Patrick Emerling has done a lot in Modified racing at this point in his career, but he’s closing in on doing something that he’s never done before. Emerling is just days away from clinching his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship.
Emerling enters Sunday’s 150-lap season finale at Connecticut’s Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park with a 30-point lead over defending champion Austin Beers. Emerling’s path to the championship on Sunday is as simple as it gets. All he has to do is show up and start the race, and then he can call himself the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion.
That math changes a bit if a few more cars decide to start Sunday’s race, but the math overall says that Emerling just has to finish 25th or better to win the title regardless of what Beers does. Currently, 23 cars are on the entry list for Sunday’s race, which is why all Emerling has to do is start the race. If 23 cars start, it is mathematically impossible for Beers to gain enough points to beat Emerling.
Emerling’s five victories have propelled him to being in position to win the championship this weekend, but it took a while for Emerling and his USNE Motorsports team to really find their footing. After the fourth race of the season at Seekonk Speedway, Emerling was third in points, 21 points behind Stephen Kopcik who had already rattled off two victories by that point.
It wasn’t until the eighth race of the season when Emerling finally found victory lane at Claremont Speedway. But once he scored that first win, the floodgates opened.
Emerling then rattled off two more wins in a row at White Mountain Motorsports Park and Monadnock Speedway. Now he enters Thompson with the chance to win three races in a row for the second time this season as he has scored wins in the last two races at Oswego Speedway and Riverhead Raceway.
Emerling’s only blemish between now and that first win at Claremont came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He finished dead last after crashing hard on just the fourth lap of the race. But, fortunately for Emerling, Beers spun late in the race and wasn’t able to capitalize on Emerling’s misfortune. Emerling and Beers left Loudon tied atop the standings before Emerling took off again.
So now the Orchard Park, New York native heads to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut with a chance to cap off his season riding the highest of highs. The championship is in the bag, but another win would be his sixth on the season which doubles his highest NWMT single-season win total to-date.
Race fans can watch Patrick Emerling capture the championship and the final NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race of the season live on FloRacing. The green flag is scheduled to fly for the final time in 2027 at 4:30 p.m. ET.