WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS…A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE – 2025 SMART Modified Tour Freeman Hoosier 99 At Tri-County Speedway

The leaves on the trees are changing color and the summer heat is fading which means it’s a great time to find yourself at your local short track. The end of the 2025 season is just around the corner and everything the race teams and their drivers have worked for this year is coming to a close. That means the few races that are left are some of the best and most hard fought for events of the season. Teams still looking for their first wins to teams looking to close out the championship hunt. Drivers still looking for the experience they need to succeed and drivers looking to add to an already accomplished resume. It’s all coming to a head. But, just like the season, for some, it also means the falls coming. They’ve all worked so hard for it to all come to this, the last few races of the season. You have to be your best. And you have to be extremely sharp. Everything has to go right and there can be no room for any misunderstandings. Such was definitely the case as the SMART Modified Tour came to Tri-County Speedway with just 2 races left on this year’s schedule. It was time to cut the 2025 championship contending field down to 3. The 3 that will go to battle for the title at North Wilkesboro. One thing’s for sure. This year’s SMART Modified race at Tri-County definitely highlighted the competitors on the tour and their fans’ passion for southern Modified racing competition. Let’s take a closer look at the 2025 SMART Modified Tour Freeman Hoosier 99 from Tri-County Speedway. Truly one of the raciest short tracks in the country.

SMART TOUR FREEMAN HOOISIER 99 FEATURE

After an invert of 6, Cayden Lapcevich starts on pole with Bryce Bailey starting alongside on the front row. Second fastest qualifier Carson Loftin shows his speed early, charging to the head of the pack with championship contender Paulie Hartwig III in tow. Also joining the party as the laps tick by is Joey Coulter, setting up a three way tango for the win. Biding his time however is pole winner Burt Myers. Myers makes a furious stampede towards the lead. With under 5 to go, it’s the young gun vs the veteran. Loftin vs Myers. Myers looks to the outside, but Loftin gives him a nerfbar! And another! Loftin clears en route to a big victory for the Shady Grady #15 team! Myers hangs on for 2nd, Hartwig III crosses the line 3rd, Danny Bohn finishes 4th, and Coulter rounds out the top 5.

MY TAKE

First off, if you wonder about if Tri-County Speedway provides for great short track racing, all you have to do is look at the last 2 events featuring the CARS Tour and SMART Modified Tour. Absolutely outstanding. When you put the best in the business on one of the raciest short tracks in the country, you get to see some of the very best short track racing in the world, period. I’ll never be able to state that enough to those who have never visited Tri-County Speedway. From where it is to what it is, it is an awesome place to be if you love short track stock car racing. Our hats constantly go off to all of those who continue to build this facility into a regional and national showcase track.

Secondly, and again, what a race. Championship implications along with some intense competition made this race exceptional. It’s too bad that the focus of most people’s attention after this race was not on that. Instead, the attention careened off of that and veered into a huge misunderstanding by a lot of folks. All stemming from a battle for the win at the end of the race. As everyone that knows us here at Short Track Report has come to know, we won’t hesitate to call it like we see it. It’s just disappointing to us that we have to put the focus back on how great the race was by first having to address what in the end came to be a large number of people refusing to see any other opinion than the one they had already come to before the final story was told. It’s a growing issue not just in this sport but in the world in general. No one wants to speak to anyone anymore. They form opinions and stick by them no matter the real truth of the matter. What we have here…is a failure to communicate. Everyone has a right to their opinion. But as an informed fan, you know as well as I that not everyone can be right in opposing views. And since there are very passionate fans as well as competitors in the sport, when the stories start flying, it’s hard to know what really happened unless you take the time to actually find the truth.

The race had it’s complexities, but in the end, it came down to a proven young winner fighting a multi time champion for the win. One led most of the race while the other battled adversity and the other competitors for most of the entirety of the race just to get a shot at the win. As you’d expect, some feelings were going to get hurt. When there are winners and losers, they often do. Burt Myers took the pole award after Carson Loftin had his fastest lap taken away for arriving late from testing at North Wilkesboro. Per the rules. To note however, they were the 2 fastest cars in qualifying. The tour inverted the top 6, so the first 3 rows. Burt drew the number 6, leaving Cayden Lapcevich to lead them to green. After the early race battle for the front, it wasn’t long before Carson Loftin was up front saving what he could while still holding off the field. Burt Myers meanwhile spent the race fighting for position and used a later caution to put on a right rear tire. After that, it was clear Burt Myers had the fastest car coming to the end as he flew through the field to 2nd behind Loftin. Myers took 2 shots at him, both on the outside. The first attempt got him a nerf to the door from Loftin that sent Myers out of shape but he was able to catch it and was immediately back to Loftin’s outside, only to get run up into the marbles and losing ground as Carson took the win. Burt was able to finish 2nd but he was not happy coming out of the car and a shouting match happened.

In interviews, Burt Myers said, “Another punk kid doing a punk kid thing..”. And on social media, a number of fans let their feelings be known. In that however a rumor started that Carson Loftin’s team refused to tear down after the Myers team protested. But the truth is, the Shady Grady team pulled what they were told to pull, the carburetor and camshaft. Both were deemed legal and the win was made official on Tuesday. Now that said, the only contention comes down to the moves Carson Loftin made to secure the win. Say what you want, Loftin used Myers up. There is no doubt about that. But, he didn’t wreck Myers. As many of you know, we feel this is indeed a contact sport and founded as such by the outlaw moonshine runners that made the sport of short track stock car racing such an interesting spectacle. The Myers know all about it as the Myers family has been in racing from almost the very beginning. I’ve been watching the Myers race my entire life, and so I’m just going to say it…Burt Myers learned to drive at a quarter mile track where contact is inevitable. Burt Myers is an 11 time champion at Bowman Gray Stadium. And in this instance, he has a right to be upset. But, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Burt Myers leaving competing drivers feeling just as upset. And that can be seen in the comment Carson Loftin dropped in his interview on the end of the race when he said he drove Burt the way he thinks Burt would have driven him. You can argue whether either of them is right or wrong. But you can’t go around on social media with statements like Loftin bought his win or the series doesn’t look good for not making them tear down or anything else you want to spout because your favorite driver didn’t win. It’s getting outrageous out there.

In the end of it all, here’s the real story – Multi time SMART Tour winner uses up former champ in the closing laps as Ryan Newman, Paulie Hartwig III, and defending champ Luke Baldwin are set to go contend for the 2025 SMART Tour championship at North Wilkesboro Speedway. At the end of the day, what we hope is that this fires up Burt Myers and his team can return in 2026 ready to rebound from the 2025 season because no one wants to go out shouting about what could have been. He is still the winningest SMART Tour champion to date, and that’s what he should be remembered for. And it all starts on momentum for next year at the season finale in North Wilkesboro. Until then, See You At The Track!