Luke Baldwin won the SMART Modified Tour finale at North Wilkesboro to claim his second championship in as many years.
After a race filled with mechanical issues for many drivers, Baldwin took over control after a dominant Carson Loftin had a mechanical failure. Despite a push from title rival Ryan Newman late in the race, Baldwin won the race and the championship.
“It’s huge,” Baldwin said. “I think it’s definitely a weight off my shoulders. I’ve been coming here for a while and struggling to find myself in victory lane. Finished second twice and third once. It’s been kind of frustrating at times because I love this racetrack. It’s super fun, and we always have speed when we come here.
“Finally, we’re able to put one together thanks to everybody at Sadler Stanley Racing and PSR Products. 7VA was on our absolute rail at the end there. After the stop, we made every adjustment right. We were banking on the track to go one way, and it went that way. It’s definitely special for the group.”
He feels that the attrition of the race played into his favor and that his car got better the later in the day it was.
“I think you hit the nail on the head right there with the attrition,” Baldwin said. “It was long, hard, and I think luckily, it played into our favor a little bit, the way the track went. It came to us as the sun went down. So, I think it played into our favor, but still very frustrating to ride around on yellow for all those laps. Especially knowing we had a really good long-run race car and we couldn’t get anything but short runs. It was still a fun race. Fun racing with Brandon Ward, Joey Coulter, Bobby Labonte, and a ton of people.”
Newman made a charge late in the race, but wasn’t able to get further up the field than third by the checkered flag.
“Well, another caution would have gave me an opportunity,” Newman said. “Luke put his car in position. They made his car better at the tire stop. We did too but we just ran out of track position. Thanks to all our team sponsors and everybody but congratulations to him as well.”
He felt like it was a similar case to the NASCAR WHELEN Modified race back in May regarding all the cautions and mechanical failures.
“I feel like this is an awesome stage and an awesome racetrack for modified racing but I think it was two complete flops of quality of races from what the modifieds are capable of putting on,” Newman said.
“I’m sad about that because I really thought that [on] the All-Star Race weekend, we could have put modifieds back on the map and it didn’t happen. Today was no better and it was just a situation the racetrack- I said in the spring the racetrack needs to stop [with] the oil dry. That’s ridiculous. If you put oil down you’re not putting it down eight feet wide. Whoever’s telling them needs to lose their radio.”
Paulie Hartwig III finished in seventh, the lowest out of the championship three drivers.
“We had a good race car the whole race,” Hartwig said. “We fired off a little too tight, and we were tight the whole race. We avoided a lot of wrecks, and that was the most important part of it. When Bryce Bailey blew up, he was through my door with the nerf bar, and it cut a hole in my side of the door panel. I know we didn’t have a good finish, but overall it was a really, really great year. We showed a lot of speed. Luke Baldwin is a pretty good guy, and he races clean, and he definitely showed it today and the whole year. So congrats to them for the championship.”
It seemed wherever Hartwig was at was where the chaos ensued. While he was dodging wrecks on track, he was also fighting an overheating issue.
“When that last caution came out with 19 to go, and we came in and freed it up, I think we had a good car,”Hartwig said. “Then next thing you know, we got free in turn three and then kind of overcorrected and lost two spots. I was kind of riding it out the last 10 laps. It sucks that we were only [eighth], and we need to be really good this race to run for a championship. But I guess it wasn’t all there today. But we finished eighth out of 31. It was pretty cool finishing third in points.”
The full finishing results can be viewed below.
SMART Modified Tour
North Wilkesboro Speedway
October 18, 2025
1. #7VA Luke Bladwin
2. #04 Brandon Ward
3. #2 Ryan Newman
4. #02 Joey Coulter IV
5. #77NY William Lambros
6. #38 Bobby Lobonte
7. #20 Eddie McCarthy
8. #73 Paulie Hartwig III
9. #7NY Jack Baldwin
10. #18 Daniel Yates
11. #33 Carsten DiGiantomasso
12. #55 Jeremy Gerstner
13. #92 Brody Jones
14. #39 Cayden Lapcevich
15. #21 Jimmy Wallace
16. #15 Carson Loftin
17. #01 Mellisa Fifield
18. #1 Burt Myers
19. #5 Tom Buzze
20. #12PA Anthony Bello
21. #1JC Jake Crum
22. #11 Norman Newman
23. #4 Slate Myers
24. #99 Bryce Bailey
25. #16VA Jonathan Cash
26. #79 Joey Braun
27. #40 Carter McMurray
28. #25 Danny Bohn
