Call it a year for broadening the horizons of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
The theme for the Whelen Modified Tour when it comes to the 2020 schedule will be plenty of new additions mixed with a bunch of familiar visits.
NASCAR is expected to release the 2020 schedule in the coming days, but through track and NASCAR sources – and dates already announced – RaceDayCT is able to pull together what is expected to be the final schedule for the series.
The series will have 17 points paying events for the 2020 season, which is a one-event increase from what the series has run the last three years.
The division will run events in eight different states, which will include the series’ first ever visit to Iowa. The series will also make stops in Connecticut (six), New York (three), New Hampshire (two), Virginia (two), Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
It will mark just the sixth time in the 35-year history of the division that eight or more states will be represented on the schedule. The last time the series visited eight states in one season was 1991 when events were held in Connecticut, New York, Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maine and Massachusetts as part of a 23-race schedule.
Only one time since the inception of the series has the division run in more than eight states in one season. In 1998 the series visited nine states with North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts and Maine on the schedule.
There were seven states – South Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire – on the 2019 schedule. As recently as 2015 the schedule included just four states, which marks the lowest state count in series history.
The biggest changes for 2020 come as no surprise with much publicized new events already announced at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway (May 8), Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway (May 23) and Iowa Speedway in Newton, Ia. (July 31).
The 2020 season will open March 21 at South Boston (Va.) Speedway and the season will close on Oct. 11 at the Sunoco World Series 150 at Thompson Speedway.
Thompson will host the series’ second event of the season – the Icebreaker 150 – on April 5. The division will also return to the track for an August 19 event. As was previously reported by RaceDayCT, Thompson will drop from four series events to three for 2020, losing their traditional June event.
Stafford Speedway will host the series three times in 2020 with events scheduled for April 26 (NAPA Spring Sizzler), Aug. 7 and Sept. 27 (NAPA Fall Final).
New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the division on July 18 as part of their Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series weekend.
Multiple sources have confirmed to RaceDayCT that the Whelen All-Star Shootout exhibition event, which is typically run on the Friday the day before the July points event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, will not be on the 2020 schedule. The event has been run annually since 2014 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
The third Musket 250 will move up one week for 2020 and be run on Sept. 12.
Riverhead Raceway will host the division twice in 2020 with events on June 20 and Sept. 19.
Wall Stadium in Wall, N.J., which returned to the schedule in 2019 with a May event, will return to the schedule for 2020 with a July 11 race.
Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway (June 6) and Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway (Sept. 5) round out the remainder of the schedule.
Expected 2020 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Schedule
- March 21 – South Boston Speedway, South Boston, Va.
- April 5 – Thompson Speedway, Thompson, CT
- April 26 – Stafford Speedway, Stafford, CT
- May 8 – Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Va.
- May 23 – Jennerstown Speedway, Jennerstown, Pa.
- June 6 – Seekonk Speedway, Seekonk, Massachusetts
- June 20 – Riverhead Raceway, Riverhead, N.Y.
- July 11 – Wall Stadium, Wall, N.J.
- July 18 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.
- July 31 – Iowa Speedway, Newton, Ia.
- Aug. 7 – Stafford Speedway, Stafford, CT
- Aug. 19 – Thompson Speedway, Thompson, CT
- Sept. 5 – Oswego Speedway, Oswego, N.Y.
- Sept. 12 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H.
- Sept. 19 – Riverhead Raceway, Riverhead, N.Y.
- Sept. 27 – Stafford Speedway, Stafford, CT
- Oct. 11 – Thompson Speedway, Thompson, CT
Works for me. My only con is running Stafford less than a week after Iowa. I would have pushed it back a week to the Friday before the Aug 19th Thompson race. Good to keep a night tour race at Stafford though. I assume these are all confirmed.
JD,
Yes, all these events are confirmed through previous announcements or sources close to the tracks or series.
The only con for me is the Musket 250 moving up week, so I’ll have to miss a week at Stafford. The first two 250’s fell nicely on the off week before the Stafford Fall Final.
Good looking list, overall!
Nice Halloween surprise!!! 🎃🎃🎃👻👻🎃👻🧟🧛🏼♀️🧟♂️🕷
Looks good. Hope the crowds show up at the away games. We have to get the message out to the locals in those regions that these cars are fantastic. They should give it a try.
Well Waterford is not on list for obvious reasons but can we get an update? Drove by and still nowhere near ready, whats 2020 plan? Track Schedules and rulebooks will soon start being released and nobody knows wth is going on down there.
Rich,
Wish I could give you an update. Obviously if I could I would.
Thanks Shawn for getting the scoop! Living on videos and tv until April!
Solid big boy 💪 schedule.
Don’t understand the thinking behind the Iowa date when the idea is to keep cost down?
We lose a race at Thompson, but gain Iowa, and Martinsville. Great for the tour. But that Iowa followed by Stafford the following week, should have given the teams a week to regroup. Musket weekend falling on final Night at Stafford? Would prefer it be on the off week. Otherwise looks great, with a lot of variety.
Bill the tour could care less about costs think about this teams have asked numerous times why have us at Thompson stafford etc on a Saturday at 8:00 am when most of your teams come from Long Island.If they cared at all about cost make them one day shows.
If I could make one addition it would be a ME or NH bullring. You pick which one. Other than that i think it’s the best schedule in a number of years.
Iowa is what it is. It was announced months ago. I’m over that debate. It ain’t changing.
Who’s going to:
1. Iowa Speedway. 🌽 🌾
2. Jennerstown
3. Martinsville
4. South Boston
5. Wall
6. Oswego
I might try for Mattinville or Jennerstown. I wish they were spaced out in different months. Is that Martinville show on a cup weekend? That would make my decision easier. I am really happy Stafford has 3 dates, I was worried they were going to go with their open mod series in place of the August race, can not be happier to be wrong about that.. We gained Jennerstown, IA, and Martinsville. We lost Myrtle Beach, a race at Thompson, and the all star race at NH. Same amount of events as last season one additional points show. Chasing points is certainly a little more challenging to the wallet as they will be logging more miles to get to races this year. Now that the Nascar schedule is out or pre released thanks to Race Day CT, the other series can start putting together their schedules. What schedule comes out next? I am curious to see what MRS comes up with.
OK for all the whiners
Iowa WANTED a WMT Race and was willing to pay the FEE/PURSE so all who keep harping it doesn’t make sense, TOUGH, if they don’t get a decent crowd or show of cars they wont be back, yes a long haul but exposure from NBCSN and Fanschoice TV, which SOOOOOOOOOO MANY complained about lack of TV coverage for years finally has happened, same with Jennerstown, I went to the 1989 race there, great modified track and very nice track, they should draw a good count and crowd from the NY/PENN ROC and local teams. South Boston looked liked a very big crowd, Oswego also had a nice crowd
WALL was packed last year, so why not do again and IF the track really is done after 2020 then a good farewell.
Saying NASCAR does not care about cost to teams is DUMB, the only 2 days shows are part of either CUP WEEKENDS, NHMS AND Martinsville or Traditional races like ICEBREAKER, SIZZLER, FALL FINAL, WORLD SERIES weekends which all have been multiple day shows with all kinda tight schedules, SO WOULD U Prefer the WMT just race and practice alone on those days to be 1 day shows?
WOULD I like NH dates. LEE, STAR. MAD DOG , Claremont, SURE but maybe those tracks don’t think a profit can be made with the track capacity!
ENJOY the growth in TEAMS 30-40 at most races in 2019 and the fact TRACKS want the WMT!!!
wmass01013, I’m glad that Iowa WANTED the race. I’d hate to think of all the tracks that HAD to run a NWMT race that they didn’t want to.
I’m seriously considering Iowa. These cars have the potential to be great and fast on that D-track. If they can get plenty of practice to get dialed in and familiar, it can be a great race. Weather will be crucial. It’s 🥵 out there, 🌪 alley, very stormy. I’d hate to travel and get rained out. Then I’m pondering Martinsville, SoBo, Oswego. I like the drive along I-81 and there are plenty of side trips between here and there. Oswego because I like upstate NY. Jennerstown and Wall are lower priority.
Hope to see many of you out there.
Wmass, you have beaten the “a track has to WANT a race date” horse to death. Martinsville and Jennerstown returned after 10 years. Wall returned last year. Fans are just having fun speculating. Maybe some wishful thinking involved. We all understand how it works. Nobody is taking away your birthday here. Just a little off-season fun. I’ll get you a new bowl of Cheerios.
I-81 you say? You could pick up Crazy on the way down DaReal.
I’m doing Martinsville. I got to wondering if some of the Cup owners would let their drivers run Martinsville. Maybe a M&M car or a Busch Beer car. Hopefully Preece and Newman run. MH in the PeeDee car, The Ace Burt Myers. Maybe Jason Myers. Tim Brown??? I think this could have the making of a generational entry list with several Cup drivers involved.
With this new amped up schedule for 2020, now is the time for change. In particular the “provisional” system. Each race, where there are more cars than spots available should have the following: provisional for past champion. Provisional for past championship car owner. If they aren’t used then the spots are awarded based on time for 1 and postmark on entry form for the other. Each driver should only have 4 provisionals for the season, no team should be able to race the full season, not having legitimately qualified for the races, while faster cars are being sent home. If you have to rely on provisional spots to race, you don’t belong in the series plain and simple. It’s sad when a tour modified runs lap times slower than the Kate model, or sportsman cars.
I won’t pick up I-81 until the Harrisburg, PA area, so I will miss any opportunity to carpool with Crazy. 😇
Martinsville is a great track for Mods… tight turns, big acceleration, hard braking. It’s what Mods live for. Go time will be worse than the LIE at rush hour. There’s a couple side trips I can add to make it more productive.
Cup drivers haven’t run at NHMS in a while. Newman may be the exception, but there were several others that ran NHMS many years ago: Kahne, Edwards, Stewart, etc. Not sure why they don’t run anymore. I’m glad they don’t, they displace Tour regulars, take away points and 💰 from those that need it much more.
I’m still checking my calendar for an upcoming, near term race. It’s gonna be a long winter.
wmass, the MAD DOG gave up their TOUR race a couple of years ago but I believe that was under old ownership.SO much for the rumor of Star Speedway getting a TOUR date I guess it was just that, a rumor….