In modified racing, sometimes they get a little too close. The last two All-Star Shootout champions battled it out on the final lap of Friday's third annual Whelen Modified Tour/Whelen Southern Modified Tour exhibition. But that battle going through Turns 3 and 4 ended up costing both of them a chance at visiting Sunoco Victory Lane again as Woody Pitkat and Todd Szegedy spun each other out and Bobby Santos floored the gas and filled the gap to win the All-Star Shootout at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"Anything can happen on the last lap," said Santos, who also won a 2014 Whelen Modified Tour points race at NHMS. "I just made a move on the 58 (Eric Goodale) to make it happen. This is so cool and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow in (the New England 100)."
Goodale held the lead briefly during the Pitkat-Szegedy melee, but needed to check up to avoid making it a three-car wreck. That provided Santos the opportunity he needed to drive past Goodale, who held on for a second-place finish. Ron Silk finished third, Ryan Preece was fourth and Doug Coby rounded out the top-five in fifth.
"I thought I was in perfect position, but when they started wrecking in front of me I had to come off the throttle too much to be able to stay up front," Goodale said. "I thought we had a good race and I feel good about our next race tomorrow."
The 35-lap, 30-minute timed segmented shootout featured 20 cars, representing previous winners and champions from the national and southern touring series, along with the 2015 Sunoco Rookies of the Year for both tours. The second segment saw the top-six drivers inverted with 20 laps to go.
"This is the big track and the home track in town for the modifieds, so there's not much better than winning here," Santos said. "We broke the ice at Thompson (with a win on June 15). We came here excited that we have as good a shot as anyone to win here (on Saturday)."
To see if Santos can sweep the mods weekend with a win on Tripleheader Saturday or for more details and ticket information on events at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, including Sunday's New Hampshire 301 or September's New England 300, please stop by our ticket office, visit the speedway website at www.nhms.com, or call our Ticket Hotline at (603) 783-4931.