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NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

NASCAR Modified Tour drivers eager for 2020 visit to Iowa

Paul Lambert/STS

Drivers on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour hope their upcoming trip to Iowa Speedway next year is more beneficial than the past decade spent at Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR’s oldest division will make the long trip to Newton, Iowa next July to race alongside the NASCAR Xfinity Series. While the decade spent racing at Bristol alongside the Truck Series was contested with the intent of delivering larger crowds, high car counts, and intense racing, none of that really happened.

Of the 10 races contested at Thunder Valley, three were shortened due to time constraints. In 2015 and 2016, the race was called before reaching the three-quarters mark. Yellow flags were frequent, and cars were often sent to the crapheap.

Car counts remained in the high-30s for years, as the race was a combination event between the Tour and the Whelen Southern Modified Tour. After the Southern Tour was merged into a single Whelen Modified Tour, however, only 22 cars showed up to the 2018 running of the 150-lapper, down from the 37 that entered in 2016.

Add in the costs for the teams in the Northeast to travel down to northern Tennessee, often totaling at least several thousand dollars, and the race was not all that enticing for many teams to enter.

So what will make Des Moines different?

First, the time-slot should be better for teams. With only one other division of cars running that weekend, and Iowa Speedway having lights, time should not be a factor in the finish of the race. 

Defending Tour champion Justin Bonsignore is excited for the Tour to have a day to itself. 

“To be the fourth-string race [in Bristol] on a Wednesday or Thursday night, wasn’t great for our series,” Bonsignore said. “We’re going to be the second-tier division on a national stage on the night before the Xfinity race. We’re going to have a great event that treats our series the way we should be treated.”

Bonsignore also believes that Iowa is simply a track more suited for Modified racing, similar to New Hampshire. 

“It’s going to be a New Hampshire-style race I would assume,” he said. “It’s a big track. We’ll probably run a restrictor plate. From the fans’ standpoint, they’re going to see something that they’ve never seen around that area of the country.”

Longtime Tour competitor Jon McKennedy anticipates a learning curve for teams when the cars hit the track, as it will be the first time teams have ever ridden around it.

“It’s a big track,” he said. “I think it’s great for the Modifieds. I’m looking forward to going out here. Everybody’s kind of on the same page. Nobody’s got no notes. Hope it’s a good turnout.”

With all the traveling teams will have to do to get out west, a big purse will likely be in high demand, especially for smaller teams whose budgets are tight. 

For McKennedy, a good purse entails the following:

“A few thousand just to take the green anyway,” McKennedy said. “I think somewhere around 15 to 20 thousand to win is probably what we should be racing for … It’s tough for track owners to pay out the big purses. I get it. It’s a tough deal for everyone. At the end of the day, I feel like we’re the premier devision in the Northeast. For what it costs to run these cars and all the people you gotta bring, I think we should be racing for just a little bit more purse money myself.”

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Paul Lambert is an aspiring collegiate journalist. A writer and broadcaster, Paul's excited to cover New England short track racing in 2022. Paul has also been published in the Boston Herald, Speedway Illustrated and on Autoweek.com.

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