Ryan Preece celebrates a NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour victory at South Boston Speedway in 2015 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
The parts and pieces of the 2019 schedule for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour are coming together and a new addition to that schedule was confirmed to RaceDayCT on Wednesday.
Brandon Thompson, the senior director of NASCAR Touring Series, told RaceDayCT Wednesday that the Whelen Modifed Tour will return to South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Va. for the 2019 season.
“Obviously we just want to make sure that the South is still represented in the Whelen Modified Tour,” Thompson told RaceDayCT.
“With the rich history that South Boston has we just felt like it was a good home. Luckily [track CEO] Nick [Igdalsky] and [general manager] Cathy [Rice] agreed and we were able to come up with something that worked for everybody. So we’re excited to return and bring the tour back to South Boston.”
The Whelen Modified Tour will run on March 30, 2019 at South Boston. South Boston is a 4/10-mile relatively flat oval.
The Whelen Modified Tour has competed once at South Boston Speedway, in 2001. That event was won by Jerry Marquis.
The former NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour ran 11 races at South Boston between 2009 and 2016. Winners of the those events included Andy Seuss (three), James Civali (two), George Brunnhoelzl III (two), Ted Christopher, Brandon Ward, Kyle Ebersole and Ryan Preece.
That’s cool. Bring back martinsville also and get rid of Bristol.
They need to get back to martinsville.
They need to bring back Richmond. And they should run Dover. They ran Dover prior to 1985. Great racing.
i believe they ran Dover a handful of times in the 70s. the last time was in 1977. Great racing? well, maybe the races prior to 77, but the 77 race was so bad and had such a poor crowd that the promoter lost a small fortune. the modifieds havent been back since! the race was won by Geoff Bodine who took over the 6 car for maynard troyer. the 6 car was 6 laps down at the time and Bodine made up the laps and got the win. However, only 3 cars finished on the lead lap and only 10 or so cars of the 35-40 that started the race were running at the finish,
From what I was able to dig up, it looks like they ran a 300 in 1970 and a 100 in 1977. http://www.ultimateracinghistory.com/racelist3.php?trackid=38
Judging from the lap count, it doesn’t give the impression that either were hotly contested events. I think Dover’s banking would make it less than ideal. Richmond was perfect for modifieds, but I doubt they will ever find their way back again. It just isn’t modified territory.
I agree with some of the others and bring Martinsville back. Great track for modifieds.
Love to see you guys back down here at Martinsville with LMSC. Back in day Martinsville had triple features for Busch, Mod, and LMSC (fall and spring). Like to see that again. Busch cars will not make trip. Have 150 lap features for Mod and LMSC.
You can bring back the cars but you are not going to bring back the Stars and the backbone of modified racing. They are all gone.
Believe they were called the Dogwood and Cardinal 500? Maybe even a night race, bring the lights in like they have in the past for other events.
Look, the southern mods didn’t want to travel across the street to run. How many have traveled up north to run? Now we want to put more southern events on the Tour and make the northern teams travel?
They already travel south. So mite as well race at different tracks then they are now. I get what your saying about travel but when thompson and Stafford are half your schedule there is other tracks they can run instead
You can bring the cars but not the Stars and the back bone of racing. They are all gone
Its Called the Whelen Modified TOUR, so if South Boston or Langely want to pay for a race then so be it, for many years the schedule was getting smaller and smaller and people complained, now we get NEW tracks to join and people complain, Yes we all want Martinsville and Richmond but I was at the LAST Martinsville Race along with the other 700 people in the stands, sure maybe a NIGHT race along with A late Model race might draw a good crowd in Summer, up to the owners to choose that!!
South Boston from what I can see is just a terrific facility. Four tenths of a mile. Nicely banked at 10 and 12 degrees with passing on the outside common. Hard to say but the track surface looks to be in good shape. About a 10 hour drive from Springfield,MA so that’s not too, too bad I suppose.
Wmass is right. What’s the deal with Bristol or Richmond. Or Myrtle or South Boston for that matter. Fact is the stands will be mostly empty won’t they? The point is to have a southern location to keep the southern roots still in the game and provide a warm weather location early in the year. We don’t know if it’s replacing Myrtle do we? Or do we? Myrtle was March 17th. They wouldn’t do a two race southern swing would they?
Seriously, whether it’s Stafford, the VMRS, NWMT, Waterford, whatever. Isn’t it fun seeing the shedule’s emerge.
You are right. This is exciting. Like when the Busch north series evolved to what it is now.