At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Justin Bonsignore held his newborn son in the ambulance, feeling grateful but also amused by the unexpected circumstances of the birth.
He jokingly wondered why his son, Greyson Anthony Bonsignore, couldn’t have waited a little longer to be born under calmer conditions.
Greyson was born in the front seat of his father’s Dodge pickup truck in a McDonald’s parking lot during the early hours of February 28.
Bonsignore, who competes for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, still found it hard to believe how everything unfolded.
Ironically, the same McDonald’s was where Bonsignore and his wife, Taylor, stopped after bringing home their first son, Evan, from the hospital just 15 months earlier.
In an indirect way, Evan contributed to the unusual circumstances of his brother’s birth.
Five days before Greyson’s arrival, Evan became ill. Taylor caught the illness two days later. She recovered quickly but then started experiencing occasional contractions before her doctor’s visit.
Initially, they thought the contractions were due to dehydration from the sickness, but they persisted throughout the following day.
By the time she went to bed that night, the contractions were about ten minutes apart, but they soon became more frequent.
At around 1:30 a.m. on February 28, the contractions intensified, and the baby, though a week early, seemed ready to be born.
Bonsignore quickly got Taylor into his truck and began the 30-minute drive from their Wading River, New York, home to the hospital.
However, less than a mile into the drive, Taylor’s water broke, making the situation even more urgent.
Bonsignore, a four-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, drove as fast as possible while trying to stay safe on the dark, two-lane road.
Taylor insisted they needed to stop, but Bonsignore kept hoping they would make it to the hospital in time.
She continued to plead, eventually yelling at him to pull over immediately.
Just after passing through a traffic light and leaving a wooded area, Bonsignore turned into a McDonald’s parking lot, thinking it was a safer, more visible location.
He stopped, jumped out, and ran to the passenger side of the truck to assist.
The 911 dispatcher asked if he could see the baby’s head, and he confirmed that he could.
Before the dispatcher could give instructions, Greyson was already born.
The dispatcher then asked if the baby was breathing, but Greyson remained silent
