Though momentum on the outside lane propelled Summers around Seuss and ultimately back to second, the Manchester, Conn. veteran was forced to settle in the end as Solomito flashed across the finish line.
“That one restart (with two to go) … I just spun the tires, missed a shift and got shuffled back to fourth,” Summers said. “The race went to yellow at that point, and I’m not sure why we went back that far because we never completed a lap (after the restart), but the crew did a great job all day long to give me an awesome race car.”
“I’ll probably try to sit down and understand from (series director) Jimmy (Wilson) … after I get done throwing up next to the trailer, at least,” he added. “I’ll tell you, I’m kinda sick to my stomach about this one. We had a good car. Losing that way just kills me.”
Seuss rounded out the podium, followed by former Tour champion Ryan Preece and young gun Max Zachem.
Four-time and defending series champion Doug Coby finished 13th after a poor qualifying effort mired him back in the pack for much of the night. He ran as high as second at one point in the event, but was involved in one of the late-race incidents before the checkered flag.
The race ran 54 laps before the first caution of the night came out, dropped when Gary Putnam slammed the outside wall in turn one.
Summers, who led the race to that point, pitted for tires and handed the top spot to Rowan Pennink, who led all the way until the second caution flag flew six laps past halfway, for a spin by Todd Szegedy on the frontstretch.
That drove a new host of cars down pit road and handed the point to Kyle Bonsignore for a lap 88 restart, but Bonsignore was only able to hold the lead for a lap before Jeremy Gerstner powered through on the inside lane to claim the front position.
Gerstner led until the night’s fourth caution, for debris on the frontstretch with 50 to go, and after Ryan Preece stayed out to lead laps before the restart it was Pennink who powered around the outside when the green flag returned with 42 laps left.
Two-time southern champion Andy Seuss, who pitted for tires and restarted seventh, used a textbook over-under move to wrest the lead away from Pennink with 35 to go, leading until the night’s fifth incident saw Dave Sapienza and Todd Szegedy crash in turn three.
At that point, Seuss and others came down pit road to exhaust their last vestiges of fresh rubber, while Summers and Shawn Solomito stayed out to lead the field back to green with 13 to go.
But a crash between Danny Bohn and Jamie Tomaino down the backstretch set up a restart with five to go and the subsequent two crashes that drew back-to-back red flags and set up the overtime finish.
The event was the first race of the unified NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, formed when the former NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour was folded into its northern counterpart during the offseason.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
