It was a dominating birthday performance for Patrick Emerling at Riverhead Raceway, while also widening his championship lead over the field.
Emerling and the USNE Motorsports team unloaded a fast Energizer 1 modified, timing fastest in the first practice of the day, then was third in the second and final practice.
Emerling would qualify third overall, with Justin Bonsignore grabbing his 42nd career pole, and then it was 15-year-old Paulie Hartwig III qualifying second. Qualifying fourth and fifth respectively was Jonathan McKennedy and Chris Rogers.
For Emerling, his fifth win in 2026, was a special win, honoring the late Eddie Partridge.
“We tried to come here and honor him, we’ve always loved to come here to Riverhead,” Emerling said in victory lane. “Awesome, awesome racetrack. We always enjoy it. It’s always a good track for me for some reason. Even though I’m a Western New York guy, but, yeah, we unloaded an absolute rocket ship with the USNEPower number one car today. Work was done in the shop, Dale Headquist, and, I mean, we were just so good.”
Emerling credits this win to the crew and whole team at USNE Motorsports, getting their car dialed in.
“Just incredible race car, and just an absolute pleasure to drive these last two races, where the races were won in the shop and hats off to the whole USNE Power group, and thank you to David Miller, my family, and, you know, all of our partners on this race car here. I couldn’t do it without everyone involved in this group. This race here was won in the shop. We had a really good car. Great car all race, and just absolutely awesome. I would have never thought I would have five tour wins in the season, so just awesome. A really good birthday for me.”
For the crew chief of the USNE Motorsports team, Dale Hedquist, awarded the Jason Shepherd, Crew Chief of the Race award, felt special at a track that carries extra meaning to him.
“Big, this place is historic,” Hedquist said. “The Tour has been coming here since I was a kid, you know, always reading about it, seeing it, and to be able to be here and win, and to win the Shepherd deal is pretty good.”
Hedquist when asked about their hot 2026 season, knows the season is not done yet with one race left.
“We’re not hot yet, we still got some more racing to do,” Hedquist said.
Coming home with a career best finish in second with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was rookie Paulie Hartwig III.
“I kind of had a wheel on the outside there and he did the right thing and you know, ran me up the race track,” Hartwig said.”Decided to cross over off of Turn 4, and just kind of got hit in the left rear, and I think we would’ve made the pass off of four. Just coming up second to the one team, they’ve been really fast this year, so a P2 at Riverhead is not too bad.”
For the rookie in his first full season with the Tour, it’s his fifth Top-5 of the season.
“Coming here for the second time, the first time the car has been here,” Hartwig III said. “I always love coming to this place, it’s either going to come out of here alive, or something’s gonna be wrecked. I always love these tires, biggest tireware on the right front, still center line in them. always love these tires, so, I’m just gonna keep up with the good work for American Racer, and just need to thank all my guys.”
Coming home with a solid third place finish after redrawing ninth was Justin Bonsignore, picking up a podium finish in his 250th start with the Modified Tour. Bonsignore think the poor redraw hurt their chances at a win.
“We would pick off a car or two every run, which was great, but it was hard to overcome the redraw,” Bonsignore said. “We actually lost some spots in the beginning. Lane was stacking up a lot, and it was a bit of a challenge, but we had a good car. These guys were just two cars in front of us. I think we’re all pretty easy. Whoever was in the lead probably would have held on to it. Congratulations to Patrick and their team and Paul here, he’s a wheelman.”
Bringing it home fourth on the night was Tyler Rypkema, starting 16th, and coming away with a Top 5.
“For whatever reason, that’s my MO at Riverhead,” said Rypkema. “It is really quick at practice, and then we can screw up, or be absolutely terrible in qualifying, then start in the back, but then we always have a good car here, 16th to fourth is a good day point wise and you know, a lot of guys have bad days, so definitely a good day in the points and head into Thomson here and try to get into the Top 5 in points.”
Another driver from Long Island with a strong Top-5 finish was Eric Goodale, coming home in fifth. Goodale and his team made the right adjustments from earlier in the day, and climbed from 17th to pick up the solid finish.
“Anytime you can hit your best adjustment for the race is a home run, so I had to drive my ass off tonight, because my kid’s been giving me a hard time about my finishes here,” Goodale said. “They’ve been racking up some wins in the bandos, so I hope I didn’t disappoint them tonight. It felt good to pass a lot of cars, but it’s rough around here, man. There’s some beating and banging, and you gotta scratch for every inch out here. The car is pretty clean. We came home fifth, I’ll throw it in the trailer, and I’ll be home in my bed in about 25 minutes, so it’s a good night.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has one race left on the 2026 season, they head back across the Long Island Sound to Connecticut to close out the season. They head to Thompson Motor Speedway October 11th as part of World Series Weekend.
Notes from the Eddie Partridge 206:
Top 10 had to redraw, Hirschman drew the pole, Craig Lutz redrew second.
Caution Lap 3, Stephen Kopcik slows on the backstretch with flat right-front tire.
Caution Lap 10, Chirs Rogers into the inside wall.
Hirschman led the opening laps, Emerling took the lead on Lap 19.
Lap 53, Austin Beers up to four from his 10th place starting position.
Caution Lap 70, Chase Grennon spins.
Lap 93, Matt Hirschman black flagged with his modified smoking.
Caution Lap 100, Matthew Brode into the outside wall of Turn 4. Brings out the red flag.
Teddy Hodgdon on pit road under the red flag on jack stands with mechanical issues.
Jonathan McKennedy pitted and flipped left-side tires., as no change tires were allowed at Riverhead.
Lap 141 caution, John-Michael Shenette spins in Turn 3 & 4.
Lap 170 caution, Jonathan McKennedy and Roger Turbusch spin.
Lap 186 caution, Stephen Kopcik with heavy contact with Chase Rogers and Chase Grennan.
Stephen Durham joined the STS team in the summer of 2026. A New York native, Durham embraced the dirt big block modified world close to home, eventually working for Lebanon Valley Speedway hall-of-famer Eddie Marshall. Durham's first opportunities as a journalist and photographer came for Race Pro Weekly after meeting founder Bobby Chalmers. A meteorologist by trade and now living in Massachusetts, Durham covers regional racing across the Northeast.
