Matt Hirschman Steals Another Victory From Jimmy Blewett At New Smyrna
Matt Hirschman Steals Another Victory From Jimmy Blewett At New Smyrna
Matt Hirschman and Jimmy Blewett put on a show Thursday while dueling for the win during the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Matt Hirschman won a Tour-type Modified race at New Smyrna Speedway. That’s the short explanation, but really, Hirschman and Jimmy Blewett put on a show while dueling for the win in the final short-distance race of the World Series of Asphalt.
Blewett took the lead from Ronnie Williams on a restart with 10 laps remaining in Thursday’s 35-lap affair. He restarted in the weaker bottom lane, but a shove from Hirschman propelled him into the lead. Hirschman was able to follow Blewett by Williams to take second.
Over the next seven laps, Hirschman just stalked Blewett’s No. 7NY machine, waiting for a chance to pounce.
That chance came when Blewett bobbled off turn two with three laps remaining. Hirschman got a strong run on the exit of the corner and was able to dive under Blewett going into the next corner. He was able to clear Blewett on the exit of turn four coming to two laps to go.
On the last lap Blewett mounted one last charge, but Hirschman’s PeeDee Motorsports No. 60 proved to be too strong once again.
The victory is the second during the World Series of Asphalt, and the third of the week including his win in last Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event.
“I think Jimmy was tight and actually once I got ahead of him I was actually tight,” explained Hirschman. “I know one thing, we’re an entertaining group. People sure get their money’s worth with this group. These Modifieds, there’s nothing that compares.”
Meanwhile, Blewett is left with one final chance to score his first victory of the week in Friday’s Richie Evans Memorial 100, the finale for the Tour-type Modifieds at the World Series. Blewett has been close to a win all week, with three runner-up finishes and a third-place run on his stat sheet.
“Obviously I want to win, but we’re also looking at the big picture,” said Blewett. “Every point counts here. I did everything I could to hold him off, but my car was just too tight. We were trying something tonight to anticipate what the track’s going to do tomorrow. We just missed it a little bit, but we were there at the end when it counted again. Hopefully we can do the same tomorrow.”
The Tour-type Modifieds close out their portion of Speedweeks on Friday night with the running of the 100-lap Richie Evans Memorial. Fans can watch all of the action live beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on FloRacing.