Multiple sources close to the Whelen Modified Tour confirmed to RaceDayCT Friday morning that NASCAR still has plans to go forward with a Whelen Modified Tour event on May 30 at Myrtle Beach Speedway in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
RaceDayCT reported on May 15 that NASCAR made team owners aware of the scheduling of the event through a conference call that day.
During a conference call with team owners Friday, NASCAR officials reiterated their plans to run the event on May 30 at Myrtle Beach Speedway.
Team owners were told it would be a 133-lap event, the lap count being designated in honor of longtime series competitor Wade Cole, who passed away unexpectedly in March.
Owners were told the event will pay $4,000 to win and will be a points paying event for the series. Fans will not be allowed to attend the event.
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour series director Jimmy Wilson was not available for comment immediately on Friday. It remains unclear when NASCAR will make an official announcement concerning the event.
Myrtle Beach Speedway had been an early season stop on the Whelen Modified Tour schedule from 2017 to 2019 but was not on the originally released 2020 schedule. It was announced earlier this month that Myrtle Beach Speedway will close after this season.
Six of the first seven events on the originally announced Whelen Modified Tour 2020 schedule have been postponed, with one additional event – at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway cancelled.
The Whelen Modified Tour was originally slated to open its 2020 season at South Boston (Va.) Speedway on March 21. That event was postponed indefinitely.
The series was then scheduled to run the Liquid Death Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway on April 5. The event was originally postponed to May 16th and then postponed indefinitely.
The NAPA Spring Sizzler 200 was originally slated for April 26, was postponed to May 31 and now remains postponed indefinitely.
The May 8 event for the series at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway was supposed to mark the fourth event of the season and the division’s first event at the track since 2010. NASCAR announced the cancellation of the Martinsville Whelen Modified Tour event last week.
The sanctioning body also announced last week the cancellation of a July 31 event at Iowa Speedway, which would have marked the debut for the series at that facility.
The originally scheduled May 23 event at Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway, which was set to be the fifth event of the season, has also been postponed indefinitely. The June 6 event at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway and June 20 event at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway have also been postponed to dates to be announced.
Myrtle Beach Speedway had previously announced plans for a racing card to be run this Saturday (May 23), with fans allowed to attend. On Thursday Myrtle Beach Speedway management changed course and announced that fans would not be allowed to attend this weekend’s race.
The good news is there is Modified racing and they are recognizing Wade Cole. The bad news is I don’t think even the race winner can break even with $4000 for first place. I hope the fact that it’s a points race makes for a good team response.
The travel is so stupid. So profoundly stupid. Travel 1,800 miles to run at an empty track.
$4,000 to win??? It will cost far more than that by the time the team gets back home. Far, far more than that.
Did anybody approach Connecticut and ask if they could run a no-fans race at Stafford or Thompson? Did anybody approach Stafford of Thompson?
Would be far more appropriate to honor Wade Cole in Connecticut.
This is so stupid.
I hope the owners tell NASCAR no 🖕 way.
This is so stupid.
Einstein was right. Genius has bounds, stupidity is boundless.
Stupid to travel that far to race for $4000 to win, in front of empty stands
Wow that is pathetic and will start a unwanted trend if all teams go.100k race car vs 5000$ exspense for 4k to win and few hundred bucks to start. They made it a points race because not many would be going otherwise, this might be the lowest paying race ever in WMT history.
will this be broadcast on NBC grassroots? The website doesn’t look like its been updated recently. Still references the original Jennerstown, Seekonk, IA and Martinsville races. They have all been cancelled or postponed.
I can see how this will be a money loser for most teams. Probably learn right out the gate how many teams plan on running for a championship. Not sure how many teams will go given relatively short notice and the anemic purse. I don’t think CT was an option as Stafford just got approval for limited attended practices. Certainly a CT track would have been chosen had it been an option.
Speed51 is streaming tomorrows race at Myrtle, Guessing this event will be on NBC Sports Gold although it’s not listed yet.
What southern mod teams may it attract? Will any non tour mod teams from up here make the trek? Going to Florida in February might seem crazy expensive yet teams do it every year. Will Hirschman be there? Racers race.
From a distance it does look perplexing. On the other hand we don’t know what feedback teams gave NASCAR. Is there any chance there are added incentives that were not disclosed? It could very well be a bird in the hand kind of deal and they simply want to race while NASCAR wants content. New England is a no for now, South Carolina a yes. I don’t care. If enough teams show up for a race and it’s streamed it’s going to be a banner event for modified fans.
No fans buying tix, merch, food and beer. No $$$ being made. I wonder where the $$$ is even coming from for all the expenses (entire purse, track employees, NASCAR employees, all the track owners operating expenses, etc.) Can’t imagine TV alone covers it. I’d think NASCAR is just gonna have to operate regional series in the red. All races with no fans are gonna be extremely light purses
Stupid is as stupid does.
Let me throw this out, why does MBS care if they make money on this one event? The owners are selling it in a few months. That will be their winning lottery ticket. I’m sure they are getting a little something something but it doesn’t really matter does it? The place will be an office park in 12 months. Probably why they got selected to host it.
To people mentioning about how the track is gonna make money? Clearly they are just renting the track to NASCAR. Nobody is gonna pay that kind of purse (even as small as it may be for a tour race) for a race that they can’t sell any tickets, food, etc… for. There is no TV money for the modifieds, the only way tracks make money is from the fans. So clearly, its a track rental by NASCAR, otherwise there would be no benefit to the track and this race wouldn’t be happening.
Extremely lame that this isn’t open for fans. The stands there are huge. I went there in 2018 for the tour race. There was a decent crowd on hand, but in those huge stands, there was still probably at least 50% of the seats empty. They could have limited this to 50% grandstand capacity or even just 2,000 fans or something. There wouldn’t have been an issue with social distancing…
Other races have been happening in SC with fans including northeast big block modifieds on dirt this weekend at Gaffney, SC.
I know NASCAR has their reasons, they don’t want bad press if someone in the stands had coronavirus, but this just sucks.
Based on this, and NASCARs announcement about Cup races til almost the end of June with no fans as well as their sports car series IMSA holding a couple of races in Florida(another state which has been holding short track races WITH fans already) in July without fans…. I think we will be lucky if fans can be at any NASCAR/ARCA sanctioned events til at least July… Really sucks
Wrong move. A tour race to honor a long time New England driver should be held at a New England track in front of fans, whenever that can be. What a shame.