2011 Southern Mod Schedule Announced
Traditional Venues With New Events At Hickory And Thompson
Daytona Beach, FL — NASCAR has announced the 2011 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour schedule that features 14 races at nine different tracks.
The seventh season of Whelen Southern Modified Tour competition will commence at Caraway Speedway on March 13 in the first of six events at the .455-mile oval, which has played host to more all-time Southern Tour events than any other facility.
Bowman Gray Stadium, the hotbed of Modified racing in the south, will once again welcome the Whelen Southern Modified Tour on Aug. 6. Like Caraway, Bowman Gray has been a fixture of the Southern Tour’s schedule since its inception.
Returning to the schedule will be a pair of companion events with NASCAR’s national series. The third edition of the Whelen Modified-Whelen Southern Modified Tour combination race at Bristol Motor Speedway will once again be run as part of a doubleheader with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” on Aug. 24. The season will also conclude for the second year in a row as part of the fall NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the quarter mile on Oct. 13.
A notable addition to the 2011 schedule is the special event at Connecticut’s Thompson International Speedway, a staple of Modified racing in the northeast. Slated for Sept. 11, both the Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours will contest separate 125-lap, points-paying races, then the top 15 finishers of each race will square off in a 50-lap non-points “dash for the cash” race.
“The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tours is a series in demand, as evidenced by the 2011 calendar,” said George Silbermann, NASCAR managing director of racing operations. “With a mix of exciting events in premier short tracks in the mid-Atlantic region, the South meeting the North at the new mega-event at Thompson Speedway in September, and the championship finale held in conjunction with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Charlotte, this is the strongest calendar yet.”
Return trips to Langley Speedway, South Boston Speedway and Tri-County Motor Speedway also dot the schedule while Hickory Motor Speedway will be welcomed back to the Whelen Southern Modified Tour slate for the first time since 2006.
Additional 2011 schedule notes:
• Ten of the 14 races will be contested in the state of North Carolina.
• Caraway has played host to 32 of the 72 races in Whelen Southern Modified Tour history.
• The South Boston event will be run as part of a doubleheader with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for the second year in a row.
• The lone previous race at Hickory produced the most lead changes in Southern Tour history.
• Tri-County, Langley and the Charlotte quarter mile held races for the first time in 2010.
• The Thompson event will mark the Southern Tour’s first trip outside the southeast region.
Sources: Tim Southers/NASCAR WSMT PR