Modified Tour teams solving tire challenges at Loudon

The state of American Racer tires for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway depended on who exactly you asked.

Coming into the weekend, a hot topic within NASCAR’s oldest division was how a slightly modified compound would handle ‘The Magic Mile’ and the most prestigious race of the NWMT campaign.

Several contenders experienced issues during the first session, including two drivers currently in the top 5 in the championship standings in Matt Hirschman and Jon McKennedy. The latter said he definitely has anxiety for Saturday evening after losing a left rear tire.

“Yeah concerned, a little bit for sure. I mean, that tire only had, I think, 12 hard laps on it and a big chunk of it blew apart,” McKennedy said. “I don’t know. What are you gonna do? I don’t have the answers for that, but I know there were a few guys with issues and it’s on everyone’s mind.”

For the always meticulous Matt Hirschman, he thought he could go back out after feeling a vibration and but American Racer officials stopped him as he had developed a left rear blister.

“I did have a left rear that started to come apart. I was going to go back out on it and the American Racer official said, ‘no, we can’t’. So obviously they were concerned with what they saw,” Hirschman said, “A little concern there, but that was our practice. I mean, I thought we unloaded and went out with decent speed, but then we just didn’t pick up any speed or if anything, we got slower, everybody else got faster. So, we’ll see what we time with and the most important thing is where we finish. So we’ll just take today for whatever it is and then we’ll work on tomorrow.”

Another team with concerns and frustration around their practice sessions was Tommy Baldwin Jr. and his son Luke Baldwin. The elder Baldwin showed visible frustration after the final practice session after the his son regressed in speed over final practice.

“We were really good in the first practice,” said the 2002 Daytona 500 winning crew chief. “All I did was put a different set of tires on, and we lost, what … three-tenths or four-tenths. So hopefully our qualifiers are back to the other set. I didn’t see any wear issues. We ran 25 laps with one set, and they were pretty good, so I just think we got a slower set of tires, I guess.”

Baldwin Jr. says he has similar issues a long time ago, when theTour Type Modifieds first started using Hoosiers. He hopes things can be resolved through the remaining races of the season.

“When Hoosier first started when we were developing and designing tires, it wasn’t really any different. Were they more consistent, yes, because they were doing it already. They were doing it in the sprint car world and all that stuff, so they kind of knew. These guys (American Racer) have been out of the ball game for a while, and when you can’t adapt quick enough, that’s when it’s going to be a problem. And they really couldn’t adapt quick enough to fix the problem,” the elder Baldwin said.  “It seems like they’re always going to be a little bit behind. So hopefully, after this and a couple of tour races with the new developed tire, they can get closer..

The longtime NASCAR Cup Series crew chief and team owner tied to be nuanced with the decision to move from Hoosier to American Racer.

“At the end of the day, everybody was trying to save some money, right,” he said. “And Hoosier didn’t budge, right? If they budged, we wouldn’t have any problems. But, you know, NASCAR did a couple things different, we could have switched to the M20s and M30s and made everybody’s life easier, and made the production easier for Hoosier, might have cut the cost down a little bit. I wasn’t in those talks, obviously, because I’m not in those talks, but, if this is a work in progress, and I know it’s aggravating for everybody, I’m aggravated, it is what it is.”

The current NASCAR Whelen Modified tour points leader, Patrick Emerling had a blistering left-rear tire develop

“That was just one of them. We just hope that doesn’t happen in the race. But, nothing too bad. There was a pretty good fall off with these tires and we just have to I guess hit our balance, right? I think our speed is close. I think we just got a, we hit our balance, right? We’ll be good,” an optimistic Emerling says.

Emerling, who has 25 starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with nine top 5s and twelve top 10s, Emerling says the race won’t be the same as previous year.

“I think it’s going to be quite a bit of a different race,” Emerling says.

For the current second place runner in the championship standings, Austin Beers, confidence was high after the practice sessions.

“We had a really good practice. Came with a different setup than we have in the years past and it’s been, it’s been really good, really positive. We ran our best lap by ourselves. So we were sitting second at the end there and it’s the most confidence I’ve ever had here. So we’re definitely had a good Friday so far,” Beers said.

For six-time Whelen Tour champion and four-time winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Doug Coby had an eventful start to practice but was satisfied with his first round of tires in practice trim.

“We broke a bolt on the right rear caliper. I thought that the tire went down as I pulled down the pit road, but then we realized that the caliber bolt broke. So, we really didn’t get a good baseline on it. I mean, we were really good on that set of tires. But it seems like it’s just a different set of tires,” Coby explains

Coby was surprised in how the handling felt with the different sets of tires being rotated during practice.

““”I’ve never really experienced that anywhere where you ran four sets of tires today and one set was super comfortable and the other sets just didn’t have the right feel,” Coby said. “I don’t know, we didn’t make any changes between all those sets because we just didn’t have time with the caliber bolt breaking. I heard some guys had some left rear problems. We didn’t put enough laps on any tires to have any problems, but I’ll tell you what,  if there’s something going on with the left rears, then we’re gonna have a challenging race, then that’ll be interesting to see.

For Stephen Kopcik, he was a man of few words after practice, but no issues.

“No concerns, really. All our tires were okay. The cars drive is pretty good. I feel good about it. See what happens with qualifying,” he said.

Justin Bonsignore is back behind the wheel of a NASCAR Whelen Tour modified, with one issue developing in practice.

“We had one issue with one set. But nothing else yet on all the other sets that we scuffed. So, yeah, it’s a concern for everybody that’s here. We’re just here to race. I’m not really worried about the tires. Everybody likes to make a big deal of it, but just do the best we can,” explains Bonsignore. 

Ryan Preece who is doing double-duty this weekend racing with the modified tour is feeling optimistic and found no issues in his practice runs.

“I feel like none of us here doesn’t feel like our cars are perfect. I feel like I can continue to make my car better, but it has potential and I feel like it’s gonna be in the mix, so I feel good about that. We’ll find out tomorrow,” explained Preece, “I have not had any issues yet. My tires have been staying the same. So yeah, I don’t know. I know some people were concerned on the way out, but I haven’t had any blistering. That was some of the concern from some people, but yeah, I’m fine.”