Patrick Emerling honors Geoff Bodine with Thompson NWMT win

When the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visited Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park last August, Patrick Emerling led every lap from the Hoosier Tire Pole.

Defending that victory Wednesday evening required Emerling to drive from the rear of the field.

Piloting Geoff Bodine’s iconic No. 1 Big Red Modified scheme in the Thompson 150 presented by FloSports.com, Emerling emulated the legendary competitor by methodically carving his way through the field. With 26 laps remaining, Emerling utilized fresh tires to make the race-winning pass on Jake Johnson and score his second victory of 2025.

Being able to climb from dead last on the starting grid to Victory Lane carried plenty of catharsis for Emerling, especially since he got to celebrate the moment with Bodine himself.

“We battled some adversity there,” Emerling said. “We weren’t running right all day and were tinkering around in qualifying. We qualified really good but were lacking a little horsepower and had a little bit of a stumble. We made some adjustments, started last, came back through and got it done.”

Starting 27th out of 27 cars was not an auspicious scenario for Emerling, but it was also a familiar one.

Emerling was forced to start in the rear for the season-opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway. With a record number of cautions befalling the event, Emerling used pit strategy to cycle his way toward the front of the field, which enabled him to overtake Craig Lutz late in the race and begin 2025 with a victory on his resume.

As was the case in New Smyrna, Emerling on Wednesday stayed patient and waited for the right moment to bring his car down pit lane. Staying on sequence with leaders Ron Silk and Justin Bonsignore, the two stops from Emerling’s crew were quick enough for him to come out third within his group, though he would still need to negotiate his way around cars on older tires.

With the second half going caution-free, Emerling had all the time he needed to muscle his way around Bonsignore and Matt Hirschman, who were both on the same strategy, and power his way to the front. Even though he only ended up leading a fraction of the laps he led last year, Emerling’s car on Wednesday proved to be just as efficient.

Hirschman could only watch as Emerling’s Big Red Modified carved through lapped traffic with ease. A stack-up between the leaders caused Hirschman to surrender a pivotal spot to Emerling, but he departed Thompson confident that his team had made significant progress toward one day securing a victory at the historic track.

“Only a win is a win, but for this team and our past history at Thompson, this was by far our best performance,” Hirschman said. “We had good long run speed once last October here, but that was the only time. I was going forward, and that got us all the way here to second.

“We’re a work-in progress, but we took a big jump.”

Hirschman did not even place inside the top 10 in the Modified Tour’s first visit to Thompson this year in April, a race that saw Emerling place second to Silk.

Emerling, who had Bodine’s Big Red Modified scheme adorned on his car for that race, as well, knew he was strong enough to win at Thompson that night but was unable to do so. Bringing Bodine’s iconic colors to Thompson’s Victory Lane in the Modified Tour’s 750th race proved to be a more fitting outcome.

After Emerling climbed out of his car, Bodine climbed on top of it like he had done so many times during his own Modified career. Bodine extended his praise toward Emerling for the poise he displayed with turning a poor start into a victory celebration.

“It looked like the old days with the Big Red No. 1 going from the back to the front,” an exuberant Bodine said in Victory Lane. “I don’t know what they did on the pit stop, but they tuned [Emerling] up, and [he] was gone.

“That was awesome. I’ve got to come to more of these.”

During the final laps, Emerling started to wonder whether extraneous circumstances would prevent him from winning in the Big Red Modified. Emerling entered Thompson with the second most laps led of any Modified Tour competitor in 2025 but only had the New Smyrna victory to show for that efficiency.

Nothing stood in the way of a win for Emerling on Wednesday. He continued the legacy of one of Modified racing’s most iconic rides, all while adding onto his own.

“This is a beautiful car,” Emerling said. “I’ve got to thank everyone involved. I was tearing up on that victory lap. We’ve had the best car the past five races or so, but had a lot of inopportune cautions. We got bounced around, but here there wasn’t any caution and not a chance for anything to happen.”

Following Emerling and Hirschman in third was Kyle Bonsignore, with Johson and Eric Goodale completing the top five.

The rest of the top 10 finishers were Matt Swanson, Austin Beers, Justin Bonsignore, Silk and Jacob Lutz.

Next up for the Modified Tour is another midweek showing with the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway on Aug. 14. The green flag for next Thursday’s race will wave at 7:30 p.m. ET with FloRacing providing live coverage of the on-track action.

Results

Standings

Austin Beers
Justin Bonsignore
Patrick Emerling -19
Matt Hirschman -24
Craig Lutz -33
Luke Baldwin -46
Kyle Bonsignore -48
Stephen Kopcik -48
Trevor Catalano -57
Tommy Catalano -71
Tyler Rypkema -88