LOUDON – Anyone who had never heard the name Justin Bonsignore before this weekend certainly has now. While Bonsignore wound up 22nd in his Xfinity Series debut, the result was a far cry from what looked to be a top-five effort down the stretch.
Bonsignore pulled double duty on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 after driving his No. 51 in the Whelen Modified Tour.
The weekend started off on the wrong foot with rain throughout the afternoon on Friday, meaning practice and qualifying for both series were canceled. Based on the metric system, Bonsignore scored a 25th-place starting position in Xfinity and outside front row for the Modifieds.
With rain once again in the forecast for Saturday, the Modified’s Mohegan Sun 100 was moved up to 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning, before the Xfinity race.
Bonsignore made the most of his acting warmup for the Xfinity race later in the day, dominating the Modified event. Bonsignore led the most laps on the morning, holding off cousin Kyle Bonsignore for his 42nd career Whelen win, enough to tie for third all-time.
After another rain shower in between, Bonsignore began his march to the front of the Xfinity field, working his way up from a 25th starting spot to 10th at the end of stage one.
Through some pit strategy, Bonsignore found himself restarting stage two in the second spot. It was at this point that Bonsignore began to flex his muscle to the NASCAR world.
Throughout the entirety of stage two, Bonsignore held the second spot, following behind teammate Christopher Bell as the two pulled away from the field. Finishing second at the end of stage two, Bonsignore looked to be in prime position to contend for the win at race’s end.
After some trouble on pit road and a few spots lost, Bonsignore once again worked his way through the top five, driving up to third before the final set of green flag pit stops. Another small slip-up on pit road cost the No. 19 some ground as the yellow flew just after the end of the green flag pit cycle.
From there, it all went south for Bonsignore. After being bounced around a bit on restarts prior, Bonsignore spun off the nose of Sammy Smith‘s No. 8 with 19 laps to go.
Bonsignore spent the remainder of the race just trying to keep the car in one piece, ultimately coming home 22nd.
Following the incident with Smith that ultimately ruined his day, Bonsignore expressed a…
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