Patrick Emerling Adds Another World Series Win With John Blewett III Memorial Triumph

Patrick Emerling's hot streak in Modified competition at this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing continued on Wednesday night at New Smyrna Speedway, as Emerling won the John Blewett III Memorial.

With an impressive two-for-one maneuver on lap 69 of the 76-lap event, Emerling surpassed both Tommy Catalano and Matt Hirschman. From there, the Orchard Park, New York driver pulled away while Catalano fell out of the race just four laps later and Hirschman fell to third behind Stephen Kopcik.

Emerling opened the World Series by winning the kickoff for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday night. After a third-place finish on Monday night, Emerling has now won back-to-back race with the Tour-type Modified division to take the points lead for the division's World Series of Asphalt title.

That string of success, along with winning one of the marquee memorial events during the World Series, made for a special victory lane for Emerling.

"It's pretty big," said Emerling. "We were just playing around with the car, trying to get a little note. We went with a completely different setup for tonight. It worked out pretty good. Absolutely incredible.

"I thought we missed a little bit at the beginning of the race. The 1 car here just stayed strong on the long run and we outlasted a lot of them guys."

Catalano jumped out to the lead at the start of the race after starting alongside Hirschman on the front row. However, Hirschman pressured Catalano in the closing laps as they both searched for grip on the long run.

While the two front-runners wrestled for control, Emerling closed the gap and capitalized, muscling to the inside of both Hirschman and Catalano for the top spot.

"You know how hard it is to pass that 60 car [of Hirschman] here," said Emerling. "That car is always so fast. It was a really, really good one. It was hard-fought. I thought we made a pretty good move, passing first and second on the bottom. I've got to give it up to the whole team. Did an excellent job again on the Fleetworks No. 1 car. Glad to get another win."

"We were just trying to bide our time and put ourselves in a good position for the end all race long. I saw the opportunity, I saw the 60 wiggling. He was a little bit off tonight, so I saw him wiggling. I was like, man, I'm going to capitalize on that. They were both kind of fading. We were just staying a little bit stronger right at the end."

Kopcik claimed the runner-up spot, giving him three straight podium finishes without a win to show for it this week. Like Emerling, Kopcik bided his time in the early stages and then charged late

"The whole race was pretty exciting," said Kopcik. "The guys at the front were going hard the whole time. I figured I was better off just waiting out for a caution. We were definitely a little too free tonight, but you can't be too upset about it. Just had to take care of it longer."

Meanwhile, Hirschman settled for a third-place finish, surprisingly the best showing of the week for the five-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion. It has been a frustrating week for Hirschman, and that was compounded by him not feeling 100 percent on Wednesday.

"I've actually been under the weather today," said Hirschman. "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. I've not been feeling that good. On top of being not a good week for the car, today wasn't very good for me. Just came up short, lost my drive at the same time as the 64 [of Catalano]. Emerling was there to bounce, basically a two-for-one. It didn't happen, but it's not from a lack of effort.

"It's not a bad week. We had some uncharacteristic mechanical things, and that certainly doesn't help because we really didn't get the race notes in to build off of. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses. It's just been a bad week, and the team's still working hard. There are still two races ahead of us, we'll see if we can leave with a win yet."

Tyler Rypkema finished fourth, with Jake Lutz rounding out the top five.

Two races remain for the Tour-type Modifieds at the World Series of Asphalt. They will contest a 50-lap feature on Thursday evening before the signature World Series finale, the Richie Evans Memorial 100, on Friday night.

-Photo credit: Jason Reasin

John Blewett, III Memorial Unofficial Results