“I’ve had enough of you mother——–!” These words hardly suit a 58-year-old person fresh out of a cancer battle, don’t you think? Skyrocketing blood pressure and a bad mood should generally be bad for their health. But those concerns didn’t stop Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s fiery demeanor. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour owner was recently in the thick of controversy, leaving his peers rattled.
The ‘King of the Modifieds’ race was held for the SMART Modified Tour at South Boston Speedway last weekend. Matt Hirschman was crowned the winner of the event – but that was hardly the eyeball-grabbing storyline. Tommy Baldwin explained what was – and it involved his son, his rival, and himself.
Tommy Baldwin dissects wild fight
What is stock car racing without a couple of mad brawls? Well, the Modified race on Saturday lived up to that ideal – and the conflict originated in an earlier race. During SMART’s second race at Anderson Motor Speedway, Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s son Jack Baldwin and Jake Krum made contact and slammed the outside wall. Despite a healthy admission of faults post-race, both extended the conflict till South Boston’s event. On the 91st lap of the 125-lap race, Baldwin made contact with Krum’s left side and both again went hard into the wall. After exiting his car, Krum strutted over to Baldwin’s – there was definitely some pushing, some shoving, and some clutching and grabbing!
In a recent ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’ episode, TV analyst Jamie McMurray confessed he was a first-person witness to the brawl. He said that watching Baldwin get angry left him concerned: “I saw Tommy, and I saw the biggest vein I’ve ever seen in my life sticking out of his neck.” The other DBC hosts also concurred as Freddie Kraft said, “There he is, vein popping out.”
Baldwin recalled how things turned gnarly when Jake Krum and his accomplices – cronies of Jamie Tomaino – approached him. Tommy Baldwin Jr. said, “Jake walked by me… told me to go f myself… I didn’t even care about Jake Krum, I was glad he was okay… All these guys in the gray shirt – they’re all Jamie Tomaino’s guys that don’t even work on the car… All these guys… started running their mouths. Then you got the tow truck guy, he starts choking me later on… They start running their mouths and that’s what p—– me off.”
If you hear us saying “had enough of you MFers” all week long, mind your business.
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Tommy Baldwin Jr. then clarified how the flow of events kicked off. “To give them both credit, they raced side by side for two laps before that… When he [Jack] got loose, the right rear hooked Krum’s left rear. And when the front snapped, he took his hands off his steering wheel… I was on top of the white trailer watching the race… even when they were fighting.” Baldwin’s reasons for getting onto the racetrack were also not related to joining the fight. “The only time I got off was when they started asking Jack to get into the ambulance… I only went down to check on him.”
Despite the aura of shock over Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s vein-popping misadventure, his fiery nature is hardly a surprise. Baldwin has received respect for this strong attitude despite his health problems.
When your strength gets highlighted
During the summer of 2023, Tommy Baldwin Jr. received news that transformed his life. He contracted cancer. It forced him to take a sabbatical from the sport that’s been a perpetual part of his life. Baldwin’s treatments involved eight rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiation. By the time the disease left his body, he had lost almost 60 pounds and most of his stamina. The chemo and radiation weakened his body. But his spirit could not be dampened. That continued from his long history of success on the track. As a Cup Series crew chief, he won a Daytona 500 in 2002 with Ward Burton under Rick Ware Racing. As competition director for RWR, he helped the team achieve good finishes with J. J. Yeley.
Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s role as a Modified team owner also has a tremendous impact. Doug Coby, who won the 2022 Whelen Modified Tour championship under Tommy Baldwin Racing, said his team owner makes a difference. Coby compared Baldwin to his father, Baldwin Sr. He said both had the fiery disposition required to make a winning race team. “I’m one of the few people on the Tour that raced against [Tommy’s] father. I’ve had a lot of respect for Tom Sr. and [the 7NY], but the people who raced Modifieds from Long Island and have that rich history are a different breed of people. Tommy has made it pretty clear that he wants to carry that number’s legacy forward to honor his father and pass that fire down to Jack and Luke.”
Clearly, Tommy Baldwin Jr.’s impact is still strong on the Modified scene. Although a few vein-popping brawls may lead to health concerns, his fiery nature remains intact.
The post “Starts Choking Me!” – 58 YO NASCAR Veteran’s Vein-Popping Brawl Had Young Guns Fearing His Health appeared first on EssentiallySports.
