NWMT: Matt Hirschman Wins Season Opener at New Smyrna Featured

Racing News
Saturday, Feb 12 555

Matt Hirschman started on the pole and finished in the No. 1 spot in Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season opener at New Smyrna. Making his 107th career start in the series, Hirschman scored his fifth career Whelen Modified Tour victory.

Eric Goodale finished runner-up in his No. 58 GAF Roofing machine on Saturday. Earning one victory in 2021 and four career trips to victory lane, Goodale captured his 32nd top five and 90th career Whelen Modified Tour top 10.

Hirschman leaves with 30 career top fives and 61 career top 10s.

Mike Christopher, Jr. sat third at the time of the checkered flag. The driver of the No. 7 machine made his second career start in the series on Saturday. His debut in the Whelen Modified Tour came one season ago at Riverhead, where he finished 14th.

Jon McKennedy and Tyler Rypkema rounded out the top five.

About four yellow flags slowed the field, including a red flag period resulting in Ryan Preece and Andrew Krause making contact. Preece got into the side of Krause, sending the 24 machine around and into the inside wall on the frontstretch. Krause, finishing 29th, climbed out of the car while Preece continued. 

Craig Lutz, Ron Silk, Tommy Catalano, Patrick Emerling and Ryan Preece rounded out the top 10.

Streaming live on FloRacing, the series will head off to Richmond Raceway on April 1.

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Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.

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