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<\/p>\nFourteen years have passed since Matt Hirschman last contested the entire NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule.<\/p>\n
A lot has changed during that time for both Hirschman and the series, but one thing that hasn\u2019t changed is Hirschman\u2019s ability to win races. The driver from Northampton, Pennsylvania is always a threat to reach Victory Lane no matter where he\u2019s racing. In fact, Hirschman has won a race in five consecutive Modified Tour seasons despite racing on part-time basis.<\/p>\n
This year, thanks in part to the race and championship purse increases announced by NASCAR and series entitlement partner Whelen Engineering last October, Hirschman decided to embark upon the entire Modified Tour campaign for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n
The goal was simple: Win as many races as possible and try to secure a championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been a matter of putting all the people and pieces in place to do it,\u201d said the 42-year-old Hirschman, who will make his 150th Modified Tour start in Saturday\u2019s Eddie Partridge 256 at Riverhead Raceway. \u201cNASCAR and Whelen made a commitment to increasing the point fund for this year, which certainly weighed on our decision to compete in all the races.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad that we did it. We\u2019re going to see how things finish up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speed has never been an issue for Hirschman. Whether it\u2019s in his own car, the PeeDee Motorsports entry or the Elite Towing\/Baker Racing Modified, he always finds a way to get the most out of whatever car he\u2019s driving.<\/p>\n
During a career that has spanned 19 mostly part-time seasons, Hirschman has scored 10 Modified Tour wins.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also secured 59 top fives and 95 top 10s in his 149 starts leading into Saturday. Those are incredible numbers for a driver who\u2019s started every race during a Modified Tour season just four times in 19 years.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re so good, in fact, that he was selected as one of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour\u2019s 40 greatest drivers earlier this year alongside his father, five-time Modified Tour champion Tony Hirschman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt speaks to having longevity and having a good career to continue to have the opportunity to still compete,\u201d Hirschman said. \u201cI still have cars to drive and can compete at a high level. As long as we can continue to do that, we\u2019re going to continue to make more starts and look to try and get some more wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, being consistent has been Hirschman\u2019s biggest challenge.<\/p>\n
Despite leading 91 laps in the first three events, he failed to secure a top-10 finish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He turned things around quickly, winning at Seekonk Speedway and scoring four consecutive top-five finishes before a disappointing, 17th-place effort at Monadnock Speedway on July 19.<\/p>\n
Since then, he hasn\u2019t finished worse than sixth, which leaves him 25 points behind Modified Tour championship leader Austin Beers entering Saturday\u2019s Eddie Partridge 256.<\/p>\n
While Hirschman isn\u2019t out of the championship battle, he admits he\u2019s going to need a lot of help starting Saturday at Riverhead if he has any chance of capturing the championship later this month in the season finale Martinsville Speedway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like our season did not get off to a good start. We dug ourselves a hole that we\u2019ve never been completely out of it, but I always feel like we\u2019ve been at an arm\u2019s length,\u201d Hirschman said. \u201cWe\u2019re solidly in the top five, and it\u2019s not over yet. We just didn\u2019t get off to the start we needed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consistency shows for the 64 team (Beers). They\u2019ve been in the top 10 in every race. They have the best average finish of all the teams. We\u2019ve had the speed and the top-five finishes to compete with those teams, but we have too many finishes outside the top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s race presents a unique challenge for Hirschman. He doesn\u2019t have many starts at the Long Island quarter-mile bullring, which means his notebook is considerably smaller at Riverhead than it is at most of the tracks in the Northeast.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s made a conscious effort to change that. In addition to racing in Modified Tour events at the track, he\u2019s also competed in Riverhead\u2019s annual Islip 300 in each of the last three years, winning the event in 2023.<\/p>\n
The extra laps have already paid dividends. He scored a runner-up finish earlier this year in the Miller Lite Salutes Steve Park 200, a career-best for Hirschman at the historic Long Island oval in Modified Tour competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiverhead is a track I never really had a lot of success or experience at,\u201d Hirschman said. \u201cThat was one of the tracks, when I stopped racing full time, that I didn\u2019t go to while participating on a part-time schedule. Over the last few years while running races with the Elite Towing-sponsored car in the Islip 300, I\u2019ve gained more experience there and more confidence there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe our runner-up finish back in June shows that we can now contend, and I\u2019m more comfortable there now. I can now say I\u2019m looking forward to going. Years ago, that would not have been my answer. I think right now it\u2019s a track that we\u2019ve got the speed, and I\u2019m comfortable racing there now. I think we can contend to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
If everything goes right, Hirschman thinks a trip to Victory Lane on Saturday night isn\u2019t out of the question. If that happens, it will be hard to bet against the driver from Mud Lane in a championship battle that will almost certainly come down to the wire.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still tight among the top five,\u201d Hirschman said. \u201cWe can move up or down over the last three races.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report first appeared on NASCAR.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fourteen years have passed since Matt Hirschman last contested the entire NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule. A lot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-272400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115305728687811331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}