NHMS Mods Take a Break

LOUDON, N.H. (WWLP) - The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on Saturday, July 14th.

The Mod Squad is part of the Lenox 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup weekend. The Magic Mile has become a special place for the mods. The New England 100 is an exciting race for the drivers that also pays very well. And there are fans that insist the event is more exciting than what some call the "taxicab" race on Sunday.

But a change has been made to the mod tour race this year that has caught the attention of drivers and some fans.

NASCAR will stop the race around halfway, around lap 50 for what's being called a midway break. The break could eliminate the calculating strategy of races past where decisions were made as to if and when to pit for tires, as well as which competitors to pit with.

What's the reasoning behind the mid-break? NASCAR Media Coordinator Jason Cunningham told 22News, "NASCAR continues to explore opportunities to reduce costs to the competitors, specifically in the area of travel and race weekend expenses.

In recent years we've instituted midway breaks for select races that feature extended travel to the venue, and for multi-day events. A midway break allows teams to reduce their crew size as well as negate any competitive advantage or disadvantage a team might have during a live pit stop with respect to crew size and ability.

Since this format was introduced in 2005, there have been more than 30 NASCAR touring series races that have had a midway break, including NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway."

Doug Coby, Todd Szegedy, and Ryan Preece were part of the top 10 in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship chase when they were competing in the SBM125 at the Star Speedway last Saturday . All 3 spoke with 22News about the mid-race break. Coby, the point leader and driver of the #52 Chevrolet didn't mince words:

"I think it's stupid. I don't agree with it. I don't want to run two 50 lap races where the first one doesn't mean anything. If it's a 100 lap race, you run 100 laps. If you want to pit at lap 20 or lap 80, that's your choice. Really now you're just going to see everybody pit at lap 50. The guy who's leading at lap 50 gets to come back out of the pits in first, when maybe if he had pitted at lap 50 and no one else pitted with him he would have come back out in 21st."

"I don't think it's going to change much but it just changes strategy a little bit. There's no rule that says you have to take your tires at lap 50. You can wait until a caution with 30 to go if you want. You can't say it's going to ruin the racing, I think it's premature to say that. But it definitely changes what you do in the first 50 laps, because you know at some point, you're going to get to pit."

"I don't really care how my car is for the first 50 laps, it's 50 laps of practice. So the fans are going to get to see 50 laps of practice and 50 laps of racing and that's just the way it is. There'll probably be some wrecked cars after the 1st 50 laps of practice and I just hope I'm not one of them."

Todd Szegedy told 22News his team won't realize any savings on fewer crew members, because those expenses have been paid. According to the driver of the #2 Ford, "Well I understand what NASCAR's trying to do. They're trying to save teams money by not bringing people. The problem is it's a little too late because we paid for all our guys to have NASCAR licenses already. So they need to be there anyways. Why don't they just shorten the races, because the whole point of having a pit stop is to have some strategy and try different things."

"I understand NASCAR's trying to do everything they can do to save us money, but the purse has been cut quite a bit, which is going to hurt us. We're actually losing money going to Loudon this year. We still have to bring the same amount of guys, licenses are paid, so we're going to bring them anyway. We have to pay for the hotels, which rip you off. The prices are totally outrageous. What would help is if we could go to Loudon and it paid $25,000 to win, and the payout be good all the way through. Why not just run a 50 lapper? Then you wouldn't have to put another set of tires on and that would save us even more money. Keep the purse where it is but run 50 laps. You're going to get the same good quality racing that you see at Loudon but 50 laps shorter."

Ryan Preece drives the #16 Ford on the tour. He told 22News, "We've done it before at Martinsville. I know my crew, they're really fast so it kind of sucks for our team. It might help us if our car's a little off we can make some bigger adjustments than what we would in a 20 second pit stop."

Cunningham says when the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East returns to NHMS in September, their race will also have a midway break. Despite the concerns about the mid-break these drivers still talk about it being a privilege to compete in a NASCAR touring series. Szegedy