants to keep alive of seeing Victory Lane at least once for two decades, and it’s hard to count him out.
AJ ALLMENDINGER: Here’s another sleeper to watch out for this weekend. Allmendinger has finished in the top five in the last two Miami races, which is tied for the longest streak. This 1.5-mile track is arguably his best as he owns five top 10s and an average finish of 15.5 in 12 starts there.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE STRAIGHT TALK WIRELESS 400
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — In sports, there are those who are considered generational talents, men like Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth or Wayne Gretzky. They’re the type of competitors who are so dominant, so skilled, that they are instantly considered among the greatest of all time.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has seen a few competitors like that. Men like Richie Evans, Mike Stefanik, Reggie Ruggiero, Doug Coby and Ted Christopher rewrote record books and collected trophies like few before or since.
After Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway, that list now includes Justin Bonsignore.
The 36-year-old from Holtsville, New York claimed his fourth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship with a dominant win in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200.
The win, the 45th of his career, moved him past Ruggiero for second on the all-time Modified Tour win list.
Yet Bonsignore, humble despite his place in history, has a hard time admitting he deserves to be mentioned among the greats who came before him.
“Those guys, Teddy, Michael, Reggie, Richie Evans, they are absolute bad asses,” Bonsignore said. “To be around those guys and have my name mentioned with them, I don’t feel I’m deserving. Those are the biggest bad asses of our series, and to have my name mentioned with them, it doesn’t feel right.”
It’s still a bit surreal for Bonsignore, who not that long ago was simply a weekly racer at New York’s Riverhead Raceway hoping to find the funding to keep racing for another week.
That’s where car owner Ken Massa comes in.
Massa met Bonsignore at Riverhead Raceway on Aug. 1, 2009. Bonsignore, then just 21, had managed to scrape together enough money to enter the Modified Tour race that evening at his home track.
Justin Bonsignore won his first grandfather clock Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, a win that allowed him to clinch his fourth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
He turned that opportunity into a fourth-place finish, beating men like Stefanik, Christopher, Coby, Todd Szegedy, Jamie Tomaino and Donny Lia, all of whom either had already won or would go on to win Modified Tour championships.
Massa saw something in Bonsignore that day, something Bonsignore perhaps didn’t even see in himself.
After a meeting in the pits and a few phone calls later, Massa was starting a race team that in the years since has won four championships and 45 Modified Tour races, all with Bonsignore as the driver.
With that success has come a friendship and an unbreakable bond, the type formed by a few hardworking people shedding blood, sweat and tears to achieve a dream.
“It hasn’t always been easy. He never gave up on me, and I never gave up on him,” Bonsignore said. “We’re best friends. We’re partners in a business together. He’s financially changed my life forever with our business.
“He and his wife Janine, they’re like another father and mother to me. They’re not old enough, and they get mad that I say that, but they are family-like figures to me because they live 10 minutes away. My parents are 12 hours away. A lot of times when I need advice, I go to them.
“Now I have a family of my own, and they just absolutely love my son and my wife Taylor. They’re just people you’re lucky to come across in life, and you just hope to never lose them.”
For a time this season, a fourth Modified Tour championship seemed like an unlikely prospect. An on-track rivalry with defending series champion Ron Silk reached a boiling point on Sept. 14 at Riverhead in the form of contact between the two while battling for the race lead.
As a result of the incident, Bonsignore went from leading the championship by five points to trailing Silk by 10 points with four races left in the season.
Things didn’t get any better at Monandock Speedway the following weekend. Bonsignore and Silk found each other again, with Bonsignore spinning Silk midway through the race.
Bonsignore finished one spot behind Silk that day, dropping him to 11 points out of the championship lead with three races left.
The team, which is led by crew chief Ryan Stone, refocused. Stone rebuilt one of the team’s most reliable cars and brought it to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Oct. 13.
They won with Bonsignore leading a race-high 121 laps. They brought the same car to North Wilkesboro Speedway one week later. Again, Bonsignore led the most laps, 130, and won.
Silk, meanwhile, earned finishes of third and 11th. Bonsignore went from 11 points behind to 10 points ahead.
“Nobody gave up,” Bonsignore said. “We were publicly upset with what happened at Riverhead. It’s racing. I get it. We didn’t approach Monadnock the way I would have liked. We didn’t run good, and we decided to show our frustrations and show we were willing to lose it all. I’m not good at that. It was stupid.
“We finished the car, and three days after Monadnock, we came and tested at North Wilkesboro. The car was just lights out.”
Justin Bonsignore shares victory lane with his wife, Taylor, and son, Evan, after winning Saturday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
A championship was hardly a forgone conclusion for Bonsignore entering Saturday’s finale at Martinsville. In each of the last two seasons, the drivers who went on to win the championship were involved in incidents during the finale that nearly derailed their seasons.
Bonsignore knew one wrong move, one misstep, would be all it took to cost him a championship and hand Silk his third. So he did everything in his power to control his own destiny.
He started by winning the Mayhew Tools Dominator Pole Award. He took the lead on the opening lap, and other than a mid-race restart following pit stops, he was never passed on track.
The championship was all but clinched with 63 laps left, when Silk limped his No. 16 Modified to the pits with engine trouble. Bonsignore could have backed off, slowed down and just cruised the rest of the way to capture the championship.
That’s not his style, nor is it his team’s style. They wanted a grandfather clock.
“I came off (turn) four and saw a silver car on pit road. I keyed the radio and said, ‘I see what’s on pit road,’” Bonsignore said. “They were like, ‘Just go win the race.’”
Bonsignore did that, becoming just the second driver (Doug Coby, 2015) to end the season by winning the final three races on the schedule.
In a single day, Bonsignore won his fourth Modified Tour championship, won his first Martinsville Speedway grandfather clock and moved into second on the all-time series win list.
This is his life. He’s one of the best Modified Tour drivers ever. And he still has a lot of gas left in the tank.
“This is special. I want to do this until I’m 50,” Bonsignore said. “If I’m competitive and I can keep this team together, I think I can do it. We’re going to try like hell to keep winning races and contending for championships.
“I just want to keep winning races and having fun with my friends.”
