CLAREMONT, N.H. — Patrick Emerling proved Friday night that hard work pays off.
In preparation for the Clash at Claremont, Emerling and the No. USNE Motorsports team made an extra trip to Claremont Motorsports Park a few weeks ago. They used that event as an opportunity to prepare for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at the track a few weeks later.
That preparation paid off in spades after Emerling secured his first victory of the season Friday night at Claremont, which served as Round 2 of JDV Productions’ Whelen Midsummer Championship miniseries.
“This whole team works hard. We came here and ran a few weeks ago to figure out the track a little bit. We missed it a little bit in the race and finished second,” Emerling said. “It’s the determination of the team. We put in the effort to go race another race here to get a feel for the track and then we just made our adjustments, and we unloaded that much stronger today.”
Emerling qualified fourth but had the good fortune to draw the pole in the pre-race redraw, which allowed him to lead the field to the green flag.
He led the opening stanza of the race, but perennial contender Matt Hirschman utilized a restart just past Lap 30 to drive around Emerling to take the lead.
Emerling paced himself and slowly reeled Hirschman back in during the long green-flag run. With 56 laps left, Emerling was on Hirschman’s rear bumper. Two laps later Emerling worked to Hirschman’s inside and completed the pass to regain the lead.
Hirschman kept Emerling honest for the final 50 laps, but Emerling held serve and drove to his first Modified Tour victory of the season and 10th of his career.
The victory makes Emerling just the 24th driver in Modified Tour history to earn 10 or more victories.
The win also propelled Emerling to the top of the Modified Tour championship standings after Stephen Kopcik, who entered the race as the points leader, finished last after fighting power steering issues all night.
Jon McKennedy, the most recent Claremont winner prior to Friday night, finished third. Austin Beers was fourth, and rookie Paulie Hartwig III finished fifth.
