![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.maineracing.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/WHLN-e1537735321318.png\")
Chase Dowling (holding up musket) with David McGrath, New Hampshire Motor Speedway executive vice president and general manager (left, pointing) after his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win in the inaugural Musket 250 at NHMS on Saturday. Photo Courtesy: NHMS\/Alan MacRae<\/p><\/div>\n
Late race leaders, Justin Bonsignore and Ryan Preece, wreck in final turn, allowing Dowling to slide by and take an unexpected win in longest Whelen Modified race in series history.<\/em><\/p>\n LOUDON, N.H. \u2013\u00a0After 250 hard fought laps and numerous lead changes, of course the Whelen Modified race came down to the final turn of the final lap to determine a winner in a wild finish to the Musket 250. When the dust had settled, Chase Dowling sped across the Granite Stripe to win the longest race in series history. The pole sitter Dowling takes home $25,000 plus $100 for every lap he led through the afternoon; quite a haul for the young driver who captured his first ever Modified victory. He nearly took home the checkered flag at NHMS in July, losing the summer race by .014 seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hasn\u2019t sunk in yet,\u201d said Dowling. \u201cThis race is a lot different than earlier in the year. You\u2019re leading one moment and then you pit out and you don\u2019t know where you are when you come out; you just had to be patient.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Patience was in short supply at the end of the race. With five laps to go, Patrick Emerling gave a huge push to Ryan Preece, launching him back into the lead spot, but that was short lived after Emerling gave another push, this time to Justin Bonsignore, putting Preece in second. In a last lap pass attempt, Preece\u2019s front right tire tangled with Bonsignore\u2019s left rear, causing them to wreck in turns three and four, clearing the path for Dowling to take the checkered flag.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s New Hampshire, just trying to win,\u201d said Preece, who restarted his battered race car and forced it across the finish to ensure a fifth place finish. \u201cEnded up getting the big run, I pulled down, saw grass, checked up, saw a hole and ended up on his left rear nerf bar. I was trying to get off it, but you can\u2019t get off. It\u2019s not the way I wanted to end, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not the way he [Dowling] wanted to win, but at the end of the day it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emerling finished second and avoided the chaos of the last turn. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the best car, but we had an awesome strategy, and it worked in our favor,\u201d said Emerling. \u201cAnything can happen in the last corner.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Musket 250 tested drivers to their limits. Never before has a Modified race gone 250 laps, and never before have these drivers been required to make green flag pit stops. Those who were successful clearly enjoyed the challenge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI could do this every weekend,\u201d said Burt Myers, third place finisher. \u201cI\u2019ve heard friends tell me Modifieds are the best race of the weekend, and I believe it. It was a blast, but I could do another 250 if you wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For ticket information for events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, including the upcoming\u00a0Extreme Chunkin Festival<\/a>, Oct. 20-21, visit the speedway website at\u00a0www.NHMS.com<\/a>\u00a0or call Fan Relations at (603) 783-4931.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Late race leaders, Justin Bonsignore and Ryan Preece, wreck in final turn, allowing Dowling to slide by and take an unexpected win in longest Whelen Modified race in series history. LOUDON, N.H. \u2013\u00a0After 250 hard fought laps and numerous lead changes, of course the Whelen Modified race came down to the final turn of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,33,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-england","category-new-hampshire","category-nhms","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24117,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24116\/revisions\/24117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}