After a strong finish to the 2024 season on the NASCAR Modified Tour, there was high optimism surrounding the Rich Gautreau owned Fleetworks No. 1 Modified team with driver Patrick Emerling.
And this week the team is proving there was certainly nothing empty about that optimism.
Emerling used a bold move to go from third to first on lap 69 and then drove away to win the John Blewett III Memorial 76 at World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Wednesday at New Smyrna Speedway.
It was the second consecutive victory in Tour Type Modified competition at New Smyrna for Emerling, who won Tuesday’s 50-lap feature for the division. He was third in the 59-lap opening night feature for the division on Monday and also won the Modified Tour season opening event on Saturday at New Smyrna.
“It’s pretty big,” Emerling said. “We were just playing around with the car, trying to get a little notes. We put a completely different setup in for tonight and it worked out pretty good. Absolutely incredible. I thought we missed a little bit at the beginning of the race and the car just stayed strong for the long run and we just outlasted a lot of them guys.”
On lap 68 second place Matt Hirschman was stalking all over race leader Tommy Catalano, with Emerling in waiting in third. On lap 69 Hirschman went into turn one stuck to Catalano’s bumper. Emerling went under Hirschman into turn one and then off turn two made the move to go by Catalano for the lead.
“You know how hard it is to pass [Hirschman] here,” Emerling said. “The car is always so fast. It was a really really good one. That was really hard fought. I thought we made a pretty good move passing first and second on the bottom. I’ve just got to give it up to the whole team, they did an excellent job again.
“We were just trying to bide our time and put ourselves in a good position for the end. I saw the opportunity. I saw [Hirschman] wiggling … he was a little bit off tonight, so I saw him wiggling and I was like ‘Man, I’m going to capitalize on that.’ And they were both kind of fading. We were just a little bit stronger at the end.”
Stephen Kopcik of Newtown was third.
“The whole race was pretty exciting,” Kopcik said. “The guys in the front were going hard the whole time and I figured I was better just waiting out for a caution. We were definitely a little too free tonight, but you still can’t be too upset about it.”
Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. got his first podium finish of the week with a third place run. Hirschman was penalized to the rear of the field early in Monday’s event and came back to finish 13th. He retired early from Tuesday’s feature with a leaking issue.
“We just came up short,” Hirschman said. “I lost my drive kind of at the same time as [Catalano] and Emerling was there to pounce and basically got a 2-for-1. We didn’t have it, but it’s not for a lack of effort. We’ve had a bad week. Had some uncharacteristic mechanical things. That certainly doesn’t help because we really didn’t get the race notes in to build off of. I don’t really want to sound like I’m making excuses. It’s just been a bad week and the team is still working hard and there’s still two races ahead of us. We see if we can leave here with a win yet.”
At the start it was Catalano getting the advantage over Hirschman, who started on the pole.
On lap five Ronnie Williams made the move to get by Hirschman for second place. Hirschman went back by Williams for second on lap 11.
By lap 46 Catalano had opened up nearly a three-quarters of a second lead over Hirschman in second with Williams two seconds off the lead in third. That advantage disappeared though when the first caution of the event flew on lap 47 for the stacked up cars of Brian Robie, Andrew Krause and JR Bertuccio.
On lap 47 restart Catalano went side-by-side for half a lap with Hirschman before cleaning him to secure the lead once again going into turn three. Behind the leaders, Patrick Emerling was able to move from fourth to third place.
With 13 laps left, Hirschman took a look under Catalano into turn three, but couldn’t make the move work. Hirschman tried the move again with 12 laps left.
On lap 69 Emerling got under Hirschman for second into turn one and then rolled by Catalano for the lead down the backstretch. Hirschman was able to get by Catalano for second with Kopcik following to third.
“We were just trying to bide our time and put ourselves in a good position for the end,” Emerling said. “I saw the opportunity. I saw [Hirschman] wiggling … he was a little bit off tonight, so I saw him wiggling and I was like ‘Man, I’m going to capitalize on that.’ And they were both kind of fading. We were just a little bit stronger at the end.”
With six laps left Hirschman caught the wall off of turn four, allowing Kopcik to move into second With four laps remaining Catalano slowed on the track and went to pit road.
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That Car Is On A Rails And Fast!! They Know Some Things That Others Don’t. Felt Bad For Tommy Though.
Dale Hedquist has really showed that he learned his craft very well in the Modifieds, He started with Late Models & Pro Stocks, then moved on to Open Wheel Cars . It took a little time but now he has a Nascar Championship with Jon McKennedy & looks like Emerling is in the running for The World Series Title . They also have a great shot at the Tour Title in 2025…You gotta have a great Owner , Driver along with the Crew Chief to Win these races today.. Setting up the car for all these different distances is not easy… They actually changed the set up for the 76 lap race… and still Won ….It just shows the confidence Patrick has in Dale and the crew to have a Winning Race Car , Then to change the set up is amazing…Patrick is driving with Confidence and making moves, a few years ago he wouldn’t try, taking a conservative approach . But now he is just in full control working his car to the front with solid heady driving with a little more aggressive style than years past..It’s still early, but the # 1 Team looks Strong..