Virginia will be a hotspot for NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour racing in 2022.
NASCAR announced today that the series will return to Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va. for the 2022 season.
The series will run its third event of the 2022 season at the Hampton, Va. facility on April 23.
It will mark the third series event in history at Langley. Timmy Solomito won a 2017 series event at the .397-mile oval. Ryan Preece won when the series returned to the track in 2018.
Langley also hosted eight events on the former NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour from 2010-2015.
The 2022 Whelen Modified Tour schedule is expected to have at least three events in Virginia.
The series will return to Richmond Raceway for an April 1 event. Although it has not been officially announced, at this point all indicators point to the series likely closing its 2022 season in late October at Martinsville Speedway in conjunction with the NASCAR Cup Series event at the track, which is scheduled for Oct. 30, 2022.
“It’s great to be returning to Langley Speedway,” said NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour series director Jimmy Wilson. “Virginia has a rich history in Modified racing, and it means a lot that we get to put on a show for the fans of both Richmond and Langley next spring.”
The 2022 season will open with the series making its debut at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway on Feb. 12. Other events that have been officially announced include races at Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway (May 14, June 25 and September 17), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (July 16) and Thompson Speedway (Aug. 17).
The event at Langley coincides with the running of the 50th NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford Speedway April 23-24. The Spring Sizzler has been a Whelen Modified Tour event for the last 34 years. Stafford Speedway management announced last month that the 50th running of the event would be an Open style event rather than a Whelen Modified Tour race.
“We are very disappointed in the scheduling decision,” Stafford Speedway CEO Mark Arute said. “We have big plans for the 50th Spring Sizzler and are excited to celebrate the history of Modified racing with the greatest Modified drivers and fans in the country, April 23rd and 24th.”
Didn’t see any drivers or owners saying it’s great to go back and race at Langley but maybe that just didn’t make the deadline for the story.
I’m just gonna put it out there right now that every modified driver in the country had better look at the STAFFORD purse and compare that to the tour cost benefit and I’m betting on STAFFORD is the clear winner. Think Thompson 300 money with less laps is what I’m thinking and way more then the tour purse!
Time will tell I guess but if your not at the Sizzler your not even a contender! 50th anniversary is gonna be perhaps the biggest ever!
Well that is a shot across the bow. So Nascar is going back to scheduling long haul points events over already announced open tour type modified events again. I fully expect this to be a losing tactic for the Nascar Whelen tour in the long run. I hope these teams are saving up their frequent flyer miles. Maybe buy stock in gas companies to help defray some of the travel costs to follow the Nascar tour. I will take Stafford on the higher car count v Nascars knee jerk 150 at Langley. VA has a long tradition of Modified racing….. Probably at least 20 to 1 in modified races competed in CT v VA.. VA is for lovers. CT is for Modifieds. CT has a much longer, richer tradition of modified racing including 50 years of Spring Sizzlers which they just scheduled over. I guess Nascar is happy to go where they can and the teams are forced to follow if they want to compete for a championship. My guess, after seeing this, is no Nascar tour races at Stafford this season.
“The event at Langley coincides with the running of the 50th NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford Speedway April 23-24.”
Not good, no sir ree Bobby. For the most part there’s always been a gentlepersons agreement to avoid conflicts. The gloves are off now and I’m guessing this means no NWMT races at Stafford in 2022.
The fans lose when this happens and in a challenged market in the first place it’s self defeating.
Stafford is in the same position as Tri Track now. It’s early. Switch the dates if you have to, to avoid a conflict.
On the plus side I think the possibility of a Tri Track race at Stafford just got a boost.
If there’s any doubt that NASCAR doesn’t care about modifieds this settles it. Why would you schedule Langley opposite the 50th Spring Sizzler? Why? Not any other weekend in the spring? The first 3 races are New Smyrna, Richmond, and Langley? They already left modified racing to die in the south. Thank goodness for the SMART tour picking up the pieces. Why do this to the drivers, teams, and fans? Only if you don’t care about the health of modified racing. Totally disappointing.
very early prediction:
Langley will have 22 cars
sizzler will have 44 cars
🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿
I don’t share that macho BS that this is some kind of battle to be won. My view Stafford should change the dates if they can. There’s a bunch of teams and drivers figuring out their schedules for 2022 and the last thing they should be made to do is pick one of two good choices this early.
Jimmy Paige may want to bring the 00 to the Sizzler with Bonsignor driving. Can’t now. What’s Tommy Baldwin going to do? Ronnie Williams could drive the 50 or the 99 at Langely. Silk and McKennedy?. Goodale will favor the NWMT won’t he?. Emerling, Sapienza, Nocella and Solomito. And how about all the notable pop ins like Santos, McLaughlin and Krause. It’s barely November and they could be off the table for the Sizzler. It’s depressing.
Change the date. If the NWMT wants to further their reputation for being a petty bag od dicks fine. It’s better side stepping the bag of dicks then having a watered down Sizzler.
Stafford knows that NWMT teams do not want to travel. They probably dug in a little too hard, overplayed their cards.
The Thompson race will be a hoot!!! 🦉
This is not good for the NWMT.
I really hope that NASCSR gets swped in the car count sweepstakes. Small purses and way too long hauls and their expenses have ruined the Tour.
Time for them either to replace Jimmy Wilson with someone who has at least some idea as to what’s involved in modified racing or get out of modified racing cause Jimmy knows nothing except loyalty to the uber rich France Family.
So let me get this straight.
The tour schedules a race on Saturday april 23rd up against the sizzler on sunday April 24th and every one loses their mind about how crappy nascar is. How they are killing the sport making these conflicts. How petty they are.
tri track schedules a race on sunday may 29th at thunder road, against a tour race in jennerstown saturday may 28th, a race they announced over 5 months ago…. and no one says anything? crickets. Why isn’t Tri track held to the same standard of not scheduling races on the same weekend as another that the tour is.
NASCAR playing politics with WMT. Should be possible for Stafford to change sizzler date? Try
to make sizzler a Tri Track race?
Why is Nascar always the bad guy. If money and purse are the problem why do teams truck to Florida every year. I would bet 5 nights of racing and practice be add up💰. The drivers and teams complain for years they wanted to go back to Richmond and Martinsville they go back now it’s to far. Look back at 1086 schedule Martinsville rougemont NC Thompson Martinsville and those guys hauled with open trailers and box vans not hundred thousand dollar haulers of today. No one said Nascar is cheap but if something bad ever happens I think I rather deal with Nascar. I bet if Langley paid 20000 to win top teams would be in Virginia not Conn.
LOL , IRON FIST NASCAR IS BACK, SEE what I have been posting for years, Daytona boys could care less of Stafford Spring Sizzler and 50th Anniversary… Daytona scheduling over a former Loyal Nascar Track in their season opener … Fools don’t care about Modifieds in Daytona. What a slap in the Face of a long time Flag Bearer of Nascar.. Stafford please keep your DATE FIRM for 50th SIZZLER ! WE will support you … Not the iron fists idiots who just do things like this for years and years , Well just play ” WE’RE not going to take IT !!!! ” over the Stafford sound system all day . Nascar is a ship of FOOLS …..
I keep seeing WMT has small purses?????? Compared to WHO? Opens? Tri Track? MRS?
Um Not!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stafford shouldn’t change the date. They could add some extra money to the pot.. the good teams will go to Stafford for the money and save the expensive trip down south. .. only 9 drivers entered all 14 your events this year. Even if they skip an event.. they could still contend for a championship.
Stafford dont need to change its date, Nascar does. Nobody even knows how big the purse will be at the Sizzler, we all know Langley purse will be bare bones. WMT has scheduled ontop of Tri Track twice and both times Tri Track flinched and changed its date. I think Nascar hopes Stafford does the same, but Stafford is the 1 Track that will not. No dates for Stafford to move too, got Richmond Thompson and Monadnock in April,
Jimmy Wilson has got to be the biggest IDIOt , who is he helping , not the drivers not the owners not the fans , time for the owners and drivers to standup and send a message or it will just get worse
Joe,
Where is there an official announcement of the May 28 event at Jennerstown? I think something very unofficial was posted on social media within hours after the event at Jenerstown last May referring to a return event. Is that what you’re basing on “announced over 5 months ago”? NASCAR has a page on their website with all the Whelen Modified Tour events for 2022 that have been officially announced. There’s no Jennerstown event on that page. It was JDV Productions that made the social media announcement in May about returning to Jennerstown, but if you go to the JDV Productions website right now it very clearly states “Thank you for a fantastic 2021 season. Please check back during the off season for 2022 schedule announcements! No upcoming events.” I would think if you had an official contract in place to run the event again you wouldn’t post “No upcoming events” on your website. If you go to the Jennerstown Speedway website there is nothing listed for a Whelen Modified Tour event at the track in May. You can ratinonalize it all you want, but if NASCAR has nothing about a race at Jennerstown posted publicly, the expected promoter has a website that says “No Upcoming Events.” and the track itself has no mention of any event on May 28, 2022 then I’d say nobody did anybdoy dirty scheduling what they did on May 29 because someone posted a casual update on Facebook five months ago. There’s really absolutely no comparing the two scenarios. A promoter made a social media announcement months ago and never said anything more. That promoter’s website has no information backing up the social media announcement from months ago. The sanctioning body has no information backing up the social media announcement from months ago. The track has no information backing up the social media announcement from months ago. In the scenario today, Stafford Speedway announced in mid-October that they were going in a different direction with the Spring Sizzler for 2022. It was very clear. It wasn’t an idea casually thrown out on Facebook for a tease. They announced the change. And then obviously after that announcement NASCAR scheduled on top of the date. There’s simply no comparing the Langley vs. Spring Sizzler scenario to the Jennerstown vs. Thunder Road scenario. It’s not even in the same galaxy of comparison.
From Jimmy Wilson’s Facebook page on 5-30-21 6:54 AM regarding Jennerstown:
” Exciting to start getting some 2022 dates coming together. Join us Memorial Day weekend of 2022, and we will all start praying now for good weather in the Laurel Mountains of Pennsylvania that weekend.
Thanks to all involved for a great night last night and honoring our military men, women and their families.”
I really don’t see a reason to see that as anything other than a confirmed date. Maybe things have changed, maybe they haven’t. I don’t think the lack of information currently is reason to think anything has changed at this point, though. I doubt Tri-Track didn’t know about the race when scheduling Thunder Road.
I don’t see it as “dirty” scheduling by any entity, as they are just doing what they feel is best for their series. Thunder Road and Flo racing will be a big weekend for tri track. Jennerstown is a beautiful facility, where they did some nice things for Memorial Day last year with the tour. Stafford did what they felt was best for their event, and the tour did what they felt was best for them. Conflicts are going to happen, and will probably be happening more often in the coming years. Especially key times like early in the year and holiday weekends. But I do think there is a double standard that NASCAR is evil and greedy for doing it, while no other series is when they do it. That NASCAR should always be the one to yield the date.
Joe,
I would hardly term a person posting a hope for next season on their personal private Facebook page as anything to be deemed official in any capacity by management of any other track or series. Again, no matter what was said on Facebook in May 2021, nothing since then offers any official indication that it is happening. Again, there’s a page NASCAR has been updating on their own website. As of yesterday they had four races dates listed as official for 2022 for the Whelen Modified Tour. Those listed were New Smyrna, Richmond, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Thompson. There was no listing of any race in 2022 at Jennerstown. That page was updated today and now includes four mores races (One at Langley, three at Riverhead). Still no mention of any race in 2022 at Jennerstown. The track website has no listing or announcement or anything else indicating a Whelen Modified Tour race will take place at the facility in 2022. And again, the company that had been expected to be the promoter of a possible event in 2022 at Jennerstown has nothing on their own website indicating that a Whelen Modified Tour race will take place in 2022 at Jennerstown. I spoke to someone from NASCAR’s PR department last week about what could be published and what couldn’t be published about the schedule and I was told the only races that were officially confirmed were New Smyrna, Richmond, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway. That person didn’t mention anything about Jennerstown being a confirmed event. So on Nov. 1, 2021 none of the pertitent entities invlolved with the event (sanctining body, promoter, track) want to say boo officially or publicly about a possible May 28 Whelen Modified Tour race at Jennerstown Speedway, but you consider a Facebook post on an individual’s private personal Facebook page five months ago to be official notice of a “confirmed date” that all other racing entities should then respect? Come on now, seriously? You can’t say it’s a double standard when there’s no comparing the two scenarios. I mean, we don’t need to go over it again, but there’s been NOTHING official announced about any event at Jennerstown in 2022. A Facebook page on a private personal Facebook page is not an official announcement. Stafford made a very official announcement about what their plans were for the Spring Sizzler in 2022 and then NASCAR went out and scheduled a Whelen Modified Tour event on that date. There’s no “double standard” in how anybody was treated comparing Jennerstown/Thunder Road to Langley/Stafford because you can only have a double standard when you have the same action treated differently. These actions aren’t even close to being the same.
I’ll be at the sizzler , just saw on Facebook ticket booths are gone , must mean free entry !! And it sounds like a new jumbo screen also in the works , I’m sure some would find something to bitch about or they didn’t do enough , maybe it’s the money they saved by not joining Nascar this year
Yes, I do consider a Facebook post from the promoter and response from the series director pretty official. Even if it hasnt come up yet in NASCARs marketing plan of spoon-feeding the schedule over a couple of weeks. Is it the best way to promote an event? Maybe not. There have been plenty of early season motorsports events confirmed to be back the following year that you never hear about again until the official schedule is out months later. If the event does fall through, shame on the tour and JDVP leading people to believe a race that didn’t have all its i’s dotted and t’s crossed was confirmed. Heck alteast when martinsville listed the mods for april 2022, it atleast said subject to change so there is some doubt.
If NASCAR “announced” jennerstown tomorrow, I would bet plenty of money the comment section would be blaming them for another conflict, while everyone involved in the nascar side thought they made their intents clears months ago.
and again, I dont blame tri track for taking that event even if they did know, its a big opportunity for them. and it will be a great event, ill watch both races that weekend. No series should be blamed making the best decision for themselves though.
Case to move the Sizzler date round 2.
Sizzler 2021
Emerling, Goodale, Catalano, Solomito, Lutz, McKennedy, Krause, Hossfeld, Williams, K. Bonsignor, McLaughlin, Coby, J. Bonsignor, Silk, Pitkat, Fortin, Preece, Nocella, Galko, Swanson
Stafford Open 5 2021
Christopher, Preece, Emerling, Nocella, Cipriano, Goodale, Williams, McDermott, Rocco, Owen
GAF Roofing 150 8/6/21
Preece, Bonsignor, McKennedy, Coby, Silk, Pitkat, Emerling, Williams, Goodale, Catalano
Stafford Open 7/30/21
Dowling, Pitkat, Williams, Cipriano, Pasteryak, Preece, Nocella, DiMatteo, Korner, Moeller.
Judge for yourself. Those are the finishes of NWMT vs Stafford Open races in proximity to each other without a direct conflict.
So what do you want to see come next April. A lineup like the one last April at the Sizzler or one that’s watered down with a very heavy dose of Stafford regular home cooking?
It’s one thing to sit here in November and act like the crowd surrounding two guys facing off yelling fight-fight-fight. It will be far different the weekend after the two events are run and I can see it now. Complaints about Sizzler light and how the NWMT event was better or how could this happen they were both watered down.
They’ll be plenty of opportunities to challenge the NWMT under more favorable conditions. This is not one of them.
I understand that the logistics would be quite challenging, but couldn’t a driver or team run Langley on 4/23 and the Sizzler on 4/24? Apparently, qualifying for the Sizzler may take place on 4/23 (details not yet announced); so that may be another barrier to racing at both events(?). Teams with numerous cars (e.g. Eric Goodale?) might be able to do it. Drivers racing for different teams each day might be more realistic.
Pretty audacious for NASCAR to do that to one of the most important tracks of the NWMT. Just goes to show where this is heading and who is desperate, or just a big schmuck.
wmass said:
I keep seeing WMT has small purses?????? Compared to WHO? Opens? Tri Track? MRS?
NASCAR purses are certainly as good as, if not better than, the Open comp and tri track races. the NASCAR tour even has a track-paid points fund which provides revenue to the teams. however, it is much more expensive to field a NASCAR modified tour car than any other type. net/net, does it all even out? or is the NASCAR tour better or worse? i dont have firsthand knowledge, but judging by the amount of teams that have stopped being NASCAR tour following teams and the number of different cars that enter open comp events vesrus WMT events, it appears that the expense of running NASCAR outweighs the revenues received…
that said, as a fan, i wish they all could prosper!!
When do we expect Stafford to release its complete 2022 schedule? Is it a foregone conclusion that Stafford will not host any NWMT events in 2022?
Doug, I really do not understand the post. Are you using say, Preece as a barometer for talent, then I would say the open shows are tougher to win. If you want to list drivers that were in the events, you should do so not doubling the names in the Sizzler. Convoluted.
My prediction. The black and pink 01 will get a top 5 at Langley. Bet on it.
I will take that BET
You guys make me laugh!!!
” Are you using say, Preece as a barometer for talent,”
Not at all. I simply listed the results of NWMT events vs opens and let the reader draw their own conclusion. If you inferred anything when seeing Preece’s name that’s entirely on you.
kayman, i was thinking the same thing! She’s been improving
Kayman , Stuart, very funny … Sarcasm low form of wit… that we all enjoy….
Sarcasm : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2a: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual
b: the use or language of sarcasm