THOMPSON – On March 28 at Martinsville Speedway, after scoring his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour victory, Stephen Kopcik talked about cleaning up some things from last year and assembling a crew a crew for 2026.
On Sunday at Thompson Speedway that crew was shining
Stephen Kopcik got off of pit road first with about 40 laps remaining and made that advantage work the rest of the way to score his consecutive victory in the Whelen Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 Sunday at Thompson Speedway.
After a lap 107 caution, Kopcik came into the pits running second behind Jon McKennedy. Kopcik beat McKennedy off pit road and never trailed again.
“That pit stop was crucial,” said Kopcik, of Newtown. “They killed it once again coming out first.”
“… It’s unbelievable. Yesterday I was wondering if I knew how to drive this place and never really had great luck here in a Tour Type [Modified] and to come here and win on the Whelen Modified Tour is unbelievable. Back-to-back. My second, you know, winning Martinsville and winning here. I can’t believe it.”
Ron Silk of Norwalk was second.
“Second sucks,” said Silk, who also finished second to Kopcik at Martinsville.
Mike Christopher Jr. used a late run to overtake McKennedy for third.
“We were carving them up at the end,” Christopher said. “I wish the pit stop went better, but it is what it is. We’ll take this and go into the next races with heads held high. It’s a little rocky start at the beginning of the season, but this is difficult stuff, Tour racing. … I’m having a blast so far.”
McKennedy, of Chelmsford, Mass., ended up fourth and Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa., was fifth.
Kopcik jumped from fourth in the standings to the points lead. It marks the first time in Kopcik’s career that he has led the Whelen Modified Tour standings.
Reigning series champion Austin Beers, who was sixth Sunday at Thompson, sits second in the standings, seven points behind Kopcik. Tyler Rypkema, who came into the event leading the standings, was 10th Sunday and fell to third in the standings, nine points behind Kopcik.
McKennedy went by pole-winner Hirschman for the lead on the first lap with Christopher following soon thereafter to second place.
On lap 11 Kopcik got a run from the low lane off of turn two and passed Christopher for second into turn three.
Kopcik made a move to get under McKennedy in turn two on lap 14, but McKennedy fought off the charge.
The first caution flew on lap 23 for the spinning car of Trevor Catalano in turn two.
McKennedy fired off at the front on the lap 29 restart with Hirschman moving past Kopcik to second. On lap 30 Ronnie Williams used the outside lane to overtake Kopcik for third. Kopcik fought back a lap later to go back by Williams for third.
On lap 44 Kopcik used the low lane off of turn four to move by Hirschman for second. Silk used the same move a lap later to go by Hirschman for third place.
At lap 60 McKennedy held just over a half second lead on Kopcik with Silk another second behind hind third. Hirschman, Christopher and Matt Swanson made up the rest of the top six respectively.
Christopher went by Hirschman for fourth place on lap 72 with Swanson following to fifth two laps later.
McKennedy’s lead remained a half second over Kopcik at lap 75 with Silk 1.3 seconds off the lead in third.
By lap 80 McKennedy was mired working lapped traffic, allowing Kopcik back to his bumper.
With traffic clearing, McKennedy was able to open his lead over Kopcik to a second by lap 94, with Silk sitting 1.8 seconds behind the lead in third. Matt Swanson was up to fourth with Christopher running fifth and Hirschman sixth.
On lap 98 Swanson moved past Silk to take over third. Paulie Hartwig III went to the pits with smoke showing on lap 99. By lap 105 Swanson had found Kopcik’s bumper for second as they worked traffic. Caution flew on lap 107 when Williams ended up hard into the turn four wall.
Under caution the field headed to pit road. Kopcik won the race of pit road, followed by McKennedy. Austin Beers went from seventh to third. Swanson fell from third to ninth. Silk lined up fourth for the ensuing restart with Chase Dowling in fifth and Hirschman in sixth.
Kopcik controlled out front on the lap 116 restart, fending off McKennedy’s low charge. McKennedy attacked again from the low lane on lap 118, but Kopcik fought off the challenge. McKennedy tried again on lap 120, but Kopcik was up to the task of defending again.
By lap 125 McKennedy remained on Kopcik’s bumper, with Silk lying in wait in line in third.
Kopcik, McKennedy and Silk continued to run in line at the front, with fourth place Christopher two seconds behind on lap 136.
By lap 139 Kopcik was finding breathing room out front, with McKennedy falling to a half second behind. On lap 143 Silk went by McKennedy to take over second. By then Kopcik was checking out at the front. Christopher used a late run to get by McKennedy for third.
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Jeesh, it was cold in turn 4 with a steady wind, but still a great day at Thompson! I thought a very decent turnout, given gas prices these days.
If silk could have gotten by mckennedy, who knows? Silk was hooking the bottom out of 4 extremely well. That being said, I gotta give credit to the 31. I’ve never been impressed with that car at Thompson even with hirschman behind the wheel. For Christopher to qualify that car where he did, and hang in the top 5 all day long finishing 3rd, just a terrific run for rookie campaign in that car, imo.
So, changing of the guard here on tour?
Maybe not, just 3 races in. But best of all today, great to see Thompson with a great turnout of competitors, on the tour.
That being said, Rocco and Owen put on another great battle in SK’s as well.
Hopefully, winter over with icebreaker in the books!
Some da really good performances by Christopher and especially Kopcik. It wasn’t cold or windy in my living room thanks to good production on Flo as well. Announcers damn near got me drunk as I drank a shot of jungle juice every time the color guy said ‘working his magic’…
Great race weekend, first time in a while it happened on two consecutive days. Not that it was warm, but it was nice to attend an Icebreaker without wearing a winter jacket all weekend. Although just before the WMT start the clouds rolled in, the wind picked up, and the temp dropped a good 10 degrees. I and some others kinda looked at each other and said, “Ok, now it feels like a normal Icebreaker.” Great Modified turnouts for both the MMTS and WMT. The small 604 field was not that big of a deal given the battles from Owen and Rocco.