Whelen Modified Tour - History of The NASCAR Modified Division

History of The NASCAR Modified Division

The NASCAR Modified division was formed as part of NASCAR's creation in December 1947. NASCAR held a Modified race as its first sanctioned event on February 15, 1948, on the beach course at Daytona Beach, Florida. Red Byron won the event and 11 more races that year, and won the first NASCAR Modified Championship. (The Strictly Stock division, which evolved into today's premier series Sprint Cup, did not race until 1949.) Post-World War II Modifieds were a form of "stock car" (contrasted against purpose-built AAA Championship Cars, Sprints, and Midgets) which allowed some modification, typically substitution of stronger truck parts. Most cars were pre-WWII coupes and coaches. This pattern continued through the 1960s, with aftermarket performance parts and later-model chassis (such as the 1955–57 Chevrolet's frame) becoming more common. The Modifieds became known for technical innovation, both in homebuilt parts and in adapting components from other types of vehicle. By 1970, many Modifieds featured big-block engines, fuel injection, eighteen-inch-wide rear tires, radically offset engine location, and other technology that made them faster on short tracks than any full-bodied race cars including Grand National cars.

The predecessor to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was NASCAR's National Modified Championship, which was determined by total points from weekly NASCAR-sanctioned races as well as a schedule of National Championship races. Parts of the northeastern and southeastern USA were hotbeds of Modified racing in the 1950s and 1960s; some racers competed five nights per week or more. Often the same car was raced on both dirt and paved tracks, changing only tires and perhaps springs and shock absorbers. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the technology of dirt and pavement Modifieds diverged to make them separate types of race car. NASCAR was no longer sanctioning dirt tracks which held modified races, so the NASCAR Modified rules became the standard for asphalt Modifieds. (Starting in the early 1970s, Northeastern USA dirt Modified racetracks began to join the DIRT organization founded by Glenn Donnelly.) Most unsanctioned tracks used similar Modified rules to NASCAR's, or specified the same cars with cost-limiting rules such as smaller engines or narrow tires.

In the 1980s, it became prohibitively expensive for Modified teams to tow long distances to sixty or more races per year, including Watkins Glen International and Daytona International Speedway, Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and Martinsville Speedway, with the North Wilkesboro races part of the Cup weekend.

Richie Evans ran 66 NASCAR Modified features (and several unsanctioned events such as the Race of Champions) in 1984, the final year of the old system. To enable more than a few teams to contend seriously for the championship, it was decided to reformat the Modified division's championship to a limited schedule of races not conflicting with one another. This change mirrored similar format changes to the Grand National (now Sprint Cup) division starting in 1972 and the Late Model Sportsman (now Nationwide Series) division starting in 1982.