Young Racer Luke Baldwin Tops the King of the Modifieds Smart Modified Tour Field

Read Time:4 Minute, 29 Second

Phil Cavali Photo from Smart Modified Facebook

(South Boston, VA) The youth movement on the SMART Modified Tour this season continued Sunday afternoon at South Boston Speedway as 17- year- old Luke Baldwin held off veteran Matt Hirshman to win the King of the Modified race.

The win was the 1st of Baldwin’s career in only his 3rd start on the SMART Tour and netted him a $20,000 payday.

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” the young racer said after edging “Big Money” Matt Hirschman by .415-seconds in a 17-lap sprint to the finish following the last of the race’s six caution periods.

“Matt Hirschman is the guy to beat in Tour-Type Modified competition. To put my name above his and guys like Doug Coby, Woody Pitkat, Burt Myers and Ryan Newman, it’s unbelievable. It means so much to bring this home for the Sadler-Stanley Racing Team, everybody at Pace-O-Matic, and team owners Hermie (Sadler) and Senator (Bill) Stanley were here as well. I’m just super glad to bring one home for those guys.”

Baldwin, the son of longtime Modified team owner and former Cup Series crew chief Tommy Baldwin Jr., took the lead from Hirschman on lap 99 and led the final 27 circuits on the .4-mile oval. In qualifying, Baldwin showed his speed by setting a new track record for the SMART Modified Tour with a lap of 13.610 seconds and 105.805 mile-per-hour.

A late-race adjustment by his crew chief was a big key to Baldwin’s victory. “This thing was an absolute rocket ship,” Baldwin remarked. “Neal Cantor played a 90 percent role in winning this race with a great late-race adjustment coming off of pit road with about 50 (laps) to go that made the car really good on the short run.”

His father was exceptionally proud.

“He put on a clinic. … For a 17-year-old to have that much speed and talent. He passed Hirschman twice. Ninety-five percent of the racing Modified world has never passed Matt Hirschman. He passed him twice.”

“It has been a whirlwind the last couple of months with everything going on,” Baldwin Jr said in victory lane. “For him getting called to drive that car and I didn’t have anything to do with it. They called and asked for him to drive. Yeah ok, …right out of the box he was fast. I knew he was going to be good, just not this good.”

Hirschman, who led a total of 95 laps, had a tough outing, yet he still was able to challenge for the win before having to settle for second place and the $10,000 runner-up prize.

First, following a caution period on lap 40 involving Doug Coby, Coby accidentally backed into Hirschman’s car and banged into Hirschman’s left front tire.

Later, Hirschman was involved in a multi-car incident on lap 107 that appeared to start when Hirshman made contact with Jake Crum while battling for 2nd place

“I didn’t have quite enough to win,” Hirschman pointed out. “I had some things throughout the race, some unfortunate things that happened, some maybe that I take responsibility for. Other things happened like I got a little front-end damage that shouldn’t have happened. Then there was a big wreck on the backstretch where I misjudged. I thought I was clear coming up off the (corner) and when that call was made it was too late. I believe that put the 12 (Jake Crum) into the wall and got other guys wrecked, so, it was not the day we wanted to have.”

Despite that, Hirschman remained in contention at the end. “He (Baldwin) slipped a couple of times, and I was kind of there,” noted Hirschman. “If I thought we had enough

to win, I would have tried to get the job done. I think it played out the way it probably should have.”

Finishing 3rd in the race was six- time Whelen Modified Champion Doug Coby-piloting the Tommy Baldwin owned 7NY- who battled back from two incidents that could have ended his day early.

” This was pretty wild,” Coby said. “This track is so fun and so fast but man when they all check up on the backstretch you really can’t do anything. Two wrecks there …Came home third, I’d like to say the car is in one piece, we’ll give it like seven/eights of a piece

Rounding out the top- five in the 125- lap race was Jonathon Cash in the second Sadler -Stanley entry and Anthony Bello driving for long time modified campaigner Hillbilly Racing.

The next event for the SMART modified tour will be the Cardinal 99 this Saturday March 30th, at Tri-County Speedway in Granite Falls, NC.

SMART Tour King of the Modifieds
South Boston Speedway
March 24 2024-Unofficial Results