Highlights | 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Claremont Motorsports Park
Watch the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour feature highlights at Claremont Motorsports Park from July 10, 2026 on FloRacing
Video Transcript
Truck ducks onto pit road.
150 laps.
The Midsummer Championship race number two picks up.
Off of turn number four, Patrick Emerling leads them to the green, and we're underway.
Patrick Emerling squirts away as Matt Hirschman tries to fill the hole there.
You see how tight it gets up off the corners here.
When we watched qualifying earlier, we saw two different things out of Hirschman.
It's just that he wasn't excited about Clermont being on Oh, trouble.
One driver, Teddy Hodgin, out of shape right in front of Trevor Catalano.
Catalano's gonna go down to the inside, still try to steal that spot as some major racing about mid-pack.
They're almost three wide with the Danny Watts number 82 on the inside.
Here comes Andrew Moeller.
So it's gonna flying away, so as the race progressed and you get cautions out here.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, Steven Copstick, your point leader with problems coming off of turn number four.
He ends up on the inside.
Car's in one piece, so he'll continue on his way.
Loose, trying to figure out what to do.
They can't waste too much time.
Steven Copstick coming in as our point leader.
He had one rough night at Oxford.
Looks like they might have figured out the issue, or they just gotta hurry up.
They got the hood put on.
They gotta tighten up the air cleaner.
He's in danger of losing a lap here.
They gotta be really quick with that 21 car as they try to get him to scamper out of here.
Sean Houlihan waves the green flag, and we're underway.
See Hirschman draw even down the backstretch.
A little bit of an advantage.
We'll see if he pins him down on the bottom, but Hirschman's car so strong on the top.
He's able to use all the racetrack and power to the lead.
Check out this replay.
Off of turn number two, or off one of the corners here, slides right into the wall, sparks shooting out.
That driver that's still after it every single lap.
There are, there is no cruise control on Matt Hirschman tonight.
Inches off the, the wall each lap, like kissed it a little bit.
And what does Patrick Emerling do here?
Yeah, he's just gonna have to wait and see where Matt goes.
You know, Matt's gonna catch him in tougher spots, he's gonna close Emerling up, and Emerling's gonna catch him in harder spots like this right here in the middle of the corner.
Matt's gonna squirt away a little bit.
But back to the 21, man, these drivers run smaller steering wheels than they ever have.
14", sometimes 13", and that just makes the wheel harder and harder to turn.
With these rack and pinion, steering racks, he is going to have a long night, so you just can't drive the car hard because you, you probably have more steering wheel angle in a place like this, with the tightest corners almost that we go to in, on the circuit.
So he's gonna have so much wheel to it that he can't hustle the car because he's not If he gets loose or something happens, he's not gonna be able to correct the car, so it's gonna be a long night for him as Emerling is giving Hirschman all that he can here for the lead.
And, and Ryan, you see that they're running two distinct lines.
And, well, I say that, and this time it looks like Hirschman took away what was the Emerling line.
Emerling's been going about a half a groove lower, and he has been rubbing that white line, whereas Hirschman's been about mid-track, and now he's kind of taken that away from him.
It looks like they're coming up on some more lap traffic as they make their way, back into turn number one.
Yeah, Matt runs that line where he kinda un He, he gets in a little bit higher, unwinds the wheel slowly and uses all the racetrack up to the wall, where Matt, or where, where Patrick is cutting back down to the white line.
It heats his tires up a little bit more, and it makes you spin your tires a little bit more off of the corner.
Before you know it, and number one is right there.
I don't think Patrick Emerling wants to wait until the lap traffic.
I think he wa- he almost dirt tracks it that time off of turn number four.
Yeah, that's the tough part is he, he's getting pointed and he wants to stand on the gas to get under him, but there's just no grip to do that as he gets into him here, and he's gonna fire in on the bottom.
He's gonna feel he's It's gonna be so hard to complete this pass, though, with Matt to keep position.
They're just gonna let him go.
Brand new leader on lap number 96.
It's car number one, Patrick Emerling rockets off the corner.
He's one of the more consistent drivers of the last half dozen years of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
He has strung together nine victories.
He has come close to the championship twice, and each time that he has chased the championship and really turned it up, it would be in the middle of the summer.
So it's Emerling time.
And off of turn number four, your winner of the Clash of the Clermont is Patrick Emerling.
Matt Hirschman comes across in spot number two.
What a long night.
And number 79 finishes third, defending champion in the Clash of Clermont-
