Justin Bonsignore cemented himself as one of the all-time greats of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway. His dominating performance scored him his first Martinsville grandfather clock, his 45th career victory, and his fourth championship to cap it all off. It was the kind of night that dreams were made of.

Except it wasn’t a dream. It was reality. Nobody was dreaming, except for maybe Bonsignore’s 10-month-old son, Evan, who took a mid-race nap in order to be awake and ready for the championship celebration later on. 

This was the first time the Bonsignore’s celebrated a championship as a family. Bonsignore and his wife, Taylor, had just started dating the year he won his first championship back in 2018. So, this one was quite different. Now they’re married and had Evan together over the winter before this season began. 

And there they were together, all three of the, on the championship stage, basking in their achievement. And what an achievement it was.

With three races remaining, Bonsignore trailed Ron Silk by 11 points. And with as strong as Silk had been over the last two seasons, 11 points may as well have been 100 points. Bonsignore knew his only true path to a championship this season was to win all three remaining races. Three wins in a row at Thompson Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and Martinsville Speedway. He’d never won three races in a row in his career. He’d never won at North Wilkesboro or Martinsville. But he knew that’s what it would take. And that’s what he did.

Bonsignore won all three races in a row in dominating fashion, leading the most laps in all three of them. He led 121 of 150 at Thompson, 130 of 150 at North Wilkesboro, and 136 of 200 at Martinsville to cap off the most dominating three-race run of Bonsignore’s illustrious career. Oh, and he also led the most laps and won a SMART Modified Tour race at North Wilkesboro in the middle of that as well.

“It’s been a pretty good 13 days since we left Thompson,” Bonsignore said. “Three wins in a row on the Tour. It’s been unreal to come back the way we did since Riverhead. These are not easy by any means and those guys with the 16 put up a hell of a fight all year. To out-duel them is really cool.”

With the race win, Bonsignore took sole-possession of second-place on the all-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour wins list, surpassing “The Reg” Reggie Ruggiero, whom he tied at 44 wins last week. 

With the championship win, Bonsignore became just the fourth driver in the modern era of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (since 1985) to win four or more championships, joining Mike Stefanik (seven), Doug Coby (six), and Tony Hirschman (five).

But Bonsignore doesn’t think about that. He doesn’t let himself. Not yet at least. He always says that he doesn’t like to think about it because he’s still in the middle of doing it. 

But what he does think about is what makes this one so special. And that’s doing this with Taylor and Evan, and doing this for some of his crew members who were not with the Ken Massa Motorsports team during the championship runs in 2018, 2020, and 2021.

“Most of my guys have been with me for a long time, even before we won any championships” he said. “We have a fair amount of guys that this is their first. To get them their first I think is really cool. To have my son here at 10 months old and win a championship in his first year, to have him in all the photos and everything, that’s stuff we’ll be able to look back on YouTube for the rest of time and be able to enjoy those moments as a family. I think that, more than anything, is the most special part of all of this is to have him here. We’re going to enjoy that for the rest of our lives.”

Bonsignore added that the goal now is to tie and beat long-time friend Doug Coby in championships. And that goal begins in February at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday, February 8 when the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opens its 2025 season.

NWMT at Martinsville Speedway Unofficial Results