THOMPSON – The Thompson Speedway garage area was a busy hive of activity Friday evening with the running of opening night of the Sunoco World Series weekend.
But much of the chatter among those working on Modifieds centered on a facility about an hour away from Thompson.
Ask competitors and fans alike what their biggest hope would be for a new addition to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule and most have the same answer: Bring the series back to Stafford Speedway.
It looks like that wish has a real possibility of coming true in 2026.
Multiple sources close to the Whelen Modified Tour confirmed to RaceDayCT that Stafford Speedway management and NASCAR have been in talks about a return of the Whelen Modified Tour to the track for an August 2026 event.
Whelen Modified Tour series director Jimmy Wilson and Joey Dennewitz, managing director of NASCAR Regional, were not available for comment Friday evening. A NASCAR spokesperson told RaceDayCT: “The 2026 schedule continues to develop and we will have more info to announce at a later date.”
Attempts to reach Stafford Speedway chief operating officer Paul Arute on Friday were unsuccessful.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has not run at Stafford since 2021.
“It would be amazing,” said four-time Whelen Modified Tour champion Justin Bonsignore, who won the last Whelen Modified Tour event held at Stafford on Sept. 25, 2021. “I wish [Stafford Speedway dropping the series from its schedule] never happened from either side of it. And I’m glad that it’s back on the table, at least in conversation. It would be amazing for our Modified fans, the series. Obviously the series could use a boost being back closer to home. I didn’t always run great, but I always loved going there. It’s just one of the best places in the country and we need to be there as a series.”
For decades the Whelen Modified Tour was a cornerstone of the Stafford Speedway schedule. From the series’ inception in 1985 to 2021 Stafford Speedway had the Whelen Modified Tour on its schedule every year except 1988. The Whelen Modified Tour has run 135 events at Stafford since 1985.
“I think it would be huge for the series,” said Kyle Bonsignore, who won the Whelen Modified Tour NAPA Fall Final 150 at Stafford in 2018. “No matter what way you look at it, Stafford Motor Speedway is the premier short track in the country, they have the biggest Modified races in the world, [and the Whelen Modified Tour doesn’t] go there. … And I love the track. We’ve run really good there in the past. It’s a great facility. The fans, the environment, that’s the kind of track we need to race at. I think it would be huge. It would be a big step to get back to where we needed to be racing.”
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Wonder if it will be before or after Loudon?
I think NASCAR needs Stafford more than Stafford needing NASCAR. For the most part the open shows are better racing then the tour puts on these days. Stafford should not let NASCAR take advantage of them.
lets be honest with ourselves here. The un-sanctioned open 80s have kinda burnt themselves out.
17 cars this year.
22 in both last year.
there’s 1 left after having 4 the first year without NASCAR.
i doubt that NASCAR is taking advantage of the arutes. but there does seem like there is an avenue for a mutually beneficial event here. will a NWMT bring 40 cars next year? no. will it bring in several names that don’t race at Stafford very often? yes.
could that theoretically lead to an even better field for their other tour races earlier in the year? also yes.
The NASCAR Modified Whelen Tour needs to dramatically and immediately reduce long distance travel. The message has been made perfectly clear that owners do not want to travel to these long distance tracks. The owners voted with their wallets and feet, stayed home, and showed they mean business and resulted in low car counts. The best way to improve car counts is to put Stafford back on the schedule with the usual 3-4 races per season and eliminate the long travel distance tracks.
strange that the 2 out of the 3 big travel races are the high marks for car counts.
Not strange at all. Look at the entry lists and you’ll see plenty of cars that do not run the northern NWMT races ran the southern, big travel races. Those southern cars that refuse to travel north filled out the entry lists for those races outside of the northeast. And how did those southern cars do against the northern cars? They got their asses kicked. So, of course they won’t travel north, they can’t win on their own tracks against the northern cars.