Justin Bonsignore (born February 3, 1988) is an American racing driver who competes in

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Whelen Modified Tour The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (NWMT) (previously the NASCAR Winston Modified Tour and NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series from 1985 until 2005) is a modified stock car racing series owned and operated by NASCAR in the Modified Division. The Mod ...

and various other local racing circuits. He currently drives for Kenneth Massa Motorsports.

Early career and go-karts

Bonsignore began his racing career with

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance Kart rac ...

s at the age of 8. His family has long owned and operated a Kart Racing Shop, and this early exposure to the racing circuit paved the way for a career in racing. In 1997, Bonsignore competed for his first national event at the

Rockingham Speedway Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is also known as The Rock and previously hosted NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, ...

, in North Carolina, where he finished 13th. During his go-kart career Bonsignore has secured 18 national event wins, 13 poles, and 45 top-5 finishes in 81 national starts. Highlights include wins at Len Sammon's Indoor Kart Race at the

Dunkin' Donuts Center The Amica Mutual Pavilion (originally Providence Civic Center and formerly Dunkin' Donuts Center) is an indoor arena located in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It was built in 1972, as a home court for the emerging Providence College men's ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

and the East End Shootout at

Riverhead Raceway Riverhead Raceway is a quarter-mile (402 m) oval race track with a Figure 8 course, located in Riverhead, New York. It is the only auto racing venue on Long Island since Westhampton Raceway closed down in 2003. It started being built in 1949 an ...

Chargers and modified

In 2005, Bonsignore began racing stock cars. Competing in

's Charger Division, and

Dodge Weekly Racing Series, Bonsignore finished third in the series standings, was awarded Rookie of the Year, and secured the best rookie finish on record. In 2006, Bonsignore joined the

Modified Division, where he scored three top-5 and nine top-10 finishes. For the second year in a row, Bonsignore received honors from NASCAR, taking home the Rookie of the Year title for the Modified Division and claiming a seventh-place finish overall, a new best for a rookie driver. Hopes for a higher finish in 2007 were cut short due to a wrist injury. 2008 saw Bonsignore's first stock car win in 2008 and the division's most top-5 and top-10 finishes en route to an 8th-place points finish. 2009 proved a very successful season performance wise, but bad luck kept overall results below expectations. During the season, Bonsignore broke a long winless streak and won the Cromarty Cup 50 Lap race, qualifying on the pole and leading every lap. In the

race Bonsignore was able to match a career-best 4th-place finish.

M3 Technology Racing

2009 also marked the first collaboration between Bonsignore and local business owner Ken Massa. During the summer, the two discussed and formed a team with the intention of competing full-time on the

. In the team's first race together, they scored a 2nd-place finish at the Sundance Vacations Speedway in St. John's, PA (the former and later Mountain Speedway; to be called Evergreen Raceway Park starting in 2014) in the King of the Mountain 150. The 2010 season showed the promise of the new team, as Bonsignore was named the 2010

Sunoco Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...

Rookie of the Year. Finishing a strong 13th in the standings, a series of mechanical accidents and bad luck ruined a potential top-10 run. Bonsignore became the first

Whelen Modified Tour driver to earn a

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% (US) ABV light beer brewed in Golden, Colorado; Albany, Georgia; Elkton, Virginia; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. The Canadia ...

Pole Award at

Bristol Motor Speedway Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the m ...

and

Stafford Motor Speedway Stafford Motor Speedway is a semi-banked 1/2 mile paved oval located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. Stafford Speedway holds weekly racing every Friday night May through September. This track is known as the home of the SK Modifieds and driv ...

. 2010 saw the M3 Racing team take home two top 5 finishes, and four top 10 finishes.2010 Whelen Modified Tour Standings
/ref> M3 Technology and Bonsignore returned to the Tour for the 2011 season, and once again competed throughout the year at

. On July 30, 2011, Bonsignore won his first Whelen Modified Tour race at his local track,

. He started on the outside pole and led the final 158 laps in dominating fashion. Bonsignore also won the NASCAR Weekly Series Modified championship at Riverhead Raceway, clinching that on September 10, 2011. In 2012 and 2013 Bonsignore finished 7th and 8th in the points respectively, picking up two more wins at

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (TSMP), formerly Thompson Speedway and Thompson International Speedway, is a motorsports park in Thompson, Connecticut, featuring a asphalt oval racetrack and a road racing course. Once known as the "Indianapo ...

and Monadnock Speedway.

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

saw a change for Bonsignore and the M3 Technology team as they would switch from Troyer to Spafco Chassis and

Robert Yates Racing Yates Racing was an American stock car racing team that competed in NASCAR through the 2009 season, after which it merged into Richard Petty Motorsports. Previously known as Robert Yates Racing, the team was owned by Doug Yates, who has officia ...

Spec engines. Performance improved as Bonsignore won 3 races on the way to a 3rd-place finish in points. Winning speed returned in

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, with two more race wins, however, the team lacked consistency on the way to a 10th-place finish in points. The 2016 season proved to be a career year at the time for Bonsignore, scoring 4 wins and 13 top 5s on the way to a runner-up points finish to Doug Coby.

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

was not as kind, with Bonsignore going winless for the first time since 2010, only leading 4 laps all season.

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

was another year of change for the No. 51 team. The team switched chassis manufacturers again to the potent FURY Chassis, bringing in Ryan Stone as crew chief. These changes paid off as Bonsignore won the

2018 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour The 2018 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was the thirty-fourth season of the Whelen Modified Tour (WMT), a stock car racing tour sanctioned by NASCAR. It began with the Performance Plus 150 presented by Safety-Kleen at Myrtle Beach Speedway on 17 Marc ...

championship on the strength of 8 wins, 5 poles, 12 Top 5's, 15 top 10's, and 695 laps lead, leading every category.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Whelen Modified Tour

Season still in progress
Ineligible for series points

External links

*
Justin Bonsignore

M3 Technology Racing

M3 Technology

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsignore, Justin Living people NASCAR drivers NASCAR people People from Long Island Racing drivers from New York (state) 1988 births