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Photo: Tom Morris Racing Photography
- The Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, March 27 is the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season, the 41st visit for the series to Martinsville and the 758th race in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour history.
- Justin Bonsignore, who won the opening race of the year in February at New Smyrna Speedway, has won the last two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Martinsville. No driver has ever won three consecutive Modified Tour events at Martinsville Speedway.
- In addition to Bonsignore, other drivers to win two consecutive Modified Tour events at Martinsville include Reggie Ruggiero, Mike Ewanitsko, Mike Stefanik, Tom Baldwin, Brett Bodine and Charlie Jarzombek.
- Reigning NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Austin Beers enters Friday’s event with 31 consecutive top 10 finishes dating back to April 7, 2024, at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. That’s the longest such streak in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour history. In those 31 races, Beers has scored three wins and has an average finish of 4.77. Since the start of the 2023 season, Beers has only finished outside the top 10 four times.
- Friday’s race is the first time since 2021 that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour has raced in the spring at Martinsville Speedway. That event, held on April 8, 2021, was won by Eric Goodale.
- Luke Baldwin will be pulling double-duty this weekend at Martinsville. In addition to Friday’s Modified Tour event, Baldwin will be making his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut Saturday in the No. 5 Ford for Hettinger Racing.
- Andrew Molleur, the 2024 SK Modified champion at Stafford Speedway, will make his return to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for the first time since 2021 Friday at Martinsville. He’s scheduled to drive the No. 82 for Danny Watts Racing and plans to join the series for the remainer of the season.
- Two drivers will make their NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour debuts Friday evening. One is Paulie Hartwig III, the 2026 World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing 602 Modified champion at New Smyrna Speedway, who will drive his family-owned No. 73. The other is Jack Baldwin, son of Tommy Baldwin Jr. and older brother of Luke Baldwin, who will drive the No. 38 Modified fielded by PSR Racing.
- Ryan Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 winner, will make his second-straight start with the series to kick off the season. At Martinsville he will drive the No. 0 entry owned by Glenn Styres, a veteran NASCAR Canada Series competitor and owner of Canada’s Oshweken Speedway. This is the first race for Styres as a team owner in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
- Statistically, Martinsville Speedway is easily one of Ron Silk’s worst tracks. In nine previous starts there, the two-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion has only one top five and two 10s with an average finish of 13.9. His best finish, fourth, came in 2009.
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