RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — As far as birthdays go, Saturday wasn’t so bad for Patrick Emerling.
The now 34-year-old continued his march to the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship with a dominant win Saturday night in the Eddie Partridge 206.
The victory, his fifth of the year, puts him on the cusp of his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship with just one race remaining in the 16-race season.
“Always love to come here to Riverhead,” Emerling said. “Awesome race track. We always enjoy it, it’s always a good track for me for some reason, even though I’m a Western New York guy.”
Emerling was in his own league throughout most of the 206-lap main event. Starting third following the redraw, Emerling took the lead from Matt Hirschman by Lap 20 and was rarely challenged the rest of the night.
His closest pursuer in the later stages of the race was 15-year-old Paulie Hartwig III, who briefly took the lead from Emerling following a late restart only for Emerling to quickly regain control of the race.
The final restart came with 15 laps left and as he had done all night, Emerling made quick work of the field and drove away to a comfortable 1.399-second victory.
Hartwig chased Emerling to the checkered flag to earn a career-best runner-up finish aboard his family-owned No. 73. He gave Emerling everything he had but just couldn’t find a way around the No. 1 machine.
The triumph, combined with an eighth-place finish by defending series champion Austin Beers, means Emerling will enter the finale at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Oct. 11 with a comfortable advantage in the standings.
Justin Bonsignore, who was making his 250th career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour start on Saturday night, won the American Racer Pole Award and finished third. Tyler Rypkema was fourth, followed by Eric Goodale in fifth.
Joey Braun, Timmy Solomito, Beers, Roger Turbush and Craig Lutz were sixth through 10th, respectively.
