1
0
Matt Contemplating the Entire 19 race NASCAR WMT Season
By Kevin Rice
Photo Michael Jaworecki/Myracenews
Matt Hirschman has added his name to the growing entry list of talent for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, “Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150” event that will take place on Friday night, March 31 at Richmond Raceway.
The list of early entries also includes former NASCAR Cup Series stars Ryan Newman and Bobby Labonte, along with current Cup standout Corey Lajoie, winner of the NWMT season finale at Martinsville Speedway last October. They will challenge an equally impressive list of Modified stalwarts Doug Coby, Ron Silk, Justin Bonsignore and 2022 Champion Jon McKennedy to name a few.
While he will only say that his confirmed schedule doesn’t go past the month of May, Hirschman couldn’t deny rumors that he might enter all 19 tour events this season. That should cause a great deal of anxiety for any 2023 Championship hopeful drivers. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver last season had an average finish of 2.7 in seven starts, which easily ranks higher than any of the 67 drivers who made at least one NWMT start last season.
“We are entering (Richmond) and I will be in the same car that I ran in the Islip 300 at Riverhead (NY Raceway) last fall,” Hirschman confirmed to Myracenews this week. “It is kind of a team merger between Pee Dee and Elite of Ronkonkoma NY to possibly increase our number of races that we ran last year on the tour. We will be going under the name ‘Pee Dee Motorsports Elite’ for the tour, combining with the Elite Motorsports team.
“They were looking to expand on that, and I felt that based on how that Islip 300 event went that I would be interested in doing more races for them in 2023, and this looks like what makes the most sense to fill some of the voids of races that I hadn’t been doing. That starts at Richmond, with the next possibility being at Riverhead in May.
“Right now, we basically have a plan from the start of the season through May. We will evaluate and go from there, but right now that is as far as we have planned out. Monadnock (NH Speedway-May 6) and Riverhead (May 20) are definite, and likely Lee (NH Speedway-May 27) with the Pee Dee car.”
Hirschman’s youth included time spent helping his father Tony, who won the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour event at Richmond in 2001, following up a second-place finish to Reggie Ruggiero in 2000, when Matt was just 17 years old. Tony Hirschman competed in 320 tour events over 22 years, while son Matt hasn’t run a full tour season schedule since 2011, but he has built a 17-year history in NASCAR’s oldest division.
“He always ran well there,” Matt recalls. “I was there when he won. It is certainly a unique place for sure. I am looking forward to the weekend in general because we also plan to compete with the SMART Modified Tour at South Boston (Va. Speedway) the next day. A good opportunity for a double weekend at tracks relatively at a close distance to one another.”
The Richmond event will certainly be a challenge for Hirschman, despite his resume. He will be competing in a car that he has limited experience in, and at a track where the most devoted Modified teams have two years in their notebooks from the 2020 and ‘21 NWMT events.
Hirschman’s only driving experience at the three-quarter mile track was in 2019 when he won an Open Modified event presented by the PASS Series. However, he welcomes the higher level of competition that this race will bring.
“It certainly helps that I’ve raced there once and I’ve got some laps, but I was not at the two tour races, so most of the field has more recent experience,” he noted. “But having been there before certainly helps versus no experience at all. This is the type of track where experience is definitely valuable. It is unlike anything else that you would go to.
“Obviously the more quality cars that we can get in the field the better. The tour races we have been doing over several years have always been competitive, but the more quality throughout the field the better.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has held 12 events at Richmond since its inception in 1985. Mike Stefanik has three wins, with Ruggiero taking the checkered in two of the 10 events held between 1990 and 2002. After a lengthy hiatus, the tour returned for events in 2021 and ‘22, with Ryan Preece and Justin Bonsignore victorious.
McKennedy is the only driver to earn top ten finishes in both of the modern era races, while young Austin Beers has impressed with finishes of sixth and 11th in two starts. Last season it was Tommy Catalano leading the most laps in his first Richmond tour start, with part-time racers Chuck Hossfeld, Kyle Ebersole and Tyler Rypkema all scoring top five finishes behind Catalano’s second place run.
The NWMT Friday, March 31 schedule for Richmond includes one practice session, from 12:45 – 1:55 p.m. Time Trial Qualifying is set for 4:15 p.m., with the green flag for the ‘Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150’ scheduled to wave at 6:30 p.m.
Check out Myracenews on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media pages on race day for on-track updates and photos from the track.
