Emerling 2026 Modified Tour Champ, Hodgdon wins World Series 150

Just over a month ago, Teddy Hodgdon picked up his first career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win at his hometrack at Stafford Motor Speedway. Hodgdon now can now check the box that he is a multi-time winner, after winning the World Series 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

Weather forecasts for Sunday’s portion of the World Series weekend forced officials to move the scheduled Modified Tour race to Saturday night, making for an action-packed Saturday at the ‘Big T’.

Hodgdon would lead the final 32 laps, picking up another big win, and solidify himself as 2026 Rookie of the Year with the Modified Tour.

“We seem to have the knack for these Connecticut tracks this year,” Hodgdon said to Short Track Scene. “Which is awesome, growing up, born and raised in Danbury, being Connecticut owned. I know we had a good car from the drop of the green.” 

Hodgdon qualified ninth for the World Series 150, with a very stout field ahead of him, including Modified Tour points leader Patrick Emerling qualifying sixth, and additional heavy hitters of the tour.

With the lone caution of the race flying on Lap 1, the race would become a battle of who could save tires across the entire race.

“Nobody knew it was going to go all the way, and our stuff just stayed together, and it never fell off a cliff,” Hodgdon said. “Everyone trended free there at the end, but I knew if we saved our stuff in the beginning, and then, Patrick and Paulie came back, and dragged that whole group back to us. I was just able to pick them off one by one, and wanted to get by Emerling cleanly, with respect. I know what he’s going for tonight. I was able to do that, and then just set sail, and it was, you know, it was a great day.” 

Getting the pole was 15-year-old Paulie Hartwig III, picking up his first career pole with the Modified Tour, with August’s Thompson winner and modified veteran Matt Hirschman starting second.

Hartwig and Hirschman brought the field to the green, but on the initial start, there would be a major check-up in Turns 1 and 2, as Stephen Kopcik checked up, leading to additional cars to check-up.

Cars who made contact included championship leader, Emerling, Andrew Molleur hitting Emerling’s left-rear wheel, Chase Dowling, and Kopcik. Kopcik would come to a stop, leading to the first and only caution of the race.

With a clean restart, it would be Hartwig III jumping back out front, pacing the field for all of the first half of the race. 

As they approached Lap 66, Hartwig continued to lead the way, with Emerling in second, and veteran Eric Goodale, making his 250th career Modified Tour start, running in third. The Top-3 were running nose to tail as they were working through lap traffic.

At the halfway point at Lap 75, it was still Hartwig leading, Emerling in second, Goodale in third, Hodgdon closing in from fourth, and Hirschman rounding out the Top 5. 

Austin Beers who came into the race second in the championship standings had worked his way up to ninth after starting at the tail end of the field, as he had to come down pit-road prior to the start due to brake issues.

Emerling would soon begin to put the pressure on the rookie Hartwig, eventually taking the lead away on Lap 82, as the race continued on. Hartwig would begin to fade, with Teddy Hodgdon working his way past Goodale, to begin to track down Emerling and Hartwig.

At Lap 100, it was Emerling out front setting the pace of the field, but Hodgdon was beginning to close in on championship leader, beginning to pester Emerling for the lead at Lap 104.

Hodgdon would work both high and low lines, trying to find the right line and the cleanest way by Emerling, eventually taking the lead away with 32 laps to go.

As they closed in on the end of the World Series 150, there were more drivers making their charge through the Top-5, including Matt Hirschman, charging after Emerling, getting by for second in the closing laps, and would run out of time to track down Hodgdon, settling with a runner-up finish.

Emerling would settle with a third place finish and would complete a dominant 2026 season, coming out on top as the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. His first championship since joining the Modified Tour in 2011.

Coming home in fourth was Michael Christopher Jr., making his way from his 13th place starting position, and a strong finish to his first season with the Elite Racing Team.

Rounding out the Top-5 was Matt Swanson, picking up another Top-5 at Thompson, after finishing fifth back in August.

Austin Beers would come home in seventh, finishing off a strong 2026 season, settling for second in the Modified Tour championship standings. 

For the Danbury, Connecticut native, another win and a strong end to the 2026 season, has Hodgdon already thinking about 2027.

“The second half of the year, a huge momentum booster into next year,” Hodgdon said. “It gives us a lot of confidence for next year, and hopefully, we’ll be one of the title favorites going into next year. I’m pretty excited about 2027.”

For the small family owned team, it’s another big win to take back home to western Conniticut. 

“It’s awesome. We’ve had a great season. Especially by our last couple of year standards, it’s been a dream come true,” Hodgdon said. “We’ve been able to run with the best, and show them what we got. I can’t thank my guys enough. They put so much into this, and, you know, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes that not a lot of people see. I’m just glad to be the one to hold the steering wheel and be able to drive it to the front.” 

Hodgdon hopes with a strong second half of 2026, sends the team heading into 2027 with high hopes and higher expectations.

“To be able to do this, not once, but twice now, shows that we can do it, and the last one wasn’t just a fluke, like I’ve said in victory lane, we’re gonna be a force to be reckoned with next year, so watch out,” Hodgdon said.

For the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified champion, Emerling was elated and enjoying the championship celebration at the Raceway Golf Club.

“This is huge. When I first started out racing, I never thought I would be here,” Emerling said. But as I kind of progressed as a driver and drove with a really good team behind me. This is something we were working on and the last couple of years, we kind of had a little bit of tough luck and we weren’t able to get a championship, but now this year a lot of things went our way and we just worked really hard and were able to get it done and just really, really pumped.” 

“It was a hard-fought year. It took us a little while to kind of get in our groove and hit our stride, but we did eventually, about mid-season roughly, and yeah, the rest is kind of history,” Emerling said. “We had a lot of things go our way, and just a little that didn’t, but our performance was able to overcome that as well.” 

“Their name is on this trophy, so it’s just that’s incredible,” Emerling said. “It’s incredible. Just can’t believe we’re here and just so thankful to be a part of this USNEPower number one team. And everything started from when Dale Hedquist chose me as a driver as the Fleetworks number one. And if that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be here today.” 

“Just so thankful for the whole team and everyone around, Mr. Dale here and just everybody, David Miller and Rich who originally started the number one car in the world,” Emerling explained. “Wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of them.” 

“I mean Martinsville is also cool. It’s a NASCAR Cup series track, but Thompson is really special,” Emerling said. “It’s the World Series weekend. Just an incredible weekend. It’s always a great weekend, and just happy to be back here at Thompson. We’ve been a little bit hit or miss here, but  we had a pair of top threes our last two races here, something to build on for us.”

For the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, he was still content overall with his season and the efforts with the  KLM Motorsports team.

“I said on the radio after the race, if we’re going to be upset with second in the points, I think that’s a good thing,” Beers explained. “The past few years, we’ve been really consistent, we finished all the laps. So that tells you how well rounded our team is with just coming to the racetrack prepared and putting to the track a great product. I’m just proud of our guys and proud of our effort. We never gave up. And obviously, it was a trying year, no wins. But we were still consistent. We’d love to have a few moments back in the races, but it is what it is.”

For runner-up in the World Series 150, Hirschman was satisfied to rebound after a disappointing day at Riverhead Raceway with a DNF.

“Just gaining back what we lost, kind of,” Hirschman said. “Started second, never could get to the lead, and then fell back a few, but then gained all those back, pretty solid car, especially for the long run without putting tires on it. Solid car, but not quite as good as we were in August. I kind of felt that right off the trailer.”

Christopher Jr. wraps up his first full-time season with the Elite Racing team, finishing it out strong with the fourth place finish. 

“Great finish for how the day was going,” Christopher Jr said. “Definitely threw the kitchen sink at it between before qualifying and after qualifying as well with the pre-race adjustments. I just threw it out there and said ‘well, there’s only one way really to go.’ We started 13th, so it wasn’t horrible, but slowly picked cars off and I tried to keep the right rear on it as long as we could. The last 50 laps or so, everyone’s just hanging on, it seems. But yeah, decent. I was happy with it.”

Rounding out the Top-5 in fifth was Matt Swanson, picking up back-to-back fifth place finishes at Thompson from August, and had a strong run in April as well. Swanson is enjoying getting back with the Modified Tour when he can and wants a win with the Swanson family owned 89 modified.

“We’ve shown we can be consistent, and I think we bring a really good package to Thompson,” Swanson said. “We definitely have to work on our package at other racetracks. I’m just really thankful to finally have some consistency back on the tour especially. It’s a place where I’ve missed running full-time since I parted ways with the Bohler team. I’ve always wanted to get back full-time on the tour.”

With the curtain falling on the 2026 season for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, we now wait for the release of the 2027 Modified Tour Schedule, expected to be released in the coming weeks.