NASCAR announced Sunday that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return to Martinsville Speedway and Richmond Raceway for the 2021 season.
“It’s a huge deal and a great opportunity for our competitors and our fans,” Whelen Modified Tour director Jimmy Wilson said. “The fans and the competitors alike for as long as I’ve been the director now, that’s all I’ve heard since coming onboard with NASCAR in 2011 was ‘Gotta go back to Martinsville, gotta go back to Richmond.’ And we’ve been working. It’s been a long time coming and finally the stars have lined up and here are. We’re really excited for 2021.”
The series will visit Martinsville Speedway for a night race on Thursday April 8, 2021. It will mark the first series event at Martinsville since 2010.
“We’re really excited here. Anywhere we go around here the question we used to get was about lights, but the second question was ‘When are you bringing the Modifieds back?’” Martinsville Speedway president Clay Campbell said. “People in this area love the Modifieds. They are synonymous with Martinsville and have been for a long time. We’re really excited to have them back.”
The series will visit Richmond Raceway on Friday Sept. 10, 2021. It will mark the first Whelen Modified Tour event at Richmond since 2002.
“I think it’s just a tremendous weekend,” Richmond Raceway president Dennis Bickmeier said. “An interesting doubleheader on Saturday Sept. 11 with the Xfinity Series in the afternoon and a Cup Series playoff race at night. But then a day earlier, to bring the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour back to Richmond for the first time since 2002, it just adds a lot to the weekend.”
Bobby Santos III won in the Whelen Modified Tour’s last event at Martinsville on June 6, 2010. NASCAR Modifieds first raced at Martinsville in 1960. The Whelen Modified Tour had run at the track annually from its 1985 inception through 1992. The division returned to the track from 1997-2002 and then again from 2005 to 2010.
The Whelen Modified Tour last raced at Richmond on June 28, 2002, with Todd Szegedy winning the event. The series has raced at Richmond 10 times in its history.
It’s going to be exciting just because the Modifieds are such a unique race cars,” Cup Series regular and former Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece said. “… I’m definitely intending on racing them and I’m looking forward to it all.”
It was announced last week that the Thompson Speedway Icebreaker weekend will take place April 10-11. The Whelen Modified Tour is not expected to be part of the Icebreaker racing card. The Whelen Modified Tour has been part of the Icebreaker weekend at Thompson every year that the event has been held since the series’ inception in 1985.
There has been speculation that the Full Throttle Weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway would not return in 2021. The Whelen Modified Tour has been part of the Full Throttle Weekend card in all three years that it has been run. The event was run Sept. 11-12 this year, which would conflict with next year’s Whelen Modified Tour event at Richmond.
Oh boy!!!!!!
I’m having a deja vu all over again.
nice NASCAR
WHERE ARE THE HATERS??????????
Get that fork out now, it won’t be long now the tour is going to be a thing of the past, thanks nascar you ruined the cup series now the Mod.tour, what’s next ?🙄
Hope Richmond isn’t replacing th musket 200. Sounds like no chance of the wmt at thompson. Good $$ move by thompson promoters though. If covid continues in 2021 (highly likely) an open show is has more potential to work than a wmt race with a limited fan count. Probably paid a lot of attention to Stafford’s opens.
I will be driving right past Thompson on my way to Martinsville. The best of the best plus Preece, Newman, Harvick?, Money Matt/PeeDee Motorsports? Bobby Santos?
Then Richmond, the big one that everyone has wanted for years. What say you Burt Myers? Tommy Baldwin called this one a year ago.
Richmond is close to Bristol. Bristol is the following week. Just saying. It is 2020 after all.
I’ve been saying the future of the Musket is in trouble for months. That said, if they do run it, it’s not like they couldn’t move it to Fall Final or Thompson World Series weekend now. That is what I would do. Many other weekends are available too. They moved it up a week last year.
Mid week show in Virginia is not the smartest unless we are still in lock down. Why not Friday/Saturday? New England fans and crews will need to take a lot of time off
A lot of time off you say? Kinda like all these open teams that will need time off to run four Thompson Wednesday shows, an OWW show a week later at Seekonk and several Friday night Stafford Opens?
The good news 2 great tracks returning.The bad this reminds me of when NASCAR and the Busch North series started losing local tracks and forced them to travel to bad markets. No Thompson and no Stafford equal beginning of the end.
JD, it’s going to be a lot easier and less expensive for northeast teams to attend a one-day show in Connecticut than to take 1/2 a week off to go to Martinsville and Richmond. There may be even less teams chasing the WMT championship with more races WMT farther away and more alternate events closer to home. I’m reminded of what happened when Busch North became K&N East. They used to send cars home, now they can’t get 1/2 a field of cars, nevermind a full field.
Looks to me like the WMT will be potentially spending much of its season down south in 2021.
Good news I guess. I wish the races were weekend races which would be easier on the teams and fans. I am happy they are going back to some good tracks. I think Nascar has to mend their relationship with North East racing venues that have been the bulk of the schedule for so many years. You start running all over the place with a regional fan and car base your car count will suffer. Hopefully the purses are pretty good for to offset the additional costs of these shows.
OK 2 races, TWO, THATS 2 RACES were announced 1 on a THURS, 1 ON A FRIDAY, on CUP WEEKENDS. THATS NOT MIDWEEK, that doesn’t mean the BULK of the schedule will be down south, OMG wow I CANT believe what you people post, the WMT WENT to Bristol on wednesday for 10 years thats TENNESSEE, SOUTH BOSTON 2 TIMES THATS Virginia, Myrtle beach 3 yrs thats South Carolina
Langley 2 times VA.
years ago when the BULK of the schedule was THOMPSON . STAFFORD, WATERFORD, LOUDON everyone complained it was the CT TOUR