The second half of the race kicked off with 67 laps to go and quickly saw Emerling get away, as Dowling fired off into second after dispatching Justin Bonsignore, who restarted on the front row.
Dowling gave chase to Emerling, who opened up a 1.3 second lead before the caution flew on lap 92 for a hard crash, with Jeremy Gerstner popping the outside wall in Turn 4 before slamming the sand barrels at the entrance to the frontstretch pit road.
That brought out the second red flag of the race, with Emerling leading Dowling and Coby, who had worked his way into third just before the incident.
After the red flag was lifted, Ryan Preece pitted from third for a chassis adjustment, while Emerling and Dowling led the field back to green with 49 to go.
A well-timed shot to Dowling from third-running Coby saw the young gun wiggle big-time off Turn 2, with Coby moving into the runner-up spot and immediately moving into pursuit of Emerling for the win. That cause was aided when defending race winner Eric Goodale blew a motor in Turn 3 and then spun to the inside of the track.
Goodale’s issues prompted a caution with 42 to go, with Speedy-Dry laid in the groove and then cleaned off before the charge to the finish began for Emerling and Coby.
Coby tried to make a move on the restart with 32 to go, but had to fall in line in second and wait for an opportunity to try and pounce. He lurked in the tire tracks of Emerling lap after lap, giving him a shot in the back bumper with 12 to go, but was simply unable to find a way by in the closing stages.
The runner-up effort was Coby’s third-straight second-place finish on the Tour.
“This is not my most comfortable speedway, I’ll just say that,” Coby said. “We’re gaining on our car though. I’m not going to do some of the crazy things here that some of these guys do … but tonight I felt comfortable. My guys gave me a great race car. We wrecked this car at Thompson … put a front clip on it Thursday night, got it back Friday from Ed Flemke and had it scaled by Sunday to race today.”
“To finish second, it’s not where we want to be, but given my track record here and how difficult this speedway is … I’m happy with it. I know he pulled away at the end, but if I’d gotten by him I think we would have pulled away ourselves. I got under him twice with lap cars, but just couldn’t quite get it done.”
Justin Bonsignore also made up points with his podium effort in third, followed by Chase Dowling and Ryan Preece.
Andy Seuss, Rowan Pennink, Ronnie Williams, Bobby Santos and Matt Swanson completed the top 10.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action Aug. 26 at Riverhead Raceway.
Full race results can be viewed on the next page…
