Touring Series News
Newman Outduels Christopher For Modified Win
PHOTO: Todd Szegedy limps his wounded car to pit road during the Whelen Modified Tour event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Justin St. Louis/VMM photo)
LOUDON, N.H. --Visiting NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman took his first career Whelen Modified Tour victory in dramatic fashion in the New England 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
Newman, of South Bend, Ind., came out on top of a side-by-side battle with Plainville, Conn.’s Ted Christopher in the race’s late stages.
Newman started on the pole but was involved in a race-long battle for the lead. Doug Coby, Ron Silk, point leader Bobby Santos, III, and Ryan Preece all took turns at or near the front before Newman and Christopher broke away late in the going. Newman dove under Christopher and slid up the track take the lead away and drive to the win.
Newman was complimentary of his competitors, Christopher in particular. “Any chance you can race Bobby Santos and Teddy Christopher at the end for the win in a Modified race, you’re doing something,” he said. “To have a race slide jobbing back and forth like we did at the end, that’s what the fans like to see and I’m proud we were able to put on a show at the end and I thank Teddy for racing me clean there at the end.”
Christopher gave Newman a shove early in the race, but Newman felt Christopher made up for it in the end by racing him clean.
“I got into [Newman] pretty good in the beginning of the race and I told myself I wasn’t going to do that again,” Christopher said. “I have a lot of respect for him. We’ve raced together down at New Smyrna (Fla.) a bunch of times and he’s a fun guy to race with. I wasn’t going to bump him to get by at the end.”
“I know Teddy is one of the hardest, if not the hardest driver out there when it comes to the Modifieds,” Newman said. “He’ll run it in hard on you and he’s not afraid to use the nerf bars. I don’t know if he did it on purpose or not, but he nerfed me up out of the way eight laps in and I didn’t appreciate it a whole lot. But he didn’t at the end and that takes a whole lot of man to go back and say ‘I didn’t like the way I did what I did to him in the beginning and I’m not going to do it to him at the end, I respect him more than that,’ that’s what’s cool about Teddy.”
Ryan Preece of Berlin, Conn., finished third behind Christopher, with Santos fourth and Ron Silk fifth. Ed Flemke, Jr., James Civali, Doug Coby, Woody Pitkat, and Eric Beers completed the top ten.
