By now you’ve probably seen the video of Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum crashing in Saturday’s “King of the Modifieds” for the SMART Modified Tour at South Boston Speedway. By now you’ve probably seen Crum and Baldwin’s pushing match. And by now you’ve probably seen Tommy Baldwin Jr., Jack’s father, car owner, and crew chief, screaming at Crum and anyone else who tried to get in his way. But did you see what caused all of this? Did you know this was “Crum vs. Baldwin Part Two?” 

If you didn’t, that’s okay. That’s why we’re here. We’ll explain it all in this “Beef Breakdown.”

This beef is relatively new. It goes back to earlier this month during SMART’s second race of 2025 at Anderson Motor Speedway (SC). Baldwin, in his white No. 7NY, was to the outside of Crum and his No. 99. Baldwin was trying to make the pass on Crum for second place with 16 laps to go. The two drivers made contact coming off the fourth turn and Baldwin slammed the outside wall, ending his day.

“Crum and the Tomaino guys decided to pit early so they had no tires,” explained Baldwin after the race at Anderson. “I tried to get by him and the Tomainos and Crum just did what they do and drove me into the fence when I hadn’t touched a soul the whole race. They’ve got no reason to be up there. They’re only up there because they stayed out.”

𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺 & 𝑶𝑵-𝑩𝑶𝑨𝑹𝑫𝑺 😲 Birds were flying and tempers flared after Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum tangled during Saturday's @SMARTMods_ race at Anderson Motor Speedway. #SMARTMods pic.twitter.com/RkHeAfThTf

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) March 9, 2025

In watching the replays back, it appeared that Crum, who said he was battling a tight condition at this point, got snappy loose off the corner and bumped tires and side bars with Baldwin, which then sent Baldwin into the wall on the frontstretch. 

“I just really didn’t have a right-rear left and we were too tight,” said Crum. “I gassed up in the center of the corner and I was trying to stay with him and keep the right-front kind of nosed in front of him and then last-second we kind of snapped. I don’t know if the right-rear hit him or if he just ran into the fence or if I ran him into the fence. I really don’t know. I just know what I felt in the car, and it was honestly nothing intentional.”

Baldwin was left with a crumpled car and hurt feelings, and he made sure those feelings were known. He immediately exited his race car and gave Crum the double bird as Crum drove by.

“I just gave him the bird,” said Baldwin. “It’s absolute horse-crap that he’s even up there. I just tried to roll to the outside of him as clean as can be. I don’t even know what he’s doing. Just let me by. He’s got no tire left. He’s got no business being up there. He’s just constantly doing stuff like that and it sucks. It sucks for my guys, but we’ll be ready to get back out at King of the Modifieds.”

Crum went on to finish fifth while Baldwin finished 16th.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks to this past weekend's King of the Modifieds at South Boston Speedway. Literally, the very next race. We didn’t have to wait very long to get the second installment of this beef’s history. 

First, things got a bit heated during the driver’s meeting on Friday as the Baldwins tried to understand why Crum was not sent to the rear of the field for his part in the incident at Anderson. Tensions didn’t boil over, but it was definitely more interesting than most driver’s meetings.

But during the race, tensions definitely did boil over when on the 91st lap of the 125-lap race, Baldwin and Crum found each other again as they were battling for fifth. This time, the roles were reversed. Baldwin was to the inside of Crum when Baldwin wiggled entering the first turn. He wiggled up into the left side of Crum’s car and both went hard into the outside wall together in turn two.

Immediately, anyone who remembered Anderson thought this was retribution. Including Crum, who quickly vacated his wrecked No. 99 with his helmet still strapped, and marched a few feet to his left where Baldwin was quickly exiting his race car, with his helmet also still sat atop his head.

💥 A hard crash and some hurt feelings between Jack Baldwin and Jake Crum at @SoBoSpeedway57!@SMARTMods_ #SMARTMods pic.twitter.com/BZ4vBzcaKU

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) March 22, 2025

It would be tough to call what happened next a “fight,” but there was definitely some pushing, some shoving, and some clutching and grabbing. But officials and safety personnel quickly broke up the pair, sending Baldwin to the ambulance and Crum walking back down the banking. 

The problem, though, was that Crum was walking down the banking to where Tommy Baldwin just so happened to now be standing and waiting, and he was not repeating the “goosfraba” phrase either (that’s a reference to the 2003 Jack Nicholson/Adam Sandler classic “Anger Management” for you youngings out there). Crum was smart enough to walk away, but his entire team approached Baldwin, who was already being separated by officials. Baldwin’s parting words for the Tomaino team were “I’ve had enough of you motherf******s!”

So, that’s where things currently stand in the Baldwin vs. Crum Beef. Will there be an epic conclusion to the trilogy? Or will things end with this classic sequel? We’ll have to wait and see, but we do know that there’s 13 more races left on the SMART Modified Tour calendar and the next one comes on April 5 at Orange County Speedway live on FloRacing.