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By Kevin Rice
Photo: Tom Morris Racing Photography
Martinsville, VA. (Oct. 26, 2024)- NASCAR and Whelen Engineering, Inc. are announcing today a sponsorship extension through the 2029 season that will increase both event payouts and point fund money for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, with an agreement beginning with the 2025 season. The 2025 season schedule, which includes a companion event with the NASCAR Cup Series is also part of the Saturday morning announcement.
“There’s investments in both,” said Joseph Dennewitz, Managing Director of NASCAR Regional. “There’s investments in purse money for each race, and for the championship. The pool of championship money has increased by 250 percent. Every single race also sees a purse injection where the minimum to start is $2,000 and the minimum to win is $11,000. That will go up with contingency money as well.”
The agreement was a combined effort spearheaded by Peter Tiezzi, General Manager of Motorsports for Whelen Engineering. This partnership will bring Whelen’s involvement with the NWMT to a 25-year anniversary season in 2029, and Dennewitz made it clear that Whelen is the driving force behind this added investment by both parties.
“When we sat down with Whelen they said they wanted to invest and they wanted us to match,” he added. “I was very happy to go back and figure out ways that we could make this happen. It is a 100 percent collaborative effort between NASCAR and Whelen Engineering. To have a partner like Whelen that is just as invested in the success of a series and a community as NASCAR is wildly important.”
The final details of both the point fund and race purses are still to be finalized, with additional money from sponsorship bonuses and broadcast rights for next season still being negotiated. However, the series had been paying point fund money to the top 15 teams and that will now increase to the top 20 at the end of the 16-race schedule. The 2024 NWMT Championship team is expected to earn in the neighborhood of $70,000 this season, with a further increase going to the 2025 champion.
The 2025 schedule is very similar in venues, with White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire back on the schedule for the first time since 2020 on a June 28 date. That will replace an event across the state at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, which will now host two events. The other 15 events are the same, but with a significant shuffling of dates, most notably the fall race at North Wilkesboro in North Carolina moving from October to May.
“The Modified Tour at North Wilkesboro is with the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star event,” Dennewitz said. “It’s on Sunday, May 18. The same day. That is about bringing a spotlight to short track racing.
“In my opinion, short track racing is in a bit of a renaissance right now. A lot of great short track racing around the country and I think the Whelen Modified Tour is some of the best. Being able to highlight that with a Cup Series All-Star race is incredible.”
The NWMT season will again begin at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway on February 8, and end one week sooner, on October 18 back at Martinsville. New Hampshire Motor Speedway moves to the fall, opening up space for White Mountain, with Lancaster Motorplex in New York moving from August to a July 12 date.
“Jimmy (Wilson, Senior Director, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour) does a nice job balancing all of the stakeholders,” Dennewitz noted. “The schedule is a 3-D chess board of stakeholders. We want to make sure that our competitors want to race at those places. We want those places to be up to safety standards, want us, and will do a good job of promoting.
“Then of course what makes more sense for the brand of the series. There are a lot of things at play. We had a lot of great race tracks reach out to us this year and ask to be a part of the schedule. It was a lot of fun to work through what would be best for everybody there in terms of date and cadence for our schedule to not overload our teams with back-to-back races or travel races. There are a million factors in play there.”
The 2024 season concludes tonight with the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway. Justin Bonsignore leads Ron Silk by 10 points in the season standings. In all likelihood, if Bonsignore finishes in the top five he will become a NWMT Champion for the first time since 2021, even if Silk wins the race. Live coverage of the event can be streamed live at 7:45 on FloRacing.
2025 NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR SCHEDULE
Date Race / Track
Saturday, February 8 New Smyrna Speedway
Sunday, March 30 Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
Saturday, May 3 Monadnock Speedway
Sunday, May 18 North Wilkesboro Speedway
Saturday, May 31 Seekonk Speedway
Saturday, June 14 Riverhead Raceway
Saturday, June 28 White Mountain Motorsports Park
Saturday, July 12 Lancaster Motorplex
Saturday, July 19 Monadnock Speedway
Wednesday, August 6 Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
Thursday, August 14 Richmond Raceway
Saturday, August 30 Oswego Speedway
Saturday, September 6 Riverhead Raceway
Saturday, September 20 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sunday, October 12 Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park
Saturday, October 18 Martinsville Speedway
