Track profile: Everything to know about Stafford Speedway

Stafford Speedway, located in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, is one of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour's most historic race tracks. However, it didn't start out as a racing facility. 

The property was originally known as the Stafford Springs Agricultural Park, a 100-acre facility that was developed to showcase the area’s agricultural heritage.

The park opened in 1870 and very quickly began hosting horse racing on what was then a half-mile dirt oval. Following the end of World War II, horse racing was replaced by auto racing. 

Stafford Speedway welcomed a wide variety of race cars in the years that followed, including Sprint Cars, Midget Cars and Stock Cars. However, after the track was paved in 1967, Modifieds very quickly became the race car of choice at the track.

Now owned by the Arute family, Stafford Speedway has been hosting Modified racing for decades and is widely considered one of the best Modified racing tracks in the Northeast.

Some of Modified racing's best and brightest have made names for themselves at the historic track, including men like Ryan Preece, Bugsy Stevens, Geoff Bodine, Fred DeSarro, Richie Evans, Mike Stefanik, Reggie Ruggiero, Ted Christopher, Jerry Marquis and Doug Coby, among others.

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour made its debut at Stafford Speedway during its inaugural season in 1985, with the late Richie Evans capturing the first two series events at the venue.

In all, Stafford Speedway has hosted more than 130 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events. After falling off the schedule at the conclusion of the 2021 season, the track returned to the series schedule in 2026.