Connect with us

World Series of Asphalt

Hirschman is Making Preece Wish He Went to New Smyrna

The two short track aces have been the faces of the World Series

Race of Champions

Matt Hirschman needed just five minutes of practice on Tuesday to decide that his car was good enough for 50 laps around New Smyrna Speedway in the second round of the World Series of Asphalt.

He won from a fourth place starting position by 2.5 seconds in a race that went flag-to-flag.

Make no mistake: There are some really good teams and drivers represented in the field between Ron Silk, Eric Goodale, Patrick Emerling, Tyler Rypkema and Jimmy Blewett, but the notable absence is Ryan Preece.

The 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion has the opportunity of a lifetime this year to establish himself as a legitimate superstar championship threat and is fully focused on the Daytona 500 this weekend.

In other words, no Tour Type Modified racing this week, even though he really wishes he could take the battle to Hirschman given his run of success to start the World Series.

“Last night, I wanted to race really bad because I feel like he’s breezing through this right now,” Preece said. “It’s definitely something that the competitive side of me wants to make his life difficult and not let him run away with some of these shows.

“But at the end of the day he’s done a really good job and I wish I was there to make his life a little more difficult.”

Hirschman is making it look easy, but he promises there is nothing easy about the preparation he subjects himself to during the offseason to prepare for this week.

“Was last night easier than other wins, sure, but there were no cautions and restarts that, you know, makes it look more convincing,” Hirschman said. “But when you think about all the work and preparation that goes on before we get here and once we get here, no, it’s certainly not easy.”

With that said, he wishes Preece was here too, just because that’s been his biggest consistent challenger over the past seven years.

“Preece has always been good here,” Hirschman said. “I just think this track really suits his style well. So when you come here, he is the top competition we go against. It seemed like the Richie Evans always comes down to us.

“But you know, I don’t think too much about that stuff. We just race the competition that’s here and not beat yourself. Whoever takes the green flag tonight, that’s all I’m concerned with.”

Preece was at New Smyrna on Saturday night for the NASCAR Tour race to support Dave Sapienza. He finished seventh with a set-up fully engineered by Preece, and that was a different kind of pride for the Stewart Haas Racing driver.

“I spent January tinkering on it and he actually had a really good run,” Preece said. “I enjoyed that aspect, working with him in practice, and seeing it go well. And really, as much as I enjoy driving, my focus is on the Cup Series, but I do enjoy tinkering on race cars, but I enjoyed that side of it this week.”

With that said, Preece said it kind of pained him a little to have to tell his dad they weren’t going to race the Tour Mod this week.

“Little side story, I remember telling my father when all this stuff (his Cup deal) was coming about, I’m not going to run the Modified or stress myself out getting it ready to go run,” Preece said. “But it’s hard to tell your father that when you’ve been racing together for so long.

“But I told him, I can run a Modified any day of the week. I had four people ask me to drive theirs the other day but how many people are asking you to drive their Cup car?”

So, for now, that leaves the likes of Silk, Blewett, Emerling and Sapienza racing to dethrone Hirschman this week. Hirschman really seems like a guy capable of sweeping the entire World Series.

“We have a lot of experience doing this,” Hirschman said. “I know exactly what the car needs to feel like and as long as it’s working, I’m not going to change it. We’re just going to keep going about our business and if that’s going well, great, and if we need to change it, we will.

“But right now, I don’t see that being necessary.”

If you like what you read here, become a Short Track Scene Patreon and support short track journalism!

Read more Short Track Scene:

Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Facebook

Archive

Advertisement

More in World Series of Asphalt