NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — There was no stopping Matt Hirschman on Friday night at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. Save for a tire issue Monday, there was no stopping him all week.
Hirschman on Friday won the Richie Evans Memorial 100, the last Tour-Type Modified event of the 2022 World Series of Asphalt and the race named after the late Modified racing legend.
It marked the fifth time Hirschman has won the Richie Evans Memorial in the last six years, and his sixth triumph in the event overall.
He has now won the Richie Evans Memorial more times than any other competitor.
Yep. He did it again.
Matt Hirschman wins the Richie Evans Memorial 100 at @newsmyrnaspdwy! pic.twitter.com/hlMkifOM5V
– NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) February 19, 2022
“I couldn’t ask for more, really,” Hirschman said of his team’s efforts over the week at New Smyrna. “Exactly what I wanted to have in the car. The only flaw we had was a tire going flat on Monday night. There’s nobody here who could control that.
“One of our best weeks we’ve ever had, I mean what a week. We actually have done this before; I think we won Wednesday-Thursday-Friday one year. But having the (Whelen Modified Tour) win last weekend, just amazing.”
Hirschman took the lead early in Friday night’s race and never lost it despite multiple restarts.
Jimmy Blewett, Patrick Emerling, Teddy Hodgdon and Craig Lutz rounded out the top five.
For his efforts in all four Tour-Type Modified races throughout the week at the World Series, Blewett clinched the division championship with his second-place run Friday night.
His finishing positions for the week were second, third, second and second.
MORE: Sights and sounds from Richie Evans Memorial
“Obviously we wanted to win,” Blewett allowed. “But the championship was the big picture. We were looking at the big picture the whole week. Even though we didn’t win a race, we won a championship. And it means something to me to do it against a guy like Matt Hirschman, because he barely ever misses.”
Friday night’s Modified race featured a lengthy and somber pre-race ceremony in honor of Evans and others in the Modified racing community who have died.
Evans was a Modified racing legend who was killed in a crash while practicing at Martinsville Speedway in 1985, soon after he had clinched the inaugural title for what’s now the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
The Modified finale at New Smyrna’s World Series of Asphalt has been named in Evans’ honor ever since.