IT’S GOOD TO BE KING – 2025 SMART Modified Tour King Of The Modifieds At South Boston Speedway

“It’s good to be king.”

Matt Hirschman’s first words to the media and fans after his 2025 King Of The Modifieds win at South Boston Speedway

Becoming King in many instances involves winning the battles that puts you in position to capture the crown. That was the case this past Saturday afternoon as Matt Hirschman put himself in position at the end of the 2025 SMART Modified Tour Presented By Pace-O-Matic King Of The Modifieds feature at South Boston Speedway’s season opening event. Of course it also helps if your fellow combatants become locked in battles of their own that end up taking them out of the line of fire before it’s time to truly settle it. In an absolute war of attrition, by the end of what’s become the southern Modifieds crown jewel event, Hirschman played his strategy to a T and was left with only two real contenders for the crown. Defending King Of The Modifieds winner Luke Baldwin put himself at the front of the field toward the stretch but used up his equipment trying to check out on the field, and Stephen Kopcik ran out of time having to come from the back of the field through the chaos that ensued in the nearly three hour battle of endurance. Truth be told however, this was all par for Hirschman. After all, his nickname is “Money” as he knows how to win in the biggest of competitions. So much so that we hear the question at almost every race we’ve seen him compete in. Is “Money” Matt Hirschman the best Modified driver of all time? No matter where you stand on that question, what’s true is that he will go down as at least one of the best drivers to ever strap in the 600 horsepower beast. Anyone who says otherwise is either caught in their own emotions or just fooling themselves. All you have to do to understand is take a good look at his accomplishments.

10 North South Shootout wins, 8 Turkey Derby wins, 6 Star Speedway SBM 125 wins, and 1 Spring Sizzler and Islip 300 wins and that’s just in single events. Add to that 21 World Series Of Asphalt Stock Car Racing wins, 11 SMART Modified wins in 20 starts, 60 ROC Asphalt Modified Tour racing wins along with 128 top 5’s and 158 top 10’s in 188 races. 22 Monaco Modified Tri-Track wins with 41 top 5’s and 50 top 10’s in 56 races, and although he has a mere 9 wins on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, that also comes with 51 top 5’s and 86 top 10’s. His career is even more extensive than that but I think you get the idea. The man knows a thing or two about winning and it’s only apt that he finds his way to his first SMART Modified Tour King Of The Modifieds crown in just his second attempt. As mentioned, the race this year was an absolute war of attrition that saw many cars wastefully marred in the action. Among those were 2 time NASCAR Whelen Modified champion Ron Silk and NASCAR Cup Series winner Ryan Newman who took the same pit strategy and found themselves in the thick of the chaos to dire results. Both had fast cars that seemed destined to compete for the win early but were caught up in the melee and both put on the hook with Silk out for the day and Newman left to salvage an 8th place finish against the odds. Multi time SMART Modified champion Burt Myers also wasn’t immune to the chaos, fighting all day to get the handling on his number 1 machine only to end up on the hook himself after it looked like they finally had it all figured out. But there was one incident above all others that had the short track world talking.

Both Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum worked successfully to put themselves in position toward the end of the race for great outcomes. But shortly after a late race restart, the two found themselves careening hard into the outside wall with Crum taking the brunt of it and ending up with a destroyed #99 car. Thankfully both exited their cars unhurt but immediately became engaged in a death grip as they emotionally pleaded their cases to each other before being broken up by the track crew. For many it seemed an intentional payback on Jack Baldwin’s part for an incident that transpired between the two just a few weeks earlier that saw Baldwin getting the worst end of it, going into the wall head on at Anderson Motor Speedway. It’s been the chatter for the past few days and was significant enough for us to delay the release of this article as we took an extensive evaluation. Honestly at first glance, we too thought this may have been payback. But after reviewing the incident several times, from different angles and at numerous playback speeds, we’ve come to what’s sure to be seen as a controversial opinion by many that this may have truly been just a highly coincidental accident. Baldwin’s car bobbled before it went up into Crum and sparks can be seen from under the car before they ever made contact. We heard from some, car owner Tommy Baldwin for one, that Jack may have had a tire going down. But after our extensive review, we find it inconclusive. Just another racing incident that emotion will decide how most will see it. Truth is, Jack Baldwin is the only one who truly knows what happened here, and it’s up to you as a spectator to what you want to believe. It very well may have been retribution, but it also may have just been an unfortunate set of circumstances between these two competitors.

As the season opener for South Boston Speedway, the SMART Modified Tour King Of The Modifieds wasn’t the only event feature on tap as the South Boston Speedway Late Model Stocks ran twin 50 features along with a 50 lap appearance by the highly competitive Alliance Driveaway Solutions STAR Super Stock Tour featuring some of the regions very best Street Stock competitors. For the nationally coveted South Boston Speedway Late Model Stocks, the season openers kicked off the speedway’s new Championship Loyalty Bonus Program sponsored by Hitachi Energy and Empower Broadband that will see $20,000 going to the 2025 season champion and with $15,000 to the runner up and $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 going to the rest of the top 5 respectively. It will also see the rest of the field of championship competitors receiving $2,000 each. 19 competitors entered the event to take part with Mike Looney taking the pole and leading the field to green in the first of the twin features. But it was 7 time champ Peyton Sellers taking the point early and sailing to a seemingly easy victory with Looney in tow and a hard charging Trevor Ward finishing 3rd. But where race 1 was fairly uneventful as far as carnage is concerned, race 2 was an entirely different matter as the battle for the lead was intense to say the least for the entire race, causing a number of on track run ins that left Bobby McCarty signaling Trevor Ward but apologizing to Peyton Sellers. Limited Sportsman champion Jason Myers endured a hard lick to the outside wall as he and Eddie Slagle tangled leaving Myers to exit his machine gingerly, but the hardest impact seemingly came as Craig Moore and Carter Langley tangled after Langley lost his front and slid up the track unintentionally into Moore who had hard contact with the outside wall leaving his car mangled in the process.

As the smoke cleared on race 2, it was Trevor Ward taking the win with Landon Pembelton finishing 2nd and Craig Moore finding his way to 3rd. Trevor Ward did apologize to Bobby McCarty who brought a fast hot rod to the South Boston Late Model Stock openers for late race contact, explaining that it was all unintentional and just racing at the highly competitive speedway where the competition is tough and the racing is intense. The STAR Super Stock Tour pulled off, for the second race in a row, an accomplishment that defines the talent on this up and coming series. They ran another caution free event. In one of blue collar racing’s hardest cars to race, that is indeed a mighty powerful statement to the quality of drivers the tour brings to every event. At the end of the 50 laps, Jeff Melton proved again that he is indeed one of the best Street Stock competitors in the nation as he took the win over 2nd place running Charles Baldwin and 3rd place finisher Cody DeMarmels. Look for this tour when it heads to your area or your home track and be sure to get your tickets early as you won’t want to miss this awesome blue collar racing. At the end of the evening at South Boston Speedway this past Saturday, we were reminded of the passions of the sport and what it truly means to these competitors. Blood, sweat, and tears, doesn’t hardly even describe it. Short track racing is LIFE for many. It’s going to be a extremely competitive and exciting year of short track racing in the region and we can’t wait to see you out there. And so as always, until next time, See You At The Track!