On Episode 128 of Unmuffled we catch up with NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Tour Type Modified team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr. coming off his win Saturday at Riverhead with fill in driver Doug Coby. In our wildcard chatter segment, we’re all over the road, it’s hard to even describe what it is. There’s milk, there’s pancakes, there’s Doug Coby, there’s stupid All-Star events, there’s Crypto and there’s our guide to restaurants and dollar stores. It’s a little of everything.
Episode 128 of Unmuffled is presented by our Patreon marketing partners from New England Racing Fuel, Swanson Buick/GMC, LifeCare Family Chiropractic, Mid-State Site Development, Monaco Ford, SAFCO Foam, Broad Brook Brewing Company, Tick Mike’s Organic Tick & Mosquito Spray, Mid-State Site Development, Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series, Compressed Air USA, Hoosier Tire East, MidState Compressor, Casagrande Builders, Falmouth Ready Mix, Coastal 181, Wheelers Auto, Rent A Race Car New England, Sign Pro, North End Auto Parts, Magna Steel Sales, Mark’s Northeast Motorsports Expo, JDV Productions, NASCAR, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Riverhead Raceway, Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway.
Who is a better driver Coby or Hirschman? I surely don’t know. Seeing Coby with the right car at Riverhead weaving in and out of lapped traffic was near flawless driving on that night. His SRX performance spoke for itself and all those championships. I was wondering how they faired in races where they shared the same track and this was the best I could come up with.
NWMT
2018
Myrtle 60(P3), 2(P14)
Seekonk 60(P3), 2(P12
Hampton 60(P3), 2(P24)
Oswego 60(P1), 2(P3)
2019
Myrtle 2(P1), (P11)
Seekonk 2(P1), 60 (P11)
Oswego 60(P2), 2(P6)
2020
Jennerstown 60(P4), 10(P7)
White Mountain 60(P2, 10(P3)
Monadnock 10(P3), 60(P6)
2021
Beech Ridge 60(P2), 10(5)
Oswego 60(P2), 10(P4)
MMTTS 2021
Modified Madness 60(P1), 10(P8)
Haunted Hundred 60(P1), 10(P8)
2022 Sizzler
60(P1), 10(P17)
Based on the numbers, Hirschman in recent history has gotten the best of Coby 80% of the time. There’s all kinds of flaws with that simplistic head to head but still the 80% is an eye popper and includes years when Coby was at his best in the 2.
Does that say Hirschman is a better pure driver perhaps not. You could say the head to heads in the NWMT were cherry picked by the 60 and you wouldn’t be wrong. You might also say that Coby has enjoyed success over a longer period of time. Hirschman a better strategic driver then Coby may be a tough case to make as well.
What sets them apart in my view is Hirschman the racer. He’s involved with every aspect of his car from assembly, to set up to driving and calls the shots on the setup for the Pee Dee car. No matter what 60 he drives he seems to virtually never have an equipment failure aside from a tire going down. Hirschman is so unique he’s carved out his own niche is racing being a tour unto himself with a fan base that follows his anywhere he appears. Coby can’t and will never match that spectrum of modified expertise.
Have the argument about who the better driver is and taking either would probably not be wrong. As far as a pure racer goes it’s Hirschman and not even close in my view.
What is the most valuable commodity these days in terms of human social interaction? For my money it’s a person that has opinions, that can express them in an ingenuous and intelligent way. With a measure of empathy for the opposing side and leave the listener with no sense of offense or rankled in any manner. If Shawn Courchesne had an AM radio talk show or Pod I’d listen to it faithfully as long as it didn’t go hard right.
Man I’m really digging the personal takes on issues unrelated to racing. Agree or disagree it’s impossible to get any dander out of place the observations are so whimsical and digestible even if you don’t agree.
Elon Musk was mentioned as was the worker situation with regard to eating establishments specifically. Both topics have been on my mind.
Elon Musk
“in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
“There’s just a lot of super-talented, hard-working people in China that strongly believe in manufacturing and they won’t just be burning the midnight oil, they’ll be burning the 3 am oil,”
Tell me race fans do you agree with Musk? I can’t say if he’s strictly right or wrong but have an opinion on Elon Musk being the messenger.
Elon Musk born in South Africa, traveled to Canada then to the US in search of fertile ground to plant the seeds of his brilliant innovative and entrepreneurial mind. No need to go over his record. There’s Tesla and SpaceX we all know of plus a bunch of other successful start ups. Purchasing Twitter or at least in the process and there is his wealth ranking all self made. Quite a guy aye and glad he decided to settle in the good old USA.
What rankles me is this brilliant guy, in a class of his own that has never had to grind away at a crappy job to make rent judging the average working stiff in America as sub standard. All workers for Musk are tools necessary to fulfill his brilliance. He has nothing in common with them on any level and if he could build a machine to replace them he would. He’s probably working on that now.
So I’ll ask do you feel sub standard to Chinese workers? Quality of life matters to most of us doesn’t it or would we be happier achieving the highest output humanly possible for our employers? I’ve never talked to a Chinese worker to see how happy they are but have worked my share in factories and pretty much never found happiness in devoting every waking hour to productive output. Putting in 10 and 12 hour days like Elon Musk would like us all to be capable of may contribute to Elon Musk’s quality of life but wouldn’t do much for the factory workers.
As far as I can see Elon Musk has graduated from the brilliant innovator and entrepreneur into the social regulator of American society. Taking Twitter from a publicly owned company we can all buy a piece of to a closed corporation isn’t progress in my view. His own platform where he can make all the rules, with no oversight or controls and essentially control one of the most powerful messaging tools in the world would not be an understatement.
I’ve tried to say that on social media and got beat up pretty good by the growing chorus of Musk-ateers that think he can do no wrong and are perfectly willing too give him 100% control of anything he fancies.
From Trump to Johnny Depp to Elon Musk, pledging loyalty and seeding power to individuals both political and social seems to be a growing trend these days in the US.
I wonder if the Musk-ateers would find fulfillment in Elon Musk’s dream US factory where workers make the same sacrifices as Chinese workers?