With five consecutive nights of Tour Type Modified division competition, the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing is a pressure packed week of action that truly tests the mettle of a race team and can set the tone for a season.
And this week has shown that the second year Fleetworks No. 1 team with driver Patrick Emerling certainly seems to have everything in place for a stellar 2025.
Emerling continued to be a seemingly unstoppable force in the division on Thursday, winning the 50-lap Tour Type Modified division feature.
It was the third consecutive victory for Emerling. The Orchard Park, N.Y. driver was third in the division’s first night of competition on Monday before winning the 50-lap feature on Tuesday and the John Blewett III Memorial 76 on Wednesday. Emerling also won the NASCAR Modified Tour season opening event on Saturday at New Smyrna.
“I just have to give it up, this is an awesome team,” Emerling said. “Working together a little bit longer and I think we’re just getting a little bit stronger.”
The Tour Type Modified division run its fifth and final event of the week, the Richie Evans Memorial 100, on Friday. Emerling will clinch his first World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Tour Type Modified division championship by taking the green to start Friday’s Richie Evans Memorial 100.
Emerling went into Thursday’s event with a four point advantage over Stephen Kopcik in the standings but Kopcik was not in the lineup for Thursday’s event. After Thursday’s event Emerling held a 42-point lead over second place Eric Goodale in the standings.
Crew chief Dale Hedquist credited Emerling’s willingness to make big changes in helping the team dominate.
“I want crazy ideas and he’s ok with them,” Hedquist said. “… We just work hard, that’s it. We keep our heads down, silence the noise. We don’t really listen to any of the hype or scatter or anything like that. We just keep our heads down and work hard. We try to make our race cars better every week no matter what we do. This week we took this car apart twice to make it faster and it worked. That’s it.”
Anthony Nocella of Woburn, Mass. was second.
“We’ve been struggling all week,” Nocella said. “Blew a motor, a few other problems. It was a good day to finally have a good run.”
Trevor Catalano of Ontario, N.Y. was third.
“This was a really good run,” Catalano said. “We struggled all week with this thing. We were [13th] the first night, [11th] the next night and 9th last night. Tonight we decided, you know what, we’re just going to take the morning off, not practice and put the thing on scales and go through it deep. We changed almost everything on the car and it was way better.”
With qualifying rained out the starting field was set by points. It put Emerling on the pole and Lutz to the outside of the front row.
On lap eight Lutz found the lane under Emerling to move to the lead.
With Lutz holding a half second lead over Emerling, the first caution of the event flew on lap 34 for a wreck involving James Pritchard and Danny Knoll.
On the ensuing restart Lutz did not get up to speed at the green, allowing Emerling to move back to the lead and sending numerous cars weaving to avoid the slowed Lutz. Emerling led the rest of the way.
“We were a little bit tight to start that race,” Emerling said. “[Lutz] was rolling really really good. We were just a little bit more grip than we thought there was going to be out there. Just a little snug to start. … The car was coming alive toward the end. We had the track position today and we were able to stay out front.”
Matt Hirschman sat out Thursday’s event but said he would be back in action on Friday.
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