SOUTHERN MODIFIED TOURS

By John Nelson

November 21, 2022

Beginning in 1989, five touring series for Northeast-style Modifieds have raced on paved tracks in the Southeastern United States. The first was Southern Modified Auto Racing Teams (SMART), which over time became closely affiliated with NASCAR. In 2005 NASCAR took over the series under the title of NASCAR Southern Modified Tour. In 2014 the Southern Modified Race Tour (SMRT) came onto the scene and ran concurrent with NASCAR for three seasons, although SMRT held only two events in 2016. NASCAR also discontinued its southern tour in 2016. The Southern Modified Racing Series (SMRS) arose to take its place, but lasted only three seasons. In 2020, a new SMART organization picked up the southern Modified touring scene. 

As background, Southeastern speedways began phasing out Modifieds in favor of Late Model stock cars during the middle 1960s. NASCAR pushed the process in 1968 when it replaced its open-wheel Sportsman Division with Late Model Sportsman cars, and there was talk of dropping the Modifieds as well. By the mid 1970s nearly all the Southeastern tracks had switched to Late Models, leaving Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina the only Modified hold-out. The last Southeastern driver to earn a top ten in NASCAR National Modified point standings before the advent of the Modified Tour was North Carolina’s Alfred Hill in 1980. When the Tour started up the only regular Southern dates were at Martinsville and occasional races at Richmond and South Boston (VA) and Orange County (NC); more recently Bristol (TN). The lone regional regular on the tour was Paul Radford of Rocky Mount, VA, who earned top-10s in point standings for 1990-1993 and 1995. 

Racing people recognized interest in a modest Southern Modified tour to supplement the weekly action at Bowman Gray. Large payouts were out of the question, but a schedule that limited traveling kept costs low and avoided conflicts with the few tracks that had regular Modified competition. All of this action revolved around paved tracks and meshed, to some degree, with NASCAR’s Modified Tour. Success of the Tours has prompted some Southeastern speedway promoters to include Modifieds in their weekly programs. Thus far an insufficient number of local cars has precluded a season-long Southern series for dirt-track Northeast-style Modifieds. However, recent inroads have been made at several dirt ovals in Louisiana and East Texas, culminating in a late-fall high-dollar series sponsored by the Short Track Super Series. 

SMART. As Todd Drew wrote in Trackside for 4/15/94, longtime Modified racer Melvin “Puddin” Swisher wanted a larger role for Modifieds in the southeast that weekly racing confined to Bowman Gray Stadium and an occasional NASCAR special event elsewhere. Conversations during a rain-out at Myrtle Beach in 1988 led to the formation of Southern Modified Auto Racing Teams (SMART) with Randy Myers its first president. Bowman Gray management and NASCAR were opposed, thinking SMART would draw cars away from their venues. Thus, SMART built its schedule around early spring and fall dates that did not conflict with Bowman Gray’s weekly program. Starting with a modest 7-race schedule in 1989, SMART grew to a 10- to 12- race schedule, concentrating in the Carolinas and Virginia. Participation grew from 20 teams in 1989 to about 35 in 1994. SMART was closely tied to NASCAR, which handled such matters as point funds, entry forms, and mailings. This arrangement led to NASCAR taking sole control of the southern tour.  

NASCAR Southern Modified Tour. In 2005, SMART became NASCAR’s Southern Modified Tour (SMT), sponsored for most of its run by Whelen Industries, which still (as of 2022) sponsors the regular NASCAR Modified Tour. Most SMT races carried a purse of about $25,000, paying $2,000 to win and $300 to start. As on the Whelen Modified Tour, starting positions were determined by time trials, with no heats or consolation races. Most races were 150 or 200 laps in length. At the close of the 2016 season NASCAR discontinued the Southern Modified Tour, while adding southeastern dates to its headlining Whelen Modified Tour. 

Southern Modified Race Tour (SMRT). Also known as KOMA Unwind Modified Madness Series, this tour comprised eight races each in 2014 and 2015. The SMRT overlapped with the last three years of the NASCAR SMT and many drivers raced in both series. SMRT races were 125 laps in length and paid at least $2,900 to the winner. When sponsorship fell through in 2016, SMRT held only two events and then folded its tent. 

Southern Modified Racing Series (SMRS). The demise of NASCAR’s Southern Modified Tour and of the SMRT at the end of the 2016 season created an opening for a new Modified series in the southeastern United States. The Southern Modified Racing Series arose in 2017 and continued through 2019, after which the Southern Modified Auto Racing Teams (SMART) returned to being the only Modified racing tour in the southeastern United States. 

Southern Modified Auto Racing Teams (SMART). In 2020 a new organization, PRA Tours, resurrected the Southern Modified Auto Racing Tours in 2020. The timing was unfortunate, because government restrictions related to the Covid-19 outbreak limited the schedule to four events. However, SMART rolled out a 14-event schedule for 2021, including several tracks where Northeastern Modifieds have nor raced previously. 

SMART Modified Racing Series

Some decent asphalt modified racing at the Caraway Speedway courtesy of the SMART mods and the YouTube link below!!