Battlers: Chase Dowling Ready For Return To Whelen Mod Tour At NHMS With Unique Team 

For Chase Dowling, it’s an opportunity to use one of Modified racing’s biggest stages to show his gratitude to two men who are fighters. 

It’s been more than two years since Dowling has made a start on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. That stretch will come to an end on July 15 when the Roxbury driver competes in the Whelen Modified Tour Mohegan Sun 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. 

Dowling will make his return to the series driving for team co-owners Ben Dodge and Mike Davini. 

Both Dodge and Davini have face the immense burden of health concerns due to cancer in recent years. 

“Mike and Ben are close,” Dowling told RaceDayCT. “They got to talking about doing this. It’s all about those two guys. That’s the main reason we’re doing this. I’m obviously excited to get back to Loudon with the Whelen Modified Tour. I’ve got good equipment, we’re going with good guys, I think we’re going to have fun, but I want to do good especially for Ben and Mike especially.” 

Dowling, a former full-time competitor on the Whelen Modified Tour, made his last series start with the division on June 12, 2021 at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway. He was driving for Doug Coby Racing in Oswego, filling in for Coby who was competing in the inaugural SRX Series event that night at Stafford Speedway. Dowling finished eighth at the Oswego event in the fill-in role. 

Dowling, of Roxbury, has made 71 career Whelen Modified Tour starts since 2015. His last full-time season on the Whelen Modified Tour came in 2018 driving for team owner Rob Fuller. He finished second in the series standings that year. 

That season also saw Dowling celebrate his biggest series triumph at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2018 Whelen Modified Tour schedule featured the first Musket 250 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. On the final lap of the event, race leader Justin Bonsignore and second place Ryan Preece made contact in turn three. Dowling was able to get under third place running Patrick Emerling through the corner and and cruised past Bonsignore and Preece to score his first and only Whelen Modified Tour victory. 

It gives Dowling first hand knowledge of the theater of drama the last lap of a Whelen Modified Tour event can be in Loudon. 

In 11 career series starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Dowling has four top-five finishes and six top-10’s with an average finish of 9.7. 

“I love Loudon for being Loudon,” Dowling said. “We’ve been there leading the whole race and finishing second. We’ve been there finishing third with a red flag. You can have the best car at some tracks and almost guarantee you can win if you know you have the best car. At Loudon it’s so different. You can have five, six, seven cars in the last couple laps that could win. You’ve just got to be in that position to be there and you never know what could happen.” 

Dowling’s efforts in Modified racing in recent years have been focused on running for Dodge’s Start/Finish Motorsports team, primarily in Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series events and Open Modified events at Stafford Speedway. 

“I’ve been through a lot with life changes, with work, with my fiancee and me and Ben,” Dowling said. “We’ve stuck through it. I’ve always said he’s the best car owner I’ve ever had. He lets me do whatever I need to do to make it work. Ben, he’s just been such an awesome person for my career. So this is really important to do this for Ben and Mike and just have a special weekend for those guys.” 

Dowling understands taking a team effort back to a place like New Hampshire Motor Speedway will require an increased sharpness in all facets. 

“Going there you need a little more fine tuning with stuff and the pit stop is always crucial there,” Dowling said. “A clean pit stop is so big there. But the execution of that whole weekend is so important, from practice to qualifying to the feature. Obviously with five laps to go there you never know what can happen. I told Ben and Mike that the goal is to be in the top-five with three laps to go. From there you can’t predict anything. But I think if we can go there, have a good car, have some fun and do that for Ben and Mike, it will be a good day.”