(Press Release from NASCAR Integrated Marketing Communications)
New Venues, Traditional Dates For 2020
The debut of a new showcase track, the highly-anticipated return to an Virginia venue, and a strong slate of premier northeast short tracks make the 2020 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule one of the most anticipated in recent years.
Three new tracks will be on the schedule:
The tour will make its furthest trip west with the debut of Iowa Speedway. The “Fastest Short Track on the Planet” will host NASCAR’s only open-wheel division on Friday, July 31. The Whelen Modified Tour slate will also add returns to Martinsville Speedway and Jennerstown Speedway.
“The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is coming off an exciting year in which we saw Doug Coby continue his historic championship run and we saw the level of competition and number of competitors increase,” said Brandon Thompson, NASCAR managing director, touring series. “We are excited about the mix of high-profile national series tracks that will showcase the great racing on the Modified tour, and the strong short tracks that have been the backbone of Modified racing.”
Martinsville, Virginia’s famous half-mile, is steeped in NASCAR Modified history. The modified division first raced at Martinsville in 1960 and was part of the original tour schedule in 1985. The Maxpro Window Films 200 will run on Friday, May 8 as part of the spring Cup Series weekend.
Jennerstown, a .522-mile oval in western Pennsylvania, will feature the tour on Saturday May 23. The track has held 14 tour races over the years, with the late Ted Christopher being the last to visit Victory Lane in 2006.
The Whelen Modified Tour will open the season with a return trip to Virginia’s South Boston Speedway on Saturday, March 21. Connecticut will serve as the traditional opening of racing in New England with the 46th Annual Icebreaker weekend at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Sunday, April 5, followed by the NAPA Spring Sizzler weekend at Stafford Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 26.
The season will conclude with the 48th annual NAPA Fall Final weekend at Stafford on Sunday, Sept. 27, and the 58th annual Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson on Sunday, Oct. 11.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway will again feature a 100-lap showcase on Saturday, July 18. The Whelen Modified Tour will also return with the 200-lap main event for the track’s Full Throttle Fall Weekend on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Other schedule highlights include:
- In addition to Jennerstown, the tour will make the trip to western New York to be part of Oswego Speedway’s 64th Annual Budweiser International Classic on Saturday, Sept. 5.
- Riverhead Raceway, a staple of the Whelen Modified Tour, will host two events. The first will be on Saturday, June 20, with a return trip to Long Island on Saturday, Sept. 19.
- A pair of bullrings will factor into the championship picture: Massachusetts’ Seekonk Speedway will bring the tour to town on Saturday, June 6, while New Jersey’s Wall Stadium Speedway will run on Saturday, July 11.
The complete NBCSN schedule, including broadcast times, will be released at a later date.
NASCAR Whelen Modified 2020 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
Looks like all of SC’s sources were spot on.
I do like seeing Seekonk, Riverhead and Wall all clumped together on the schedule.
Star rescheduled their September Star Classic to the following week due to the change of date of the Musket 250. The SBM 125 is still July 25th.
Some of the Tri Track dates are already confirmed but waiting on the full schedule release very soon hopefully.
This article states “the 200 lap main event” for the Full Throttle weekend.
Did this event get cut back from 250?
Sorry if i missed the memo.
Bob,
Yes it did. The one bit of news that was news today from the official release.
Thank you Shawn
Why did they shorten the Musket 250?
200 laps might be the perfect distance for the Musket… I’ve been to both, both were good, but this might be better.
I don’t about perfect Barry but less laps is the right way to go. Too many ride around laps as it is
to what end? Still it comes down to the last 20 like any race. Good move no matter the reason.
So Crazy, wanna make all races 25 lap sprints?
The car has to survive to make it to the last 20 laps, and be in contention on the last lap.
There is an element of survival. Did the team prepare car that can last? Is the driver so stupid he drives every lap like it’s the last? Long, epic races are the stuff of gladiators. Did the pit crew excel? A very different race. If you are used to itty bitty bullrings, I can see your point though. Big tracks with real speed are very different.
Saves the teams a set of tires.
200 laps will be just as exciting. If it saves a set of tires even better. I haven’t seen the full weekend schedule but maybe they are tweeking other aspects of the event. Other series etc
Just curious what others thought about a point race in New Smyrna in February in the coming years? I always thought I would never see it but with Iowa on this year’s schedule all things are possible. Some of the older owners are moving on. The younger owners may not be as adverse to it. Thoughts? Comments?
These teams love the hot pit stops at Loudon, the crews are extremely excited to be very much involved in these races, at a big boy race track like Loudon. But 200 laps is lots more exciting than 100 laps. They have to behave, stay in striking distance, and not make mistakes.
This is kind of old News. Race Day broke this a week and a half ago. With this official release we should start to see some schedules for Tri Track and see what Valenti MRS comes up with. Are they going to have another go of that Bullring Bash series or the American Mod Tour that had all their races scheduled at Waterford.
The NHIS 200 is fine with me, I think the race will be just as good. I just hope the reduction in laps doesn’t come with a reduction in purse. I would still like to see them go with a Super Late Model race instead of K and N and pintys. I think they could probably get more support in the way of car count and fan count if they went that route. Not sure the KN and Pintys series is the right fit but they are Nascar owned and Nascar doesn’t have a late model series. Perhaps ARCA will make an appearance as they are now under Nascar control. I don’t think that would be a good fit either as their car counts fell way off this year.
I was surprised at the support the modifieds had in Daytona for that series on the backstretch. If the teams supported a non points race in FL in the middle of the winter on a temporary track I think they could swing a race at New Smyrna. ACT Late models had a couple of races during Speedweeks one year at New Smyrna and had great support. It was a one year deal, so in hindsight maybe it was too much on the teams.
Honestly, I think the travel is going to start to be an issue for some of these teams. You might only have teams who think they have a legitimate shot at the title make the long haul races, especially the ones late in the year. How many teams do you think make all the races? This past year there was 16 teams which made all 16 races. I am guessing it will be less this year compared to last year. It might be as low as 10 to 12 teams. Could the recent announcement of a few long time car owners leaving the sport coincide with the increase in travel and money commitment necessary to compete for a tour championship with the schedules geographical expansion?
So Crazy, wanna make all races 25 lap sprints?
A mental defective could extrapolate that from what might point was but you certainly qualify.
Using your logic then a Musket 500 would be twice as good as a 250. For anyone old enough
to have seen both. Is the 200 lap Sizzler better than the old 80 lapper?
The NHMS 200 is fine. The 100 lap edition was too short. Look, most of us probably drive several hours to go to NHMS. For me, it’s about 7 hours total. I have wanted a much longer mod race for decades. Kinda makes the drive worth while. Otherwise it was like a holiday dinner… spend hours and hours and hours preparing the feast, and the meal is over in a few minutes. Do not want to see it go below 200 laps.
JD, from what I read, Iowa wanted the Mods, they need anything to run out there. They only have a handful of events, and otherwise undercard series at that. Unlike the baseball field, they built it but not too many have been showing up. The other thing is diluting or reducing the events in the home market territory. If the local market (New England) races are reduced, I am afraid that the series could collapse and implode. People will lose interest and look elsewhere. We just went through some dicey tough times with low car counts and anemic crowds, and the recovery is looking good. The northeast supports the Modifieds. Have to take care of the home market. As far as New Smyrna goes, it is not a special track, another ½ miler similar to Stafford and Thompson. Doesn’t seem compelling. I don’t see much value added to haul >2,500 miles to New Smyrna to run a regular ½ mile track similar to Thompson and Stafford. Put that race in the home market at Thompson or Stafford. It has been proven that there is no market for mods down south. Except at Bowman Grey.
As crazy as Iowa sounds, the TRACK is appealing and if the teams get dialed in and familiar with the track, it could turn out to be one heck of a race. The exits and entries on the front stretch can be rather interesting for a mod. The line they find to get through both ends may be very different and quite exciting.
According to the NHMS Event Schedule, ARCA East will run their final race of the season AFTER the Musket 200 concludes. Making ARCA the featured race of the weekend. This is total garbage if true. The main event should be the final race of the afternoon.
My 1st thought on the reduction of laps at NHMS MEANS a purse reduction as well, Stafford tried this with the may race about 10 yrs ago, while the crowds the 1st 2 yrs I say have been good, I don’t think as good as NHMS had hoped for compared to the CUP weekend, you notice last year they did not do the $100 per lap bonus like the 1st year which took away 25 k FROM THE purse, charging for parking that weekend, not many concession stands open, they HAD NO PROGRAM to buy for the weekend and again 15 to 20 teams from KN AND PINTY series and I am sorry that legend race Friday afternoon was a waste of time, I still say bring in MRS or ROC even SK/SPORTSMAN Mod RACES to enhance the want for other race fans to show up, its NOT A BAD show but it could be better!!
The feature race is the one I go to see, and leave after. I leave after the modified race.
I can’t put my finger on it but this website has been very refreshing and enjoyable the last week or so. Good race talk. No nonsense. Kind of like the old days.
Stafford up from 3 to four tour Modified races, TTOMS going to 7, the MRS still in the game and the NWMT up to 17 dates and spread out all over. It’s only early November, all the seed isn’t even planted yet and green shoots are springing up all over for next year.