Patrick Emerling Wins Tuesday World Series of Asphalt Tour-type Modified Feature

Patrick Emerling's stellar World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway continued on Tuesday night, as the Orchard Park, New York driver returned to victory lane.

Emerling won Tuesday's 50-lap Tour-type Modified feature, leading from flag to flag after starting second in a dominant showing. The victory comes on the heels of a third-place finish on Monday night, as well as a victory in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener on Saturday night.

“This is awesome. I’ve got to give it up to the entire Fleetworks No.1 team," said Emerling. "We came out, won the Tour race, got a really solid third last night. We knew we had a little bit to gain, so that’s what we did. We were really, really good."

While Emerling led all 50 laps, the No. 14 of Jake Lutz gave him plenty to think about in the closing laps, drawing within a second of the lead.

“That 14 car, I used to drive that car, it’s really, really stout as well. We had our track position from the beginning. We were just able to go out there and maintain.”

Unofficially, Emerling comes out of Tuesday night with a two-point lead in the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing's Tour-type Modified division over Stephen Kopcik. With three races to go, there is plenty of time for the outlook to change, but undoubtedly Emerling's performance thus far is reason for confidence.

“By the looks of it right now, it’s definitely there," said Emerling. "You know, it’s a long week, we’ll see what happens.”

Lutz's runner-up finish was a marked improvement after a disappointing start to the World Series, finishing 11th on Monday night.

“We’re happy with that," said Lutz. "The first two days were terrible for us. I made a bunch of mistakes and we just didn’t roll out of the trailer well. We got it turned around and qualified better today. We’ll take it and keep moving.”

Kopcik finished third, following a runner-up placement on Monday to keep him in the title picture with Emerling. He stated a desire to improve on his qualifying efforts to find more success during feature racing.

“I’m happy with that, but still two spots short. We’ve got to qualify better, that’s all it is. It’s hard to start back around 10th or 12th. When we don’t get yellows, it makes it tough.”

Luke Baldwin finished fourth, with Tyler Rypkema rounding out the top five.

-Photo credit: Jason Reasin

Tour-type Modified 50 Unofficial Results