Related: NASCAR Releases 2025 Whelen Modified Tour Schedule
A 20-year relationship between Whelen Engineering and the Whelen Modified Tour is now set to make it to 25 years.
NASCAR announced Saturday that Whelen Engineering will continue as the title sponsor of the Whelen Modified Tour through the 2029 season.
Whelen has served as the division’s title sponsor since 2005. The 2024 season marked the 20th season that Whelen has served as the division’s entitlement sponsor. The current partnership agreement had been set to run out at the end of this season.
“To me this extension was more about listening to a partner and doing what we were told,” Joey Dennewitz, Managing Director of NASCAR Regional told RaceDayCT. “When we sat down with Whelen and their marketing team they talked about this being their community and the Modified Tour being important to them. So it was about us going back and understanding what we could do to match their investment and bring that to the community. It means a lot to me personally to see a partner invested in the success of a series as much as NASCAR is. With this partnership now extending out, the end of it will mark 25 years together, it’s pretty incredible to have everybody rowing in the boat the same direction.”
The extension of the partnership will bring some changes with increased payouts at each event starting for the 2025. The new agreement with Whelen will see all events offering at least $11,000 to win and a minimum of $2,000 to start the event. The new agreement with Whelen will allow for a 250 percent increase in championship prize money for the division. Championships points money will be paid to the top-20 teams in the final owner’s standings in 2025.
“Every position in the [points payout] saw a pretty dramatic increase and that also go to say the same thing for the race purses as well, all of those positions got increased as well,” Dennewitz said.
“… Everything we do is to increase participation and provide good racing to our fans. You hear a lot about growing the sport. Growing the sport to me means participation and that’s our overall goal. This is an opportunity that when Whelen came to use and said they want to invest in the sport, this was our opportunity to grow that sport in that way and grow participation.”
Whelen has served the longest span as series entitlement sponsor since the origination of the NASCAR Modified Tour in 1985. The division was known as the Winston Modified for tour for eight seasons from 1985 to 1993. It was the Featherlite Modified Tour for 11 seasons from 1994 to 2004 before Whelen began its run in 2005.
“We are incredibly proud to extend our longstanding partnership with NASCAR and celebrate 20 years as the title sponsor of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour,” said Peter Tiezzi, General Manager of Motorsports for Whelen Engineering Company Inc. “For the past two decades, being part of this iconic series has been both an honor and a reflection of our commitment to grassroots racing. As the Official Warning Lights of NASCAR, we are excited to continue supporting the sport while further strengthening our ties within the racing community. This partnership highlights our dedication to safety and performance, both on and off the track.”
Related: NASCAR Releases 2025 Whelen Modified Tour Schedule
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let’s see how people twist themselves to find negativity in this.
It’s great to see Whelen, an international corporation, investing in the sport of modified racing. Now it’s Nascar’s job to make the modified tour great again. We’ve all watched as car counts have dwindled over the past decade, and tracks have dropped the tour. We’ve watched as historic facilities dropped NASCAR all together, for various reasons. It’s up to NASCAR to fix this situation, otherwise there might not be a Whelen modified tour in 2029, or sooner.
Do I think anything will change? Hell NO! The current leadership of NASCAR is concerned with only one thing … Profit. Their reputation of being greedy has bit them hard on the regional level, with tracks, and the families who run them, and the weekly
racers feeling cheated and under appreciated. Something has to change fast for the tour to succeed.