Racin’ With Jason: Another fantastic Loudon finish

It was another one of those memorable Loudon finishes for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour last Saturday.

On the final lap of a Tour race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the last place you want to be in most cases is in first or second place. Something is bound to happen or someone else in the top five will get a run to slingshot past the leaders.

In Anthony Nocella’s case, it was a little bit of both. Running in fourth place heading to the final turn of the last lap, leaders Patrick Emerling and Eric Goodale got tangled up and crashed. Nocella used his momentum to get around the wreck and into first place to lead the only lap that matters — the last one.

“I’ve ran [the Whelen Modified Tour] off and on over the years,” Nocella told NASCAR.com after winning the Whelen Manufactured in America 100. “We’ve been close to getting some wins and have worked very hard, but just hadn’t gotten one yet. It’s awesome to finally get a win [at New Hampshire] of all places, especially in my family-owned car.”

Nocella’s previous best finish on the Tour was second at Seekonk Speedway in 2017.

Kyle Bonsignore finished second, while Emerling and Goodale still managed to finish third and fourth, respectively, with their damaged cars. Jon McKennedy finished fifth as he gained ground on points leader Ron Silk.

A replay of the race can be seen today at noon on the USA Network. The Tour returns to action next Friday at Claremont (N.H.) Motorsports Park.

In NASCAR national series action last weekend at Loudon, Justin Allgaier won the Xfinity Series’ Crayon 200 while Christopher Bell captured a playoff berth in the Cup Series’ Ambetter 301.

This week, NASCAR revealed one of its worst kept secrets: it will hold a race through the streets of Chicago next July 1-2. The announcement was met with mixed reactions from racing fans on social media.

Some are excited to see NASCAR attempt a street race — something that IndyCar and Formula 1 have done for years.

Others point toward Chicago’s crime rate and question why the city was chosen. Also, there is opposition to taking a race away from Road America, which worked hard to finally earn inclusion on the Cup Series schedule.

My opinion is also mixed. I think a street race will be interesting, although I wonder how much racing room the bigger, boxier NASCAR cars will have on streets that probably aren’t as wide as a typical racetrack. I’m also against the race closest to July 4 being held anywhere other than Daytona. That date was moved a couple years ago, and I am among the many fans that haven’t gotten over it.

But I’m keeping an open mind to the race itself. If successful, it would be big for NASCAR to have a grip on a major media market. But there was a race in the Chicago area for nearly 20 years at Chicagoland Speedway, about 45 minutes from the Windy City, which didn’t necessarily set the world on fire.

Jason Remillard is a copy editor and page designer at the Recorder. He can be reached at jremillard@recorder.com and followed on Twitter @racinwithjason.