THOMPSON, Conn. — Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park has been the site of many milestones for Ron Silk on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
From tallying his first three Tour victories at the Connecticut facility to surviving a crucial title tilt against rival Justin Bonsignore in October, Silk regularly rises to the occasion whenever the series visits the historic, 0.625-mile oval.
The status quo remained in place for Silk in Sunday’s IceBreaker 150. A dominant performance from the defending Modified Tour champion enabled him to secure his seventh Thompson victory and build some crucial early season momentum in the point standings.
Once the green flag waved for the IceBreaker 150, Silk knew his silver No. 16 Modified could set a commanding pace as soon as he climbed from the fourth starting position.
“I was confident before the pit stop,” Silk said. “I had driven to the lead there and was able to drive away from everybody. This was a fantastic car from the start of the race, and I’m just pumped to be back in Victory Lane.”
The only setback Silk endured during his stalwart day at Thompson occurred while in the pits, as a slow stop caused him to lose the lead to fellow Modified Tour veteran Patrick Emerling.
It only took Silk one corner to re-assert control over the field. Using the bottom line on the restart, Silk muscled Emerling up the track and claimed the top spot, and he did not receive a significant challenge for the lead during the remaining laps.
Emerling, who settled for third, was not pleased with how the final restart played out. Not only did Emerling believe Silk was overly aggressive with his maneuver, but he maintained Silk should have been penalized for a premature launch.
“I kind of feel like Martin Truex Jr. the other day at Richmond,” Emerling said. “[Silk] jumped the start and then took us way up the hill. I’m just going to run him like that in the future, but I thought officiating would have caught that.”
Despite his frustrations, Emerling found solace in his second top-five performance of the season. After being eliminated in an early crash at Richmond the previous week, Emerling felt the IceBreaker 150 was more indicative of the speed prevalent in his first three starts with Rich Gautreau.
With the Thompson race reinforcing the optimism he already had in the program, Emerling believes he can keep tallying strong runs and make a charge for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour title.
“We had the car to beat today,” Emerling said. “It took us a little bit to get going, but we were the fastest car right at the end. Everyone did an awesome job. I did everything right, but I got beat by a jumped start. We’re coming, though.”
Just like at Thompson on Sunday, Silk will be standing in the way of a potential championship for Emerling and the rest of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour field. Aside from a sixth at Martinsville Speedway in November, Silk has not recorded a finish outside the top three in his last seven races.
Silk has every reason to believe he can defend his title after winning two of the first three events in 2024. For now, Silk is content with celebrating another milestone at Thompson with everyone at Haydt-Yannone Racing.
“[My confidence] is pretty high,” Silk said. “Richmond was a nail-biter, and we could be looking at three in a row. Should of, could of, would have, but we’ll go to the next one and try and get another one.”
In a repeat of the most recent Modified Tour event at Thompson, Jake Johnson placed second behind Silk, matching a career-best finish in the process. Emerling, Justin Bonsignore and Tyler Rypkema made up the rest of the top-five finishers.
Rounding out the top 10 were Craig Lutz, Austin Beers, Kyle Bonsignore, Matt Hirschman and Matt Swanson.
Following two consecutive weeks of on-track action, the Modified Tour gets a break before heading to Monadnock Speedway on May 4.
Other Results
The Sunoco 604 Modifieds made their debut on Icebreaker Sunday for a pair of features after rain pushed Saturday’s event to start the show on Sunday. Jon Puleo took off like a rocket and sat on rails for the 30-lap make-up feature with Troy Talman in his tire tracks and Tyler Barry rounding out the first podium.
Danny Cates led the second feature to green with a mirror full of Troy Talman at the start. Talman took over quickly and grew a powerful five car length lead before his stout ride shut down on lap 12. Giving the lead to Jon Puleo, Puleo kept the hammer down in the green-to-checkers feature, doubling up on Sunoco 604 Modified wins followed by Cates and Tyler Berry in feature number two.
After stealing the heat race qualifying wins, SK Light Modified hot-shoes John O’Sullivan and Tyler Chapman lead the AZ Roofing field to green. A clean and green feature led by Chapman suddenly went sour as William Both and Daltin McCarthy ended up in the turn two fence. A wild restart couldn’t keep it green either as Wayne Burroughs, Jr. sent Meghan Fuller into the spin cycle powering out of turn four, ending her day.
The final restart saw Chapman wage a boxing match with Nick Hovey but Chapman claimed the opening day win followed by Hovey and O’Sullivan across the line.
It was a champions battle at the front of the late model feature with 2022-’23 champions Ryan Morgan and Nick Johnson pacing the field. A side-by-side battle over the first ten laps allowed Northeast stand-out Derek Gluchacki to reel in the leaders after getting around a fast Ryan Lineham to claim third. The first caution flag flew on lap 13 for a wrong-way-facing Cameron Houle on the apron of turn two.
After claiming the restart lead, Johnson battled back to lead lap 20 with Gluchacki sitting just behind in the catbird seat, but the opportunity never came. Morgan struck down the Icebreaker victory followed by Johnson and Gluchacki.
2022 Thompson Speedway track champion Kevin Moore brought the field to green in the rain-delayed mini stock event before a lap one caution for Rick LaFlesh brought out the first caution with a slam into the turn two wall. Another battle of Thompson champions saw Moore and defending mini stock champion Jared Roy leading the field.
Roy would take over the lead by lap eight with Ryan Pomposelli overtaking Moore on lap 10 and a tough day got worse watching the fluorescent No. 82 fall through the pack. Roy would dominantly take the Icebreaker win followed by Pomposelli and Kyle Wing to round out the top three.