Matt Hirschman came back to South Boston Speedway to collect his missing trophy, a crown fit for a king.
The King of the Modifieds is a race he felt got away from him last year but came back and won from the pole on Saturday night in SMART Modified Tour competition on a night where Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum reignited their simmering feud.
Hirschman spent the entire race inside the top-three and led from Lap 77 onwards.
“It’s good to be king,” Hirschman said. “I’m glad that we were able to get this win, I can only hope that it becomes an annual event down the road. It’s a huge day, one of the biggest wins for PeeDee Motorsports and even myself included, and when you’ve been doing it for as long I have and have been fortunate enough to have as much success as I have and win the races I have, to say this is a high ranking win when you’ve already won 200 or so races, that tells you something about it”
Hirschman, who is notorious for his notebook and meticulous approach to racing, says he just made the right calls throughout the day.
“I think the crew chief in me made the right pit strategy call and the right adjustments on the pitstop, and as a driver take the lead,” Hirschman said. ‘“Under that last red flag I said ‘there’s only one person left here that needs to step up and that’s the driver’ and I’m not sure if maybe his car did fade or that red flag hurt his car and it very well possibly could have, I got the most out of myself today and it seems like recently I’ve been told what I’m doing wrong instead of what I’ve done right and today, I did everything right and in the end got the job done.”
The most notable incident occurred on Lap 84 when one week removed from an incident between them at Anderson, Jack Baldwin broke traction under Jake Crum and they both ended up in the wall. They needed to be separated.
Baldwin would drive down to the inside of Crum only for his modified to loosen up and travel up the track, taking them both out of the race. Tempers would flare shortly afterward as Crum would get out and confront Baldwin, with track responders breaking it up. On track would not be the only place where things would get heated as Tommy Baldwin would get into words with the crew on the Tomaino 99 entry.
The younger Baldwin did not offer a quote at the time but his father, Tommy Baldwin did.
“It just sucks man, you know unfortunately the 99 took Jack out last week and obviously Jack got loose getting in there and he took him out,” Tommy said. “I don’t know if it was a left rear flat, I noticed there was a left rear flat down, wasn’t sure if that was it, but I was just trying to explain it to him that it was unintentional.”
In real time, Crum felt there was a degree of intentionality behind the incident.
“Apparently I don’t know what happened, I think it’s very clear for all the fans who watched two weeks ago, and then saw what just transpired right there but, it’s fine, we’ll go to work, we’ll make it better, we’ll come back and we’ll be stronger.”
As for the results, multiple-time Stafford SK Modified winner Stephen Kopcik would finish second after a hard charge through the field on the final restart.
“I knew we were good throughout practice, didn’t qualify that great, I knew we had a good balance,” said Kopcik. “I think if we changed up our pit strategy a little bit and had better track position at the end we would’ve had a shot but Matt was stout.”
“I couldn’t be happier to come out here and run with guys that run this tour all the time so I’d say it was a successful trip”
Last year’s King of The Modifieds, Luke Baldwin would end up finishing third tonight after leading the race from the pole after the redraw.
“We lead some laps at the beginning, pretty good racecar a little on the free side, short pitted the tire, really good strategy and we were in a really good position there on the short run to take the lead there a couple of times from Matt,” the younger Baldwin son said.
“As the sun went down, just lost a little right front grip and it never came back, just chattering all the way around the racetrack, but second place car for a little bit there, then third place car when the sun went down. Thats all you can ask for, really good points day for us, lost to some of the best. Nothing to hang our heads about, took the points lead so we’ll move on to Orange County and hopefully take one down there”
SMART Tour King Of The Modifieds South Boston Speedway March 22 2025
1. Matt Hirschman 2. Stephen Kopcik 3. Luke Baldwin 4. Brandon Ward 5. Carson Loftin 6. Paulie Hartwig III 7. Joey Braun 8. Ryan Newman 9. Eddie McCarthy 10. Jayden Harman 11. Landon Huffman 12. Chris Pasteryak 13. Burt Myers 14. Daniel Yates 15. Jake Crum 16. Jack Baldwin 17. Sam Rameau 18. Carsten DiGiantomasso 19. Joey Coulter 20. Jimmy Wallace 21. Jeremy Gerstner 22. Ron Silk 23. Gary Young 24. Bryce Bailey 25. Carter McMurray 26. Slate Myers 27. Johnny Kievman 28. Tom Buzze 29. Jonathan Cash 30. Anthony Bello 31. Jason Tutterow 32. Tony Hanbury
