Whelen Modified Tour Schedule Wish List

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule was released last month but the announcement came with little fanfare as the campaign was virtually unchanged from the previous season.

The Tour will again visit the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2014 -- once in July and again in September. The events at NHMS are traditionally one of the more exciting events of the entire NASCAR weekend in the granite state as last year’s races saw 27 and 23 lead changes respectfully.

Doug Coby and Todd Szegedy won the July and September races respectfully.

What little change that does exist on the Tour schedule will take place at New Hampshire as NASCAR announced a special 25-lap exhibition for Friday, July 11 -- the day before the regular season race at the 1.058-mile oval.

The shootout is an invitation-only event that will feature past winners and champions from both the North and South tours as well as both Rookie of the Year winners. Very few details have been released thus far other than the $4,000-to-win bounty.

The Tour will also return to Daytona in February for the non-points event on the makeshift short track for the Battle at the Beach for the second consecutive year. The inaugural event was largely a wreckfest with the average length of a green flag run extending to 3.4 laps.

And of course the Tour will be headed back to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the annual 150-lap combination race with the Southern tour in August on the same night that the Camping World Truck Series competes.

So with the 2014 schedule set in stone, there are a few changes that could be made as the Tour continues to expand and a wish list has been provided below.

Wall Speedway, New Jersey- Wall Speedway near the Jersey Shore is an awesome race track that the Tour should be going to. The Tour needs some more variety. Stafford is great, but is it necessary to go there four times a year? Wall Speedway is a tight, 0.333 mile oval with close to 30 degrees of banking.

Perhaps the best part about Wall as far as the Tour is concerned is that it’s in close proximity to the NWMT teams, but not in Connecticut. By having eight races in Connecticut (four at Stafford, three at Thompson, one at Waterford Speedbowl), the Tour is too Connecticut-centric.

This wouldn’t be too much of a drive for a majority of the teams, and it might spice things up a bit.

Richmond International Raceway, Virginia- A lot of people would be very happy if Richmond returned to the Tour schedule. The last time the Tour raced at Richmond was in 2002 and the race was won by Todd Szegedy. The track hosted 10 Tour races sporadically from 1990-2002. The ground-pounders would be extremely fast around the 3/4 mile oval and would put on a great show.

Martinsville Speedway, Virginia- Another “oldie, but goodie” is Martinsville Speedway. I’ve spoken to quite a few current Tour drivers who didn’t get to race there when it was still on the schedule, but would jump at the chance to travel down there. Martinsville has hosted the Modifieds a total of 35 times from 1985-2010. The last race there was won by Bobby Santos.

New Smyrna Speedway, Florida- This one absolutely should have been on the schedule for 2014. The “Tour-type” Modifieds are already running at New Smyrna’s “World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing” for six nights that will conclude with the Richie Evans Memorial 100.

Turn that into a points-paying NWMT race. It’s not like NSS is a track that the Modifieds have never raced at before. This is something that makes sense from every angle.

What tracks would you like to see added to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule? Tell us in the comments section below?

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