2025
SMART Modified TourMatt Hirschman claims King of the Modifieds on March 22
The King of the Modifieds is a race he felt got away from him last year but came back and won from the pole on Saturday night in SMART Modified Tour competition on a night where Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum reignited their simmering feud.
Hirschman spent the entire race inside the top-three and led from Lap 77 onwards.
“It’s good to be king,” Hirschman said. “I’m glad that we were able to get this win, I can only hope that it becomes an annual event down the road. It’s a huge day, one of the biggest wins for PeeDee Motorsports and even myself included, and when you’ve been doing it for as long I have and have been fortunate enough to have as much success as I have and win the races I have, to say this is a high ranking win when you’ve already won 200 or so races, that tells you something about it”
Hirschman, who is notorious for his notebook and meticulous approach to racing, says he just made the right calls throughout the day.“I think the crew chief in me made the right pit strategy call and the right adjustments on the pitstop, and as a driver take the lead,” Hirschman said. ‘“Under that last red flag I said ‘there’s only one person left here that needs to step up and that’s the driver’ and I’m not sure if maybe his car did fade or that red flag hurt his car and it very well possibly could have, I got the most out of myself today and it seems like recently I’ve been told what I’m doing wrong instead of what I’ve done right and today, I did everything right and in the end got the job done.”
The most notable incident occurred on Lap 84 when one week removed from an incident between them at Anderson, Jack Baldwin broke traction under Jake Crum and they both ended up in the wall. They needed to be separated.
Baldwin would drive down to the inside of Crum only for his modified to loosen up and travel up the track, taking them both out of the race. Tempers would flare shortly afterward as Crum would get out and confront Baldwin, with track responders breaking it up. On track would not be the only place where things would get heated as Tommy Baldwin would get into words with the crew on the Tomaino 99 entry.
The younger Baldwin did not offer a quote at the time but his father, Tommy Baldwin did.
“It just sucks man, you know unfortunately the 99 took Jack out last week and obviously Jack got loose getting in there and he took him out,” Tommy said. “I don’t know if it was a left rear flat, I noticed there was a left rear flat down, wasn’t sure if that was it, but I was just trying to explain it to him that it was unintentional.”
In real time, Crum felt there was a degree of intentionality behind the incident.
“Apparently I don’t know what happened, I think it’s very clear for all the fans who watched two weeks ago, and then saw what just transpired right there but, it’s fine, we’ll go to work, we’ll make it better, we’ll come back and we’ll be stronger.”
As for the results, multiple-time Stafford SK Modified winner Stephen Kopcik would finish second after a hard charge through the field on the final restart.
“I knew we were good throughout practice, didn’t qualify that great, I knew we had a good balance,” said Kopcik. “I think if we changed up our pit strategy a little bit and had better track position at the end we would’ve had a shot but Matt was stout.”
“I couldn’t be happier to come out here and run with guys that run this tour all the time so I’d say it was a successful trip”
Last year’s King of The Modifieds, Luke Baldwin would end up finishing third tonight after leading the race from the pole after the redraw.
“We lead some laps at the beginning, pretty good racecar a little on the free side, short pitted the tire, really good strategy and we were in a really good position there on the short run to take the lead there a couple of times from Matt,” the younger Baldwin son said.
“As the sun went down, just lost a little right front grip and it never came back, just chattering all the way around the racetrack, but second place car for a little bit there, then third place car when the sun went down. Thats all you can ask for, really good points day for us, lost to some of the best. Nothing to hang our heads about, took the points lead so we’ll move on to Orange County and hopefully take one down there”
SMART Tour King Of The Modifieds
South Boston Speedway
March 22 2025
1. Matt Hirschman
2. Stephen Kopcik
3. Luke Baldwin
4. Brandon Ward
5. Carson Loftin
6. Paulie Hartwig III
7. Joey Braun
8. Ryan Newman
9. Eddie McCarthy
10. Jayden Harman
11. Landon Huffman
12. Chris Pasteryak
13. Burt Myers
14. Daniel Yates
15. Jake Crum
16. Jack Baldwin
17. Sam Rameau
18. Carsten DiGiantomasso
19. Joey Coulter
20. Jimmy Wallace
21. Jeremy Gerstner
22. Ron Silk
23. Gary Young
24. Bryce Bailey
25. Carter McMurray
26. Slate Myers
27. Johnny Kievman
28. Tom Buzze
29. Jonathan Cash
30. Anthony Bello
31. Jason Tutterow
32. Tony Hanbury
New Smyrna - Feb 14 Matt Hirschman continued his winning streak in the Richie Evans Memorial, while Patrick Emerling finished second to wrap up a dominant week and claim the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship.
Zach Evans
Matt Hirschman continued his winning streak in the Richie Evans Memorial on Friday night at New Smyrna Speedway, while Patrick Emerling finished second to wrap up a dominant week and claim the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship. Hirschman took the lead from Ronnie Williams on lap 56 of the 100-lap event and never looked back. While Emerling passed Williams and briefly closed the gap on Hirschman, Hirschman stretched out his advantage to more than 1.5 seconds by the checkered flag.For Hirschman, this particular World Series has been a struggle. Hirschman won multiple World Series feature races each of the last four years, but that streak ended in 2025.However, when the week reached its traditional conclusion with the Richie Evans Memorial, Hirschman was singing a different tune. "It's like that Toby Keith song," quipped Hirschman. "I wasn't as good this week as I once was, but I was as good once as I ever was. Finally put it together. I don't know if taking last night off was the right thing, but we just had to reset. Just didn't start off the week good. Last year, we did the same thing, but Wednesday we turned it around. This year, Wednesday, we didn't turn it around with a win." Still, Hirschman keeps some important streaks alive. He goes home with at least one win during the World Series, a trend dating back to 2017. Hirschman also hasn't lost the Richie Evans Memorial since Ryan Preece won the event in 2018. "I'm glad we're leaving here with a win," said Hirschman. "It's always special to win the Richie Evans Memorial. It's still the biggest part of the World Series for the Tour Modifieds, and we've done it many times in a row, so we continue that streak.
"We've never come here with Pee Dee Motorsports and not left herewith a win. That would have made for a long trip home, but this makes it a little bit shorter." Hirschman's win stopped a different streak - Emerling's run of dominance during this year's World Series. Emerling entered Friday night with three wins in a row in the Tour-type Modified division, and four Modified wins in total going back to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener last Saturday. Emerling settled for a second-place finish in the caution-free Richie Evans 100, but there were still plenty of reasons to celebrate a week that ended with an average finish of 1.6 in World Series competition and the week-long championship. "We've had long green flag runs here before in this Richie Evans 100," said Emerling. "I don't think we've ever went cautionless, so that's interesting. "Congrats to Matt. He had a little bit of a tough week, and he got it turned around a little bit. I've just got to give it up to the entire Fleet Works No. 1 team. Everyone did an excellent job all week. A great week. This race, the tire stagger just came in a little bit off from what it shoudl have been. Otherwise, we would have been probably knocking at the door there. "We were really close to winning a championship down here several times. To be able to get it is awesome. We had an awesome week. We won the big one last Saturday. Pretty much everything else was a bonus. It was an awesome week for us." Tyler Rypkema finished third, followed by Jake Lutz and Monday night Tour-type Modified winner Austin Beers.
Richie Evans Memorial 100 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 60 Matt Hirschman 100 ---
2 1E Patrick Emerling 100 1.543
3 32 Tyler Rypkema 100 6.411
4 14L Jake Lutz 100 6.650
5 179 Austin Beers 100 11.531
6 92 Anthony Nocella 100 15.243
7 64A Tommy Catalano 100 15.459
8 8M Cam McDermott 100 18.892
9 25 Brian Robie 99 1 Lap
10 50 Ronnie Williams 99 1 Lap
11 56 Trevor Catalano 99 1 Lap
12 24 Andrew Krause 99 1 Lap
13 5 Jeff Goodale 99 1 Lap
14 17 Danny Knoll 99 1 Lap
15 66 Timothy Solomito 99 1 Lap
16 19 Jeffrey Battle 99 1 Lap
17 11 Norman Newman 99 1 Lap
18 58 Eric Goodale 98 2 Laps
19 09 Christopher Hatton 97 3 Laps
20 46 Craig Lutz 78 22 Laps
21 7P Rich Parker 31 69 Laps
22 7NY Jack Baldwin 5 95 Laps
February 13 - New Smyrna - Patrick Emerling scored his third consecutive World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Tour-type Modified win on Thursday evening, his fourth victory of the week at New Smyrna Speedway.
Zach Evans
It's three in a row for Patrick Emerling, who took his third consecutive World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Tour-type Modified victory on Thursday night at New Smyrna Speedway. Starting on the pole after qualifying was rained out, Emerling took the lead on a lap 34 restart as Jake Lutz fell off the pace from the lead. From there, Emerling led the rest of the way and claimed his fourth victory in Modified competition during this year's World Series. “I’ve just got to give it up," said Emerling in victory lane. "This is an awesome team. We’ve been working together a little bit longer and we’re just getting a little bit stronger. We were a little bit tight to start that race. The 14 [of Lutz] was rolling really, really good. There was a little bit more grip than I thought there was going to be out there. “Just a little snug to start. I was a little worried, I got my brake bias stuck about 10 rounds in the rear. That got me a little bit in the last half of the race. One of those racing things. The car was coming alive towards the end. We had the track position today and we were able to stay up front.” Lutz's misfortune proved to be Emerling's greatest benefit. Not only did it allow Emerling to take the top spot, but it stacked up the field behind Lutz and gave Emerling a chance to break free from the pack. Anthony Nocella finished second, happy to bounce back after fighting his car throughout the World Series. Nocella believed he had a car that could compete with Emerling for the win, but suffered some wheel damage during the stack-up behind Lutz on the restart. “We were coming, you know. We’ve been struggling all week, blew a motor, a few other problems. It was a good day to finally have a good run. The car, I thought, could win the race, pretty sure. Just that last restart, when the 14 didn’t get going there, we got the toe knocked in some. A little bit too tight there at the end, but still good enough. We were slowly gaining, but nowhere near enough to get to him.” Similarly, Trevor Catalano's third-place finish was a rebound effort for that driver. A former race winner in the 602 Modified division during the World Series, the podium finish was Catalano's first in the Tour-type Modified division across two years of competition.“This was a really good run," said Catalano. "We struggled all week with this thing. We were 15th or something the first night, 13th the second night, ninth last night. Tonight, we decided, you know what, we’re going to take the morning off, not practice, put the thing on scales, go through it deep. We changed almost everything on the car, and it was way better.”Eric Goodale crossed the line fourth, followed by Timmy Solomito.
Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 50 ---
2 92 Anthony Nocella 50 0.527
3 56 Trevor Catalano 50 2.237
4 58 Eric Goodale 50 4.150
5 66 Timothy Solomito 50 4.374
6 179 Austin Beers 50 4.848
7 5 Jeff Goodale 50 6.825
8 50 Ronnie Williams 50 7.078
9 64A Amy Catalano 50 7.275
10 19 Jeffrey Battle 50 7.593
11 2 J.R. Bertuccio 49 1 Lap
12 09 Christopher Hatton 49 1 Lap
13 11 Norman Newman 39 11 Laps
14 14L Jake Lutz 33 17 Laps
15 71 James Pritchard 32 18 Laps
16 17 Danny Knoll 32 18 Laps
17 7B Luke Baldwin
18 7P Rich Parker
19 46 Craig Lutz
20 60 Matt Hirschman
21 84 Tyler Catalano
February 12 - Mew Smyrna - Patrick Emerling's hot streak in Modified competition at this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing continued on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway, as Emerling won the John Blewett III Memorial.
Zach Evans
Patrick Emerling's hot streak in Modified competition at this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing continued on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway, as Emerling won the John Blewett III Memorial. With an impressive two-for-one maneuver on lap 69 of the 76-lap event, Emerling surpassed both Tommy Catalano and Matt Hirschman. From there, the Orchard Park, New York driver pulled away while Catalano fell out of the race just four laps later and Hirschman fell to third behind Stephen Kopcik.Emerling opened the World Series by winning the kickoff for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday night. After a third-place finish on Monday night, Emerling has now won back-to-back race with the Tour-type Modified division to take the points lead for the division's World Series of Asphalt title.That string of success, along with winning one of the marquee memorial events during the World Series, made for a special victory lane for Emerling."It's pretty big," said Emerling. "We were just playing around with the car, trying to get a little note. We went with a completely different setup for tonight. It worked out pretty good. Absolutely incredible."I thought we missed a little bit at the beginning of the race. The 1 car here just stayed strong on the long run and we outlasted a lot of them guys."Catalano jumped out to the lead at the start of the race after starting alongside Hirschman on the front row. However, Hirschman pressured Catalano in the closing laps as they both searched for grip on the long run.While the two front-runners wrestled for control, Emerling closed the gap and capitalized, muscling to the inside of both Hirschman and Catalano for the top spot."You know how hard it is to pass that 60 car [of Hirschman] here," said Emerling. "That car is always so fast. It was a really, really good one. It was hard-fought. I thought we made a pretty good move, passing first and second on the bottom. I've got to give it up to the whole team. Did an excellent job again on the Fleetworks No. 1 car. Glad to get another win." "We were just trying to bide our time and put ourselves in a good position for the end all race long. I saw the opportunity, I saw the 60 wiggling. He was a little bit off tonight, so I saw him wiggling. I was like, man, I'm going to capitalize on that. They were both kind of fading. We were just staying a little bit stronger right at the end." Kopcik claimed the runner-up spot, giving him three straight podium finishes without a win to show for it this week. Like Emerling, Kopcik bided his time in the early stages and then charged late "The whole race was pretty exciting," said Kopcik. "The guys at the front were going hard the whole time. I figured I was better off just waiting out for a caution. We were definitely a little too free tonight, but you can't be too upset about it. Just had to take care of it longer." Meanwhile, Hirschman settled for a third-place finish, surprisingly the best showing of the week for the five-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion. It has been a frustrating week for Hirschman, and that was compounded by him not feeling 100 percent on Wednesday. "I've actually been under the weather today," said Hirschman. "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. I've not been feeling that good. On top of being not a good week for the car, today wasn't very good for me. Just came up short, lost my drive at the same time as the 64 [of Catalano]. Emerling was there to bounce, basically a two-for-one. It didn't happen, but it's not from a lack of effort. "It's not a bad week. We had some uncharacteristic mechanical things, and that certainly doesn't help because we really didn't get the race notes in to build off of. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. It's just been a bad week, and the team's still working hard. There are still two races ahead of us, we'll see if we can leave with a win yet." Tyler Rypkema finished fourth, with Jake Lutz rounding out the top five. Two races remain for the Tour-type Modifieds at the World Series of Asphalt. They will contest a 50-lap feature on Thursday evening before the signature World Series finale, the Richie Evans Memorial 100, on Friday night.
John Blewett, III Memorial Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 76 ---
2 1K Stephen Kopcik 76 0.935
3 60 Matt Hirschman 76 2.070
4 32 Tyler Rypkema 76 3.462
5 14L Jake Lutz 76 3.704
6 50 Ronnie Williams 76 6.847
7 179 Austin Beers 76 7.373
8 58 Eric Goodale 76 8.417
9 56 Trevor Catalano 76 8.834
10 66 Timothy Solomito 76 9.959
11 36 David Sapienza 76 10.289
12 92 Anthony Nocella 76 10.678
13 8M Cam McDermott 76 10.929
14 46 Craig Lutz 76 13.672
15 5 Jeff Goodale 75 1 Lap
16 84 Tyler Catalano 75 1 Lap
17 11 Norman Newman 75 1 Lap
18 2 J.R. Bertuccio 75 1 Lap
19 24 Andrew Krause 75 1 Lap
20 25 Brian Robie 75 1 Lap
21 71 James Pritchard 74 2 Laps
22 17 Danny Knoll 74 2 Laps
23 64T Tommy Catalano 73 3 Laps
24 0 Glenn Styres 73 3 Laps
25 7NY Jack Baldwin 65 11 Laps
26 19 Jeffrey Battle 56 20 Laps
27 7P Rich Parker 51 25 Laps
28 09 Christopher Hatton 26 50 Laps
DNS 8F Chris Finocchario
February 11 - New Smyrna - Patrick Emerling's stellar World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway continued on Tuesday night, as the Orchard Park, New York driver returned to victory lane.
Zach Evans
Emerling won Tuesday's 50-lap Tour-type Modified feature, leading from flag to flag after starting second in a dominant showing. The victory comes on the heels of a third-place finish on Monday night, as well as a victory in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener on Saturday night. “This is awesome. I’ve got to give it up to the entire Fleetworks No.1 team," said Emerling. "We came out, won the Tour race, got a really solid third last night. We knew we had a little bit to gain, so that’s what we did. We were really, really good." While Emerling led all 50 laps, the No. 14 of Jake Lutz gave him plenty to think about in the closing laps, drawing within a second of the lead. “That 14 car, I used to drive that car, it’s really, really stout as well. We had our track position from the beginning. We were just able to go out there and maintain.” Unofficially, Emerling comes out of Tuesday night with a two-point lead in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified division over Stephen Kopcik. With three races to go, there is plenty of time for the outlook to change, but undoubtedly Emerling's performance thus far is reason for confidence. “By the looks of it right now, it’s definitely there," said Emerling. "You know, it’s a long week, we’ll see what happens.” Lutz's runner-up finish was a marked improvement after a disappointing start to the World Series, finishing 11th on Monday night. “We’re happy with that," said Lutz. "The first two days were terrible for us. I made a bunch of mistakes and we just didn’t roll out of the trailer well. We got it turned around and qualified better today. We’ll take it and keep moving. Kopcik finished third, following a runner-up placement on Monday to keep him in the title picture with Emerling. He stated a desire to improve on his qualifying efforts to find more success during feature racing.“I’m happy with that, but still two spots short. We’ve got to qualify better, that’s all it is. It’s hard to start back around 10th or 12th. When we don’t get yellows, it makes it tough.” Luke Baldwin finished fourth, with Tyler Rypkema rounding out the top five.
Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 50 ---
2 14L Jake Lutz 50 0.616
3 1K Stephen Kopcik 50 3.883
4 7B Luke Baldwin 50 5.615
5 32 Tyler Rypkema 50 6.277
6 40 Ryan Preece 50 6.497
7 58 Eric Goodale 50 8.690
8 50 Ronnie Williams 50 9.872
9 46 Craig Lutz 50 9.872
10 66 Timothy Solomito 50 10.652
11 56 Trevor Catalano 50 13.522
12 36 David Sapienza 50 13.821
13 7NY Jack Baldwin 50 14.037
14 2R J.R. Bertuccio 50 18.375
15 5 Jeff Goodale 50 18.398
16 19 Jeffery Battle 49 1 Lap
17 84 Tyler Catalano 49 1 Lap
18 64 Amy Catalano 49 1 Lap
19 8F Chris Finocchario 49 1 Lap
20 11 Norman Newman 49 1 Lap
21 71 James Pritchard 49 1 Lap
22 17 Danny Knoll 49 1 Lap
23 7P Rich Parker 33 17 Laps
24 24 Andrew Krause 32 18 Laps
25 09 Christopher Hatton 26 24 Laps
26 179 Austin Beers 6 44 Laps
27 60 Matt Hirschman 4 46 Laps
28 82 Anthony Nocella 4 46 Laps
February 10 - New Smyrna - Austin Beers scored the first victory in the battle for the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship, taking the checkered flag in Monday's 59-lap feature.
While the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour raced on Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway, the battle for the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship began on Monday night. Austin Beers scored the first victory in that fight, taking the checkered flag in Monday's 59-lap feature. Beers took the lead from Ryan Preece on the 11th lap and distanced himself from the field on a long green-flag run to end the event. Beers finished more than two and a half seconds ahead of Stephen Kopcik for an impressive victory.“This team did an awesome job all day, just getting this car the way it needed to be for the long runs," said Beers. "How we perform with these long runs on Monday that usually happen, and we were prepared for that. We just ran our own pace, tried to keep Timmy [Solomito] at a safe spot. When Kopcik got there, I had enough room with all the lapped cars to maintain my gap and hold on.” Monday's victory was Beers' first at New Smyrna Speedway, but he boasts plenty of strong runs at the Florida half-mile. On Saturday, Beers led 46 laps and scored a top-five finish with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Beers lamented not taking the win on Saturday night, but was fortunate there were no late cautions to take away his advantage on Monday. “I feel like I gave the race away personally on Saturday. I was waiting for a yellow just like Saturday to give me a chance to give it up again, I guess.”Kopcik settled into second place in the final running order, pleased with a strong showing on a night that usually comes with twists and turns to start the battle for a World Series championship. “I feel really good about it," said Kopcik. "The first night’s always a little bit of a crapshoot. It usually sets the tone for the week. If we can build off of what we just did here, we should have a good week.” Saturday's winner, Patrick Emerling, finished third to continue a strong start to his World Series. While the car was a little too loose for his liking, Emerling was content with a third-place effort.“We’re not really used to these tires, but we had a really good car," said Emerling. "We started out just a little bit free and tried to manage it, just trying to keep the car pointed in the right direction. “We have that tough restart on the bottom there. It was all bottled up, it was just a bad restart on the bottom. We lost a little bit of track position there. We passed some cars and got a lot of it back. A caution towards the end would have been nice, but the car had a ton of speed. I think we have a little ways to go to get it quite a bit faster.”Timmy Solomito finished fourth, with Craig Lutz rounding out the top five. Preece finished sixth after leading the first 10 laps, followed by Cam McDermott, Eric Goodale, Anthony Nocella and Amy Catalano. The Tour-type Modifieds will be in action each of the next four nights in their battle for a World Series title. Tuesday's race will be a 50-lap feature following the ASA STARS National Tour Clyde Hart Memorial 200.
Tour-type Modified 59 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 179 Austin Beers 59 ---
2 1K Stephen Kopcik 59 2.619
3 1E Patrick Emerling 59 2.734
4 66 Timmy Solomito 59 4.215
5 46 Craig Lutz 59 7.541
6 40 Ryan Preece 59 8.488
7 8M Cam McDermott 59 8.729
8 58 Eric Goodale 59 9.256
9 92 Anthony Nocella 59 9.607
10 64 Amy Catalano 59 10.218
11 14L Jake Lutz 59 12.119
12 36 David Sapienza 59 13.306
13 60 Matt Hirschman 59 13.472
14 24 Andrew Krause 59 14.413
15 56 Trevor Catalano 59 16.780
16 14B J.R. Bertuccio 59 17.010
17 19 Jeffrey Battle 58 1 Lap
18 8F Chris Finocchario 58 1 Lap
19 25 Brian Robie 58 1 Lap
20 7NY Jack Baldwin 58 1 Lap
21 5 Jeff Goodale 58 1 Lap
22 17 Danny Knoll 58 1 Lap
23 71 James Pritchard 57 2 Laps
24 0 Glenn Styres 56 3 Laps
25 09 Christopher Hatton 56 3 Laps
26 84 Tyler Catalano 37 22 Laps
27 7P Rich Parker 18 41 Laps
28 50 Ronnie Williams 15 44 Laps
29 11 Norman Newman 6 53 Laps
February 8 - New Smyrna NASCAR Tour - Patrick Emerling is starting 2025 on a high note after winning the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway.
Patrick Emerling finished 2024 as one of the hottest drivers on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Emerling is starting 2025 on a similarly high note after winning the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway. Emerling took the lead from Craig Lutz shortly after a lap 182 restart, maintaining the top spot through a green-white-checkered overtime restart for his eighth career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory.“I just have to thank everyone involved for this opportunity," said Emerling in victory lane. "This wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for Rich Gautreau, my family, and this whole awesome crew right here.“We have the best crew in the garage, best team, best everything. Thank you for everyone involved. This is incredible. This is what we expected to do."Emerling went to the rear of the field at the start of the race after post-qualifying adjustments due to an engine issue. However, he remained confident he could drive the No. 1 entry back through the field with a different strategy and plenty of speed."We made it a little harder on ourselves. We had a little motor issue. We started dead last today, but we knew. I’ve won races like that before in this series. It just puts you on a different schedule and a different pit cycle, really, to get you there.”For Emerling, the 2025 season starts much like the 2024 season ended. While 2024 champion Justin Bonsignore won the final three races of the year, Emerling won three of the four races before that streak, giving him four NWMT victories in the last eight events.“I was just tearing up for a second," said Emerling. "Just absolutely incredible, I was so happy. To do it in the first race of the season. I think we were the best team for the majority of the year last year. We’re just trying to pick up where we left off.“We were just so dialed. The fastest car on the race track, these are the fastest cars I’ve driven in my life. We can just go out there, do our thing. Everyone just has to execute, and we’ll finish like this."Lutz settled for a second-place finish after battling with Emerling late for the lead. Lutz was hungry for a victory to open the new season, coming away with a strong finish. “This race is so tough," said Lutz. "With 200 laps, the different tire strategies, a fuel stop, it’s a whole team effort. The first two cautions, we got behind on track position, so I didn’t know what was going to pan out here.“All my guys dug deep all day. We made good adjustments. My crew chief, Doug Ogiejko, did a great job. All my guys did a great job on their stops. We wanted this one bad for our fellow team member of ours that we lost at Martinsville. This was our first race without him. We were trying like hell, but Pat had a great car. The best car won, but we gave it a fight.” Meanwhile, Bonsignore's title defense started with a roller-coaster evening and a third-place finish. Officials assessed Bonsignore a one-lap penalty for stopping to bring out a caution when he suffered a flat tire in the first half of the race.The four-time series champion recovered, eventually getting his lap back, suffering a separate incident with the outside wall exiting turn two, and still persevering to a podium finish.“Just a wild night," said Bonsignore. "A tire went down like a half-a-lap into a restart. There’s really nothing you can do, you’ve just got to take that penalty. You’d be four to five laps down if you came down pit road. “It was just a hard-fought night after that. We didn’t get the lucky dog as early as we would have liked. Off of two, I ran out of talent and knocked the fence down. That probably hurt us the most of anything. Probably knocked the rear out of alignment pretty bad. “We still fought back. We were struggling there at the end. Just loose on every set of tires after the flat. That green-white-checkered probably saved us.”Luke Baldwin and Austin Beers finished fourth and fifth after sharing the front row to start the race. Stephen Kopcik, Eric Goodale, Ryan Newman, Ron Silk and Andrew Krause rounded out the top 10.
New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 Unofficial Results
FIN NO. DRIVER LAPS DIFF
1 1 Patrick Emerling 206 ---
2 46 Craig Lutz 206 0.380
3 51 Justin Bonsignore 206 0.659
4 7 Luke Baldwin* 206 0.740
5 64 Austin Beers 206 0.918
6 21 Stephen Kopcik 206 1.017
7 58 Eric Goodale 206 1.284
8 8 Ryan Newman 206 1.577
9 16 Ron Silk 206 1.718
10 24 Andrew Krause 206 1.789
11 3 Tyler Rypkema 206 2.004
12 25 Brian Robie 206 2.072
13 56 Trevor Catalano 206 2.248
14 54 Tommy Catalano 206 2.654
15 60 Matt Hirschman 206 2.818
16 20 Max Zachem 206 2.965
17 81 Mark Stewart 205 1 Lap
18 84 Tyler Catalano 205 1 Lap
19 18 Ken Heagy 205 1 Lap
20 36 Dave Sapienza 204 2 Laps
21 29 Mike Marshall 203 3 Laps
22 59 Tyler Barry 202 4 Laps
23 11 Norman Newman 198 8 Laps
24 26 Gary McDonald 181 25 Laps
25 9 Chris Hatton 160 46 Laps
26 55 Jeremy Gerstner 124 82 Laps
27 22 Kyle Bonsignore 86 120 Laps
28 40 Frank Fleming 70 136 Laps
29 44 Chase Dowling 70 136 Laps
30 12 Brian Sones 57 149 Laps
31 14 Jacob Lutz 29 177 Laps
40th Anniversary Modified Tour season begins Saturday at New Smyrna Speedway
NASCAR.com
The 40th anniversary season for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour begins Saturday night at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway with the running of the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
Saturday’s race at New Smyrna marks the fourth consecutive year the Modified Tour season has launched at the Florida half-mile as part of the track’s World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. Matt Hirschman claimed the first Tour event at New Smyrna in 2022, and Ron Silk won the last two events in 2023-24.
More than 30 competitors are entered to compete at New Smyrna this weekend, led by four-time and defending Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore. He’ll look to deny Hirschman, Silk and the rest of the field as he pursues his fifth title.
Tickets to the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 are available trackside. Below is everything you need to know about the opening race of the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Making history is something with which Justin Bonsignore has become familiar. He captured his fourth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship one season ago, making him just the fourth driver in series history with four or more titles.
Bonsignore also won his 45th Modified Tour race last fall at Martinsville Speedway, which moved him past Reggie Ruggiero for second on the all-time win list. If he can win Saturday’s New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200, he’ll add his name to yet another exclusive list.
In the history of the Modified Tour, a driver has won three consecutive races 17 times. Of those 17 times, it’s been accomplished by 11 drivers. Of those 11 drivers, only two – Richie Evans and Mike Stefanik – have won four or more. Bonsignore enters Saturday’s opening race of the 40th anniversary season riding a three-race winning streak dating back to the end of 2023. A win Saturday would put him alongside Evans and Stefanik as just the third driver to win at least four consecutive races.
A stacked field of competitors will look to deny Bonsignore another historic moment Saturday night. Among them are Ron Silk and Matt Hirschman, the only two drivers to win Modified Tour events at New Smryna. Silk has won the last two Modified Tour events at the track; Hirschman claimed the inaugural event at the venue in 2022.
Craig Lutz, who is back in the Goodie Motorsports No. 46 this year, should be considered a contender after winning the pole and leading 80 laps last year. Patrick Emerling returns for Year 2 in the No. 1 for team owner Rich Gautreau after winning three races together last year.
Jeremy Gerstner will be making his return to the Modified Tour on Saturday at New Smyrna. Gerstner was seriously injured in a crash during practice last year at New Smyrna, and his injuries forced him to sit out nearly the entire 2024 racing season.
Trevor Catalano and Austin Beers, both of whom scored Modified Tour victories last year, are among the 31 entries for Saturday’s opener. Other notables include Eric Goodale, Luke Baldwin, Tommy Catalano, Chase Dowling, Kyle Bonsignore and Tyler Rypkema, among others.
The complete entry list for Saturday’s New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 is available here.
RaceNew Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200
DateSaturday, Feb. 8, 2025
TrackNew Smyrna Speedway
LayoutHalf-mile asphalt oval
LocationNew Smyrna Beach, Florida
Start time7:30 p.m. ET
Laps 200
Posted Awards $149,447
TicketsTrackside
How To WatchFloRacing
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Feb. 8… Practice from 2 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. ET … Final practice from 3:05 to 3:35 p.m. … Qualifying at 5:30 p.m. ET … New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at 7:30 p.m. ET (FloRacing).
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is ten (10) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is two (2) tires, per stop.
- by Short Track Scene
The King of the Modifieds is a race he felt got away from him last year but came back and won from the pole on Saturday night in SMART Modified Tour competition on a night where Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum reignited their simmering feud.
Hirschman spent the entire race inside the top-three and led from Lap 77 onwards.
“It’s good to be king,” Hirschman said. “I’m glad that we were able to get this win, I can only hope that it becomes an annual event down the road. It’s a huge day, one of the biggest wins for PeeDee Motorsports and even myself included, and when you’ve been doing it for as long I have and have been fortunate enough to have as much success as I have and win the races I have, to say this is a high ranking win when you’ve already won 200 or so races, that tells you something about it”
Hirschman, who is notorious for his notebook and meticulous approach to racing, says he just made the right calls throughout the day.“I think the crew chief in me made the right pit strategy call and the right adjustments on the pitstop, and as a driver take the lead,” Hirschman said. ‘“Under that last red flag I said ‘there’s only one person left here that needs to step up and that’s the driver’ and I’m not sure if maybe his car did fade or that red flag hurt his car and it very well possibly could have, I got the most out of myself today and it seems like recently I’ve been told what I’m doing wrong instead of what I’ve done right and today, I did everything right and in the end got the job done.”
The most notable incident occurred on Lap 84 when one week removed from an incident between them at Anderson, Jack Baldwin broke traction under Jake Crum and they both ended up in the wall. They needed to be separated.
Baldwin would drive down to the inside of Crum only for his modified to loosen up and travel up the track, taking them both out of the race. Tempers would flare shortly afterward as Crum would get out and confront Baldwin, with track responders breaking it up. On track would not be the only place where things would get heated as Tommy Baldwin would get into words with the crew on the Tomaino 99 entry.
The younger Baldwin did not offer a quote at the time but his father, Tommy Baldwin did.
“It just sucks man, you know unfortunately the 99 took Jack out last week and obviously Jack got loose getting in there and he took him out,” Tommy said. “I don’t know if it was a left rear flat, I noticed there was a left rear flat down, wasn’t sure if that was it, but I was just trying to explain it to him that it was unintentional.”
In real time, Crum felt there was a degree of intentionality behind the incident.
“Apparently I don’t know what happened, I think it’s very clear for all the fans who watched two weeks ago, and then saw what just transpired right there but, it’s fine, we’ll go to work, we’ll make it better, we’ll come back and we’ll be stronger.”
As for the results, multiple-time Stafford SK Modified winner Stephen Kopcik would finish second after a hard charge through the field on the final restart.
“I knew we were good throughout practice, didn’t qualify that great, I knew we had a good balance,” said Kopcik. “I think if we changed up our pit strategy a little bit and had better track position at the end we would’ve had a shot but Matt was stout.”
“I couldn’t be happier to come out here and run with guys that run this tour all the time so I’d say it was a successful trip”
Last year’s King of The Modifieds, Luke Baldwin would end up finishing third tonight after leading the race from the pole after the redraw.
“We lead some laps at the beginning, pretty good racecar a little on the free side, short pitted the tire, really good strategy and we were in a really good position there on the short run to take the lead there a couple of times from Matt,” the younger Baldwin son said.
“As the sun went down, just lost a little right front grip and it never came back, just chattering all the way around the racetrack, but second place car for a little bit there, then third place car when the sun went down. Thats all you can ask for, really good points day for us, lost to some of the best. Nothing to hang our heads about, took the points lead so we’ll move on to Orange County and hopefully take one down there”
SMART Tour King Of The Modifieds
South Boston Speedway
March 22 2025
1. Matt Hirschman
2. Stephen Kopcik
3. Luke Baldwin
4. Brandon Ward
5. Carson Loftin
6. Paulie Hartwig III
7. Joey Braun
8. Ryan Newman
9. Eddie McCarthy
10. Jayden Harman
11. Landon Huffman
12. Chris Pasteryak
13. Burt Myers
14. Daniel Yates
15. Jake Crum
16. Jack Baldwin
17. Sam Rameau
18. Carsten DiGiantomasso
19. Joey Coulter
20. Jimmy Wallace
21. Jeremy Gerstner
22. Ron Silk
23. Gary Young
24. Bryce Bailey
25. Carter McMurray
26. Slate Myers
27. Johnny Kievman
28. Tom Buzze
29. Jonathan Cash
30. Anthony Bello
31. Jason Tutterow
32. Tony Hanbury
New Smyrna - Feb 14 Matt Hirschman continued his winning streak in the Richie Evans Memorial, while Patrick Emerling finished second to wrap up a dominant week and claim the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship.
Zach Evans
Matt Hirschman continued his winning streak in the Richie Evans Memorial on Friday night at New Smyrna Speedway, while Patrick Emerling finished second to wrap up a dominant week and claim the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship. Hirschman took the lead from Ronnie Williams on lap 56 of the 100-lap event and never looked back. While Emerling passed Williams and briefly closed the gap on Hirschman, Hirschman stretched out his advantage to more than 1.5 seconds by the checkered flag.For Hirschman, this particular World Series has been a struggle. Hirschman won multiple World Series feature races each of the last four years, but that streak ended in 2025.However, when the week reached its traditional conclusion with the Richie Evans Memorial, Hirschman was singing a different tune. "It's like that Toby Keith song," quipped Hirschman. "I wasn't as good this week as I once was, but I was as good once as I ever was. Finally put it together. I don't know if taking last night off was the right thing, but we just had to reset. Just didn't start off the week good. Last year, we did the same thing, but Wednesday we turned it around. This year, Wednesday, we didn't turn it around with a win." Still, Hirschman keeps some important streaks alive. He goes home with at least one win during the World Series, a trend dating back to 2017. Hirschman also hasn't lost the Richie Evans Memorial since Ryan Preece won the event in 2018. "I'm glad we're leaving here with a win," said Hirschman. "It's always special to win the Richie Evans Memorial. It's still the biggest part of the World Series for the Tour Modifieds, and we've done it many times in a row, so we continue that streak.
"We've never come here with Pee Dee Motorsports and not left herewith a win. That would have made for a long trip home, but this makes it a little bit shorter." Hirschman's win stopped a different streak - Emerling's run of dominance during this year's World Series. Emerling entered Friday night with three wins in a row in the Tour-type Modified division, and four Modified wins in total going back to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener last Saturday. Emerling settled for a second-place finish in the caution-free Richie Evans 100, but there were still plenty of reasons to celebrate a week that ended with an average finish of 1.6 in World Series competition and the week-long championship. "We've had long green flag runs here before in this Richie Evans 100," said Emerling. "I don't think we've ever went cautionless, so that's interesting. "Congrats to Matt. He had a little bit of a tough week, and he got it turned around a little bit. I've just got to give it up to the entire Fleet Works No. 1 team. Everyone did an excellent job all week. A great week. This race, the tire stagger just came in a little bit off from what it shoudl have been. Otherwise, we would have been probably knocking at the door there. "We were really close to winning a championship down here several times. To be able to get it is awesome. We had an awesome week. We won the big one last Saturday. Pretty much everything else was a bonus. It was an awesome week for us." Tyler Rypkema finished third, followed by Jake Lutz and Monday night Tour-type Modified winner Austin Beers.
Richie Evans Memorial 100 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 60 Matt Hirschman 100 ---
2 1E Patrick Emerling 100 1.543
3 32 Tyler Rypkema 100 6.411
4 14L Jake Lutz 100 6.650
5 179 Austin Beers 100 11.531
6 92 Anthony Nocella 100 15.243
7 64A Tommy Catalano 100 15.459
8 8M Cam McDermott 100 18.892
9 25 Brian Robie 99 1 Lap
10 50 Ronnie Williams 99 1 Lap
11 56 Trevor Catalano 99 1 Lap
12 24 Andrew Krause 99 1 Lap
13 5 Jeff Goodale 99 1 Lap
14 17 Danny Knoll 99 1 Lap
15 66 Timothy Solomito 99 1 Lap
16 19 Jeffrey Battle 99 1 Lap
17 11 Norman Newman 99 1 Lap
18 58 Eric Goodale 98 2 Laps
19 09 Christopher Hatton 97 3 Laps
20 46 Craig Lutz 78 22 Laps
21 7P Rich Parker 31 69 Laps
22 7NY Jack Baldwin 5 95 Laps
February 13 - New Smyrna - Patrick Emerling scored his third consecutive World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Tour-type Modified win on Thursday evening, his fourth victory of the week at New Smyrna Speedway.
Zach Evans
It's three in a row for Patrick Emerling, who took his third consecutive World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Tour-type Modified victory on Thursday night at New Smyrna Speedway. Starting on the pole after qualifying was rained out, Emerling took the lead on a lap 34 restart as Jake Lutz fell off the pace from the lead. From there, Emerling led the rest of the way and claimed his fourth victory in Modified competition during this year's World Series. “I’ve just got to give it up," said Emerling in victory lane. "This is an awesome team. We’ve been working together a little bit longer and we’re just getting a little bit stronger. We were a little bit tight to start that race. The 14 [of Lutz] was rolling really, really good. There was a little bit more grip than I thought there was going to be out there. “Just a little snug to start. I was a little worried, I got my brake bias stuck about 10 rounds in the rear. That got me a little bit in the last half of the race. One of those racing things. The car was coming alive towards the end. We had the track position today and we were able to stay up front.” Lutz's misfortune proved to be Emerling's greatest benefit. Not only did it allow Emerling to take the top spot, but it stacked up the field behind Lutz and gave Emerling a chance to break free from the pack. Anthony Nocella finished second, happy to bounce back after fighting his car throughout the World Series. Nocella believed he had a car that could compete with Emerling for the win, but suffered some wheel damage during the stack-up behind Lutz on the restart. “We were coming, you know. We’ve been struggling all week, blew a motor, a few other problems. It was a good day to finally have a good run. The car, I thought, could win the race, pretty sure. Just that last restart, when the 14 didn’t get going there, we got the toe knocked in some. A little bit too tight there at the end, but still good enough. We were slowly gaining, but nowhere near enough to get to him.” Similarly, Trevor Catalano's third-place finish was a rebound effort for that driver. A former race winner in the 602 Modified division during the World Series, the podium finish was Catalano's first in the Tour-type Modified division across two years of competition.“This was a really good run," said Catalano. "We struggled all week with this thing. We were 15th or something the first night, 13th the second night, ninth last night. Tonight, we decided, you know what, we’re going to take the morning off, not practice, put the thing on scales, go through it deep. We changed almost everything on the car, and it was way better.”Eric Goodale crossed the line fourth, followed by Timmy Solomito.
Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 50 ---
2 92 Anthony Nocella 50 0.527
3 56 Trevor Catalano 50 2.237
4 58 Eric Goodale 50 4.150
5 66 Timothy Solomito 50 4.374
6 179 Austin Beers 50 4.848
7 5 Jeff Goodale 50 6.825
8 50 Ronnie Williams 50 7.078
9 64A Amy Catalano 50 7.275
10 19 Jeffrey Battle 50 7.593
11 2 J.R. Bertuccio 49 1 Lap
12 09 Christopher Hatton 49 1 Lap
13 11 Norman Newman 39 11 Laps
14 14L Jake Lutz 33 17 Laps
15 71 James Pritchard 32 18 Laps
16 17 Danny Knoll 32 18 Laps
17 7B Luke Baldwin
18 7P Rich Parker
19 46 Craig Lutz
20 60 Matt Hirschman
21 84 Tyler Catalano
February 12 - Mew Smyrna - Patrick Emerling's hot streak in Modified competition at this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing continued on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway, as Emerling won the John Blewett III Memorial.
Zach Evans
Patrick Emerling's hot streak in Modified competition at this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing continued on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway, as Emerling won the John Blewett III Memorial. With an impressive two-for-one maneuver on lap 69 of the 76-lap event, Emerling surpassed both Tommy Catalano and Matt Hirschman. From there, the Orchard Park, New York driver pulled away while Catalano fell out of the race just four laps later and Hirschman fell to third behind Stephen Kopcik.Emerling opened the World Series by winning the kickoff for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday night. After a third-place finish on Monday night, Emerling has now won back-to-back race with the Tour-type Modified division to take the points lead for the division's World Series of Asphalt title.That string of success, along with winning one of the marquee memorial events during the World Series, made for a special victory lane for Emerling."It's pretty big," said Emerling. "We were just playing around with the car, trying to get a little note. We went with a completely different setup for tonight. It worked out pretty good. Absolutely incredible."I thought we missed a little bit at the beginning of the race. The 1 car here just stayed strong on the long run and we outlasted a lot of them guys."Catalano jumped out to the lead at the start of the race after starting alongside Hirschman on the front row. However, Hirschman pressured Catalano in the closing laps as they both searched for grip on the long run.While the two front-runners wrestled for control, Emerling closed the gap and capitalized, muscling to the inside of both Hirschman and Catalano for the top spot."You know how hard it is to pass that 60 car [of Hirschman] here," said Emerling. "That car is always so fast. It was a really, really good one. It was hard-fought. I thought we made a pretty good move, passing first and second on the bottom. I've got to give it up to the whole team. Did an excellent job again on the Fleetworks No. 1 car. Glad to get another win." "We were just trying to bide our time and put ourselves in a good position for the end all race long. I saw the opportunity, I saw the 60 wiggling. He was a little bit off tonight, so I saw him wiggling. I was like, man, I'm going to capitalize on that. They were both kind of fading. We were just staying a little bit stronger right at the end." Kopcik claimed the runner-up spot, giving him three straight podium finishes without a win to show for it this week. Like Emerling, Kopcik bided his time in the early stages and then charged late "The whole race was pretty exciting," said Kopcik. "The guys at the front were going hard the whole time. I figured I was better off just waiting out for a caution. We were definitely a little too free tonight, but you can't be too upset about it. Just had to take care of it longer." Meanwhile, Hirschman settled for a third-place finish, surprisingly the best showing of the week for the five-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion. It has been a frustrating week for Hirschman, and that was compounded by him not feeling 100 percent on Wednesday. "I've actually been under the weather today," said Hirschman. "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. I've not been feeling that good. On top of being not a good week for the car, today wasn't very good for me. Just came up short, lost my drive at the same time as the 64 [of Catalano]. Emerling was there to bounce, basically a two-for-one. It didn't happen, but it's not from a lack of effort. "It's not a bad week. We had some uncharacteristic mechanical things, and that certainly doesn't help because we really didn't get the race notes in to build off of. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. It's just been a bad week, and the team's still working hard. There are still two races ahead of us, we'll see if we can leave with a win yet." Tyler Rypkema finished fourth, with Jake Lutz rounding out the top five. Two races remain for the Tour-type Modifieds at the World Series of Asphalt. They will contest a 50-lap feature on Thursday evening before the signature World Series finale, the Richie Evans Memorial 100, on Friday night.
John Blewett, III Memorial Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 76 ---
2 1K Stephen Kopcik 76 0.935
3 60 Matt Hirschman 76 2.070
4 32 Tyler Rypkema 76 3.462
5 14L Jake Lutz 76 3.704
6 50 Ronnie Williams 76 6.847
7 179 Austin Beers 76 7.373
8 58 Eric Goodale 76 8.417
9 56 Trevor Catalano 76 8.834
10 66 Timothy Solomito 76 9.959
11 36 David Sapienza 76 10.289
12 92 Anthony Nocella 76 10.678
13 8M Cam McDermott 76 10.929
14 46 Craig Lutz 76 13.672
15 5 Jeff Goodale 75 1 Lap
16 84 Tyler Catalano 75 1 Lap
17 11 Norman Newman 75 1 Lap
18 2 J.R. Bertuccio 75 1 Lap
19 24 Andrew Krause 75 1 Lap
20 25 Brian Robie 75 1 Lap
21 71 James Pritchard 74 2 Laps
22 17 Danny Knoll 74 2 Laps
23 64T Tommy Catalano 73 3 Laps
24 0 Glenn Styres 73 3 Laps
25 7NY Jack Baldwin 65 11 Laps
26 19 Jeffrey Battle 56 20 Laps
27 7P Rich Parker 51 25 Laps
28 09 Christopher Hatton 26 50 Laps
DNS 8F Chris Finocchario
February 11 - New Smyrna - Patrick Emerling's stellar World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway continued on Tuesday night, as the Orchard Park, New York driver returned to victory lane.
Zach Evans
Emerling won Tuesday's 50-lap Tour-type Modified feature, leading from flag to flag after starting second in a dominant showing. The victory comes on the heels of a third-place finish on Monday night, as well as a victory in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener on Saturday night. “This is awesome. I’ve got to give it up to the entire Fleetworks No.1 team," said Emerling. "We came out, won the Tour race, got a really solid third last night. We knew we had a little bit to gain, so that’s what we did. We were really, really good." While Emerling led all 50 laps, the No. 14 of Jake Lutz gave him plenty to think about in the closing laps, drawing within a second of the lead. “That 14 car, I used to drive that car, it’s really, really stout as well. We had our track position from the beginning. We were just able to go out there and maintain.” Unofficially, Emerling comes out of Tuesday night with a two-point lead in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified division over Stephen Kopcik. With three races to go, there is plenty of time for the outlook to change, but undoubtedly Emerling's performance thus far is reason for confidence. “By the looks of it right now, it’s definitely there," said Emerling. "You know, it’s a long week, we’ll see what happens.” Lutz's runner-up finish was a marked improvement after a disappointing start to the World Series, finishing 11th on Monday night. “We’re happy with that," said Lutz. "The first two days were terrible for us. I made a bunch of mistakes and we just didn’t roll out of the trailer well. We got it turned around and qualified better today. We’ll take it and keep moving. Kopcik finished third, following a runner-up placement on Monday to keep him in the title picture with Emerling. He stated a desire to improve on his qualifying efforts to find more success during feature racing.“I’m happy with that, but still two spots short. We’ve got to qualify better, that’s all it is. It’s hard to start back around 10th or 12th. When we don’t get yellows, it makes it tough.” Luke Baldwin finished fourth, with Tyler Rypkema rounding out the top five.
Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 1E Patrick Emerling 50 ---
2 14L Jake Lutz 50 0.616
3 1K Stephen Kopcik 50 3.883
4 7B Luke Baldwin 50 5.615
5 32 Tyler Rypkema 50 6.277
6 40 Ryan Preece 50 6.497
7 58 Eric Goodale 50 8.690
8 50 Ronnie Williams 50 9.872
9 46 Craig Lutz 50 9.872
10 66 Timothy Solomito 50 10.652
11 56 Trevor Catalano 50 13.522
12 36 David Sapienza 50 13.821
13 7NY Jack Baldwin 50 14.037
14 2R J.R. Bertuccio 50 18.375
15 5 Jeff Goodale 50 18.398
16 19 Jeffery Battle 49 1 Lap
17 84 Tyler Catalano 49 1 Lap
18 64 Amy Catalano 49 1 Lap
19 8F Chris Finocchario 49 1 Lap
20 11 Norman Newman 49 1 Lap
21 71 James Pritchard 49 1 Lap
22 17 Danny Knoll 49 1 Lap
23 7P Rich Parker 33 17 Laps
24 24 Andrew Krause 32 18 Laps
25 09 Christopher Hatton 26 24 Laps
26 179 Austin Beers 6 44 Laps
27 60 Matt Hirschman 4 46 Laps
28 82 Anthony Nocella 4 46 Laps
February 10 - New Smyrna - Austin Beers scored the first victory in the battle for the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship, taking the checkered flag in Monday's 59-lap feature.
While the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour raced on Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway, the battle for the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified championship began on Monday night. Austin Beers scored the first victory in that fight, taking the checkered flag in Monday's 59-lap feature. Beers took the lead from Ryan Preece on the 11th lap and distanced himself from the field on a long green-flag run to end the event. Beers finished more than two and a half seconds ahead of Stephen Kopcik for an impressive victory.“This team did an awesome job all day, just getting this car the way it needed to be for the long runs," said Beers. "How we perform with these long runs on Monday that usually happen, and we were prepared for that. We just ran our own pace, tried to keep Timmy [Solomito] at a safe spot. When Kopcik got there, I had enough room with all the lapped cars to maintain my gap and hold on.” Monday's victory was Beers' first at New Smyrna Speedway, but he boasts plenty of strong runs at the Florida half-mile. On Saturday, Beers led 46 laps and scored a top-five finish with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Beers lamented not taking the win on Saturday night, but was fortunate there were no late cautions to take away his advantage on Monday. “I feel like I gave the race away personally on Saturday. I was waiting for a yellow just like Saturday to give me a chance to give it up again, I guess.”Kopcik settled into second place in the final running order, pleased with a strong showing on a night that usually comes with twists and turns to start the battle for a World Series championship. “I feel really good about it," said Kopcik. "The first night’s always a little bit of a crapshoot. It usually sets the tone for the week. If we can build off of what we just did here, we should have a good week.” Saturday's winner, Patrick Emerling, finished third to continue a strong start to his World Series. While the car was a little too loose for his liking, Emerling was content with a third-place effort.“We’re not really used to these tires, but we had a really good car," said Emerling. "We started out just a little bit free and tried to manage it, just trying to keep the car pointed in the right direction. “We have that tough restart on the bottom there. It was all bottled up, it was just a bad restart on the bottom. We lost a little bit of track position there. We passed some cars and got a lot of it back. A caution towards the end would have been nice, but the car had a ton of speed. I think we have a little ways to go to get it quite a bit faster.”Timmy Solomito finished fourth, with Craig Lutz rounding out the top five. Preece finished sixth after leading the first 10 laps, followed by Cam McDermott, Eric Goodale, Anthony Nocella and Amy Catalano. The Tour-type Modifieds will be in action each of the next four nights in their battle for a World Series title. Tuesday's race will be a 50-lap feature following the ASA STARS National Tour Clyde Hart Memorial 200.
Tour-type Modified 59 Unofficial Results
Fin No Driver Laps Diff
1 179 Austin Beers 59 ---
2 1K Stephen Kopcik 59 2.619
3 1E Patrick Emerling 59 2.734
4 66 Timmy Solomito 59 4.215
5 46 Craig Lutz 59 7.541
6 40 Ryan Preece 59 8.488
7 8M Cam McDermott 59 8.729
8 58 Eric Goodale 59 9.256
9 92 Anthony Nocella 59 9.607
10 64 Amy Catalano 59 10.218
11 14L Jake Lutz 59 12.119
12 36 David Sapienza 59 13.306
13 60 Matt Hirschman 59 13.472
14 24 Andrew Krause 59 14.413
15 56 Trevor Catalano 59 16.780
16 14B J.R. Bertuccio 59 17.010
17 19 Jeffrey Battle 58 1 Lap
18 8F Chris Finocchario 58 1 Lap
19 25 Brian Robie 58 1 Lap
20 7NY Jack Baldwin 58 1 Lap
21 5 Jeff Goodale 58 1 Lap
22 17 Danny Knoll 58 1 Lap
23 71 James Pritchard 57 2 Laps
24 0 Glenn Styres 56 3 Laps
25 09 Christopher Hatton 56 3 Laps
26 84 Tyler Catalano 37 22 Laps
27 7P Rich Parker 18 41 Laps
28 50 Ronnie Williams 15 44 Laps
29 11 Norman Newman 6 53 Laps
February 8 - New Smyrna NASCAR Tour - Patrick Emerling is starting 2025 on a high note after winning the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway.
Patrick Emerling finished 2024 as one of the hottest drivers on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Emerling is starting 2025 on a similarly high note after winning the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway. Emerling took the lead from Craig Lutz shortly after a lap 182 restart, maintaining the top spot through a green-white-checkered overtime restart for his eighth career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory.“I just have to thank everyone involved for this opportunity," said Emerling in victory lane. "This wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for Rich Gautreau, my family, and this whole awesome crew right here.“We have the best crew in the garage, best team, best everything. Thank you for everyone involved. This is incredible. This is what we expected to do."Emerling went to the rear of the field at the start of the race after post-qualifying adjustments due to an engine issue. However, he remained confident he could drive the No. 1 entry back through the field with a different strategy and plenty of speed."We made it a little harder on ourselves. We had a little motor issue. We started dead last today, but we knew. I’ve won races like that before in this series. It just puts you on a different schedule and a different pit cycle, really, to get you there.”For Emerling, the 2025 season starts much like the 2024 season ended. While 2024 champion Justin Bonsignore won the final three races of the year, Emerling won three of the four races before that streak, giving him four NWMT victories in the last eight events.“I was just tearing up for a second," said Emerling. "Just absolutely incredible, I was so happy. To do it in the first race of the season. I think we were the best team for the majority of the year last year. We’re just trying to pick up where we left off.“We were just so dialed. The fastest car on the race track, these are the fastest cars I’ve driven in my life. We can just go out there, do our thing. Everyone just has to execute, and we’ll finish like this."Lutz settled for a second-place finish after battling with Emerling late for the lead. Lutz was hungry for a victory to open the new season, coming away with a strong finish. “This race is so tough," said Lutz. "With 200 laps, the different tire strategies, a fuel stop, it’s a whole team effort. The first two cautions, we got behind on track position, so I didn’t know what was going to pan out here.“All my guys dug deep all day. We made good adjustments. My crew chief, Doug Ogiejko, did a great job. All my guys did a great job on their stops. We wanted this one bad for our fellow team member of ours that we lost at Martinsville. This was our first race without him. We were trying like hell, but Pat had a great car. The best car won, but we gave it a fight.” Meanwhile, Bonsignore's title defense started with a roller-coaster evening and a third-place finish. Officials assessed Bonsignore a one-lap penalty for stopping to bring out a caution when he suffered a flat tire in the first half of the race.The four-time series champion recovered, eventually getting his lap back, suffering a separate incident with the outside wall exiting turn two, and still persevering to a podium finish.“Just a wild night," said Bonsignore. "A tire went down like a half-a-lap into a restart. There’s really nothing you can do, you’ve just got to take that penalty. You’d be four to five laps down if you came down pit road. “It was just a hard-fought night after that. We didn’t get the lucky dog as early as we would have liked. Off of two, I ran out of talent and knocked the fence down. That probably hurt us the most of anything. Probably knocked the rear out of alignment pretty bad. “We still fought back. We were struggling there at the end. Just loose on every set of tires after the flat. That green-white-checkered probably saved us.”Luke Baldwin and Austin Beers finished fourth and fifth after sharing the front row to start the race. Stephen Kopcik, Eric Goodale, Ryan Newman, Ron Silk and Andrew Krause rounded out the top 10.
New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 Unofficial Results
FIN NO. DRIVER LAPS DIFF
1 1 Patrick Emerling 206 ---
2 46 Craig Lutz 206 0.380
3 51 Justin Bonsignore 206 0.659
4 7 Luke Baldwin* 206 0.740
5 64 Austin Beers 206 0.918
6 21 Stephen Kopcik 206 1.017
7 58 Eric Goodale 206 1.284
8 8 Ryan Newman 206 1.577
9 16 Ron Silk 206 1.718
10 24 Andrew Krause 206 1.789
11 3 Tyler Rypkema 206 2.004
12 25 Brian Robie 206 2.072
13 56 Trevor Catalano 206 2.248
14 54 Tommy Catalano 206 2.654
15 60 Matt Hirschman 206 2.818
16 20 Max Zachem 206 2.965
17 81 Mark Stewart 205 1 Lap
18 84 Tyler Catalano 205 1 Lap
19 18 Ken Heagy 205 1 Lap
20 36 Dave Sapienza 204 2 Laps
21 29 Mike Marshall 203 3 Laps
22 59 Tyler Barry 202 4 Laps
23 11 Norman Newman 198 8 Laps
24 26 Gary McDonald 181 25 Laps
25 9 Chris Hatton 160 46 Laps
26 55 Jeremy Gerstner 124 82 Laps
27 22 Kyle Bonsignore 86 120 Laps
28 40 Frank Fleming 70 136 Laps
29 44 Chase Dowling 70 136 Laps
30 12 Brian Sones 57 149 Laps
31 14 Jacob Lutz 29 177 Laps
40th Anniversary Modified Tour season begins Saturday at New Smyrna Speedway
NASCAR.com
The 40th anniversary season for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour begins Saturday night at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway with the running of the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing).
Saturday’s race at New Smyrna marks the fourth consecutive year the Modified Tour season has launched at the Florida half-mile as part of the track’s World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. Matt Hirschman claimed the first Tour event at New Smyrna in 2022, and Ron Silk won the last two events in 2023-24.
More than 30 competitors are entered to compete at New Smyrna this weekend, led by four-time and defending Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore. He’ll look to deny Hirschman, Silk and the rest of the field as he pursues his fifth title.
Tickets to the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 are available trackside. Below is everything you need to know about the opening race of the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Making history is something with which Justin Bonsignore has become familiar. He captured his fourth NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship one season ago, making him just the fourth driver in series history with four or more titles.
Bonsignore also won his 45th Modified Tour race last fall at Martinsville Speedway, which moved him past Reggie Ruggiero for second on the all-time win list. If he can win Saturday’s New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200, he’ll add his name to yet another exclusive list.
In the history of the Modified Tour, a driver has won three consecutive races 17 times. Of those 17 times, it’s been accomplished by 11 drivers. Of those 11 drivers, only two – Richie Evans and Mike Stefanik – have won four or more. Bonsignore enters Saturday’s opening race of the 40th anniversary season riding a three-race winning streak dating back to the end of 2023. A win Saturday would put him alongside Evans and Stefanik as just the third driver to win at least four consecutive races.
A stacked field of competitors will look to deny Bonsignore another historic moment Saturday night. Among them are Ron Silk and Matt Hirschman, the only two drivers to win Modified Tour events at New Smryna. Silk has won the last two Modified Tour events at the track; Hirschman claimed the inaugural event at the venue in 2022.
Craig Lutz, who is back in the Goodie Motorsports No. 46 this year, should be considered a contender after winning the pole and leading 80 laps last year. Patrick Emerling returns for Year 2 in the No. 1 for team owner Rich Gautreau after winning three races together last year.
Jeremy Gerstner will be making his return to the Modified Tour on Saturday at New Smyrna. Gerstner was seriously injured in a crash during practice last year at New Smyrna, and his injuries forced him to sit out nearly the entire 2024 racing season.
Trevor Catalano and Austin Beers, both of whom scored Modified Tour victories last year, are among the 31 entries for Saturday’s opener. Other notables include Eric Goodale, Luke Baldwin, Tommy Catalano, Chase Dowling, Kyle Bonsignore and Tyler Rypkema, among others.
The complete entry list for Saturday’s New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 is available here.
RaceNew Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200
DateSaturday, Feb. 8, 2025
TrackNew Smyrna Speedway
LayoutHalf-mile asphalt oval
LocationNew Smyrna Beach, Florida
Start time7:30 p.m. ET
Laps 200
Posted Awards $149,447
TicketsTrackside
How To WatchFloRacing
SCHEDULE: Saturday, Feb. 8… Practice from 2 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. ET … Final practice from 3:05 to 3:35 p.m. … Qualifying at 5:30 p.m. ET … New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at 7:30 p.m. ET (FloRacing).
QUALIFYING: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.
TIRE ALLOTMENT: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is ten (10) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is two (2) tires, per stop.