Some dreams can be simple, like hoping Santa Claus brings you a new PlayStation for Christmas.
Other dreams, like the one shared by Austin Beers and Mike Murphy, are a bit more complicated.
Beers, a 22-year-old, second-generation racer from Northampton, Pennsylvania, and Murphy, a 68-year-old Irish immigrant, dreamed of someday winning the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship together.
On Thursday night, Beers and Murphy got to live out their dream. Driving Murphy’s No. 64 KLM Motorsports Modified, Beers finished second in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200 to clinch his first championship in NASCAR’s oldest division.
“The biggest thing for me coming in was don’t think about it; don’t think about it, or you’re going to jinx it,” Beers told himself. “I didn’t really think about what I’d say or how I’d feel.”
He didn’t have to say much. In 2025, Beers let his driving do the talking.
In 16 Modified Tour races this season, Beers never finished worse than ninth. He scored two wins – at Lancaster Motorplex and Riverhead Raceway – to go along with 12 top fives and 16 top 10s.
He was the only driver to complete every possible lap this season, and he led all drivers with a 4.6 average finish.
Austin Beers celebrates after clinching the 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship Thursday at Martinsville Speedway. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
Despite all those incredible stats, he still had to survive Thursday’s race to win his first championship. He avoided a multi-car melee during a restart and survived an overtime sprint to finish second, more than enough to clinch the championship.
Anxiety and stress levels were at all-time highs, but Beers showed maturity and composure beyond his years during a race that could have easily derailed his entire season.
“I knew I just had to do what I’ve been doing my whole life — that was the biggest thing,” Beers said when discussing the final restart. “I brought it home to the line and heard (on the radio) 2025 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. That was a great feeling.”
As if that wasn’t good enough, Beers wrote a new chapter in the Modified Tour history books with his first championship.
At 22 years, seven months and five days old, Beers is now the youngest champion in the history of the Modified Tour. He broke the record set by current NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Preece, who was 22 years, 11 months and 25 days old when he won his Mods championship in 2013.
Beers has come a long way from playing video games with Preece between practice sessions at Modified Tour races a decade ago.
“Ryan was young running the Tour and just getting started, and my dad (Eric) was running the Tour. He’d hang out in the camper with me, and we’d play video games,” Beers remembered. “All the other drivers and crew members would go to the bar after the races. I’ve looked up to Ryan my whole racing career and pretty much since I was 6 years old.”
Murphy, who most of his friends and family affectionately call “Murph,” has watched Beers take his small team from a mid-pack organization to champion in the span of just four years.
For the native of Waterford, Ireland, just being in position to win a Modified Tour championship was something he never fathomed when he bought his first race car in the mid-1990s.
“This beats all of our expectations,” Murphy said. “We never even dreamed we’d be in a position like this when we started 25 or 30 years ago. Dreams come true, right?
“I’d never even seen what the (championship trophy) looked like, because we’d usually be pitted way over (in Turn 4) and the (trophy) would be over (in Turn 1). In all the years we’d been doing it, I never saw it for that reason.”
Austin Beers became the youngest NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion in series history Thursday evening. (Photo: Ted Malinowski/NASCAR)
The KLM Motorsports team is truly a family operation. The team, which is named after Murphy’s wife Maggie and children Lyndsey and Kelly, is led by former driver Ron Yuhas and Sly Szaban.
The group has flourished since tabbing Beers to drive the No. 64 for his rookie campaign in 2022. Beers delivered the team’s first Modified Tour win in 2023 at Richmond Raceway, and since then, he has added four more checkered flags to Murphy’s growing collection.
It’s all still a bit surreal for Murphy, who was forced to sit on the sidelines for much of the 2024 season and the start of the 2025 season due to a host of health issues.
In January, Murphy got a new lease on life when he received a bilateral lung transplant. By May, he was back at the race track watching his driver and team chase a championship.
This could have been the worst year of Murphy’s life. Instead, he’s the living embodiment of the American dream.
“This is the best year of my life. I got a second chance at life,” Murphy said. “Hard work, I would say, is all it takes. This is a great country. A country of opportunity. The only thing that is going to stop you is yourself.”
While the championship meant the world to Beers and his family, Beers felt it was more important to deliver the title to Murphy. After all, Murphy is the one who took a chance on an unproven, 18-year-old kid.
Murphy gave Beers all the tools he needed to become the Modified Tour champion. And Beers delivered.
“Murph gave me the ultimate break to run this car and get my name out there,” Beers said. “Obviously the last year was really tough not having him at the race track. With him getting that lung transplant, you don’t know what’s going to happen. It was a pretty emotional time for our whole team.
“He’s been running the Tour since my dad (Eric) was running (the Tour), so 2010 or 2011. After all these years of ups and downs, to finally deliver that championship to him, it means more to me to give that championship to him than for me to win that championship, honestly.
“I owe everything to Murph and Maggie for giving me this opportunity to begin with, because I wouldn’t have it without them.”
With a Modified Tour championship secured, Murphy hopes to have Beers back next season to chase another championship.
However, what Murphy really wants is for Beers to get an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things.
That’s his new dream. It’s a dream Murphy believes that, like Thursday’s championship, Beers can make a reality.
“I hope this is a steppingstone,” Murphy said. “He’s still young. He’s only 22. Hopefully there is somebody out there watching and will see how good he is, and maybe they’ll offer him a ride somewhere along the way.
“I’d love to see him walking in Preece’s footsteps. Can you imagine? You turn the television on Sunday and see him at the race and you say, ‘We knew him when he was only a kid.’
“That would be another unbelievable dream as good as this. Maybe better.”
With one notable exception, the elimination race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series features the closest competition among the three national touring series.
With three spots left in the Championship 4, five drivers are within 15 points of each other entering Friday night’s Slim Jim 200 at Martinsville Speedway (6 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
With a record 10 victories this season, Corey Heim is guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4, but second-place Rajah Caruth is only 14 points above the current elimination line.
Sixth-place Layne Riggs is only 15 points behind Caruth. Between them, Tyler Ankrum is eight points above the line, Kaden Honeycutt is five points to the good, and defending series champion Ty Majeski trails Honeycutt by five points.
Caruth finished ninth last Friday at Talladega to preserve his position above the cutline, and he’s determined to concentrate on the task at hand.
“Similar to Talladega, we have to treat it like a normal race,” said Caruth, whose best finish in four Martinsville starts was seventh in the 2024 spring race. “Obviously, the stakes are higher, but you can’t psych yourself out of it. I think my mindset in the Round of 8 has been good to keep it calm and focus on the big picture.
“Anything can happen and take you out of the game. If you can keep yourself in it and not self-sabotage your day, you will have the opportunity to capitalize on others’ misfortunes and gain points wherever you can find them.
“We are in a good spot, and I know there are six other drivers that would love to be in the position we are right now. Those 14 points can vanish quickly, so we have to be ready to go off the truck to preserve that point cushion.”
Two JR Motorsports drivers — prolific rookie Connor Zilisch and defending NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier — already have qualified for the Championship 4 on points.
Two other JRM drivers, though, are locked in a close battle for the final Championship 4 berth as the series moves to Martinsville Speedway for Saturday’s IAA & Ritchie Bros. 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Carson Kvapil arrives at the legendary 0.526-mile short track 11 points above the cutline, leading teammate Sammy Smith by that margin entering the event that will set the field for the Nov. 1 title race at Phoenix Raceway.
If past performance is any indication, Smith has an edge in the elimination race. In six starts at Martinsville, the No. 8 Chevrolet driver has scored five top 10s, including two runner-up finishes and a third-place result.
“Heading into Martinsville under the cutline is not where we envisioned ourselves, but we’ve been strong here in the past, and this No. 8 Pilot team is hungry to advance to the Champ 4,” Smith said. “Just like Talladega last week (where Smith finished ninth), anything can happen on these short tracks, so we just need to be smart and keep our nose clean. If we can do that, I see no reason why we won’t be right where we need to be at the end of the race.”
In two Martinsville starts (the last two spring races), Kvapil has finished fourth and 20th.
Auguring what could be an all-Chevrolet Championship 4, Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing is 40 points above the elimination line and likely to advance.
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver Brandon Jones, a 2022 winner at “the Paperclip,” has the best chance to break the Chevrolet monopoly. Jones is 20 points below the cut, but he has posted five top 10s and two poles in 10 Martinsville starts.
With Aric Almirola winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Austin Hill taking the checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway, the field for the Owner’s Championship has already been set. Those two drivers will compete against Zilisch and Allgaier for the owner’s title.
Chase Briscoe clinching a Championship 4 spot with his win at Talladega shouldn’t have caught anyone off guard. In this very space, we’d been shouting from the rooftops about his championship potential all summer — and now the 30-year-old Indiana native and first-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver is one race away from cashing in on it.
But Briscoe’s win at a superspeedway — one of his weaker track types — still managed to blow up everybody’s playoff math. He’d entered Talladega as the driver teetering most on the edge between making and missing the championship cut, so his sigh of relief in Alabama immediately became cause for concern among the rest of the playoff field … even the ones who may seem safe at a glance.
Yes, it’s true that as Briscoe was joining teammate Denny Hamlin by locking into the Championship 4, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were also building their leads relative to the cutline. Larson went from +35 before Talladega to +36 after, while Bell went from +20 to +37. The gap versus William Byron and company below the line is now wide enough to give both Bell and Larson at least an 87 percent chance each to make the Champ 4, according to our Cup Series Playoff forecast model (which simulates the playoffs 10,000 times using projected Driver Ratings):
That wouldn’t seem to leave much room for anybody else to barge into the final-race picture aside from Bell and Larson — after those two, nobody else is higher than Byron at 7 percent, for instance. But the beauty (or treachery, depending on your perspective) of the win-and-in advancement system is that no points lead is truly safe if you get leapfrogged by a winner coming from below the cutline.
That’s why, in the simulations, there’s just a 77 percent chance that both Larson and Bell race for the title at Phoenix. While there’s next to no chance that neither will be there, there is a 23 percent chance that one of the two makes it and the other is left on the outside looking in:
Basically the only way that would happen is, again, if Sunday’s winner at Martinsville comes from either Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney or Chase Elliott. But that could certainly happen. Each has won here before in their careers, and Blaney and Byron actually each have a pair of those great, big grandfather clocks in their collections. They’re also all basically in must-win mode, making them especially dangerous.
And if one of them steals the win, the calculations for Larson and Bell change drastically. As the chart below shows, both drivers’ odds of making the Championship 4 would plummet from nearly 100 percent when the Martinsville winner doesn’t come from the bottom four of the active playoff standings, to roughly 50-50 apiece if it does:
Conditional on either a Blaney, Byron, Logano or Elliott win, the model gives Bell a 53 percent chance to be the last driver in, versus 47 percent for Larson. So why the slight edge for the No. 20 over the No. 5?
For one thing, Bell does start Sunday’s race with a slim one-point lead in the points. That may not sound very important, but the margin between Bell and Byron for the final Championship 4 slot during the final lap of last year’s cutoff race at this track was … you guessed it, one point. So that single point could matter a lot in the end. (If they’re tied, currently Larson holds the tiebreaker for his second-place finish at Las Vegas, one spot ahead of Bell as the best of the round for the pair.)
Beyond that, Bell is projected for a slightly higher rating on short tracks in the system that drives the playoff forecast, thanks in part to a better recent form — Bell averaged an 88.9 Driver Rating over the past three short-track races, versus Larson’s 74.7 — even though Larson was ridiculously dominant with a near-perfect 149.6 rating at Bristol in the race directly before that. In terms of average rating on short tracks overall this year, they’re virtually tied, with Larson at 96.5 and Bell at 96.1.
As for Martinsville in particular, the tale of the tape slightly favors Larson … at least on paper. He’s been faster overall in his career at “The Paperclip,” with a better average start (10.5 vs. 15.5), average finish (15.5 vs. 15.5, but buoyed by more top fives), Adjusted Points+ index (148 vs. 135) and a career Driver Rating nearly four points higher than Bell’s (88.0 vs. 84.9). And since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, Larson’s advantage has only widened: His Adjusted Points+ index at Martinsville (261) dwarfs Bell’s 157, along with a massive Next Gen-era Driver Rating edge of 109.2 to Bell’s 89.4.
So if we’re looking for a tiebreaker in that coin flip based on overall short-track skill, Larson probably deserves the nod as first among equals going into Sunday’s race. Still, Bell has one important edge that can’t be ignored: He’s won here in a playoff cutoff race before, sealing his 2022 Championship 4 berth with a clutch Martinsville victory — albeit one overshadowed by Ross Chastain’s unforgettable wall-ride.
Most likely, things won’t come down to the direct Bell-versus-Larson showdown in the end. There’s room enough in the Championship 4 for both star drivers — as long as nobody from the bottom half of the Round of 8 crashes the party with a W of their own. The odds of that happening aren’t particularly high, but Martinsville has a way of manufacturing madness when it matters most. Which means both drivers would be wise to keep an eye on each other this Sunday — just in case two open spots suddenly become one.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today revealed the 2026 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour schedule, a 16-race slate that blends tradition, competition and fan-favorite venues.
“Regional racing has always been the bedrock of NASCAR, and the Whelen Modified Tour stands as its longest lasting and forever thriving cornerstone,” said Joseph Dennewitz, Managing Director, NASCAR Regional. “The Whelen Modified Tour is where the engines pound, legends rise, and the spirit of competition burns brightest. We listened to the fans and the drivers, and built a schedule worthy of that fire — one that honors the past, fuels the present, and charges headlong into the future of raw, gritty Modified racing.”
The Tour will once again kick off at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 7, marking the fifth straight year the high-powered Modifieds will open their season at the 0.48-mile Florida oval near NASCAR headquarters.
From there, the series will appear on some of NASCAR’s biggest weekends. On Friday, March 27, the Tour will set the stage at Martinsville Speedway, opening a weekend that includes the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series. Later in the season, on Saturday, Aug. 22, the Modifieds will headline the NASCAR weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Two beloved tracks make their long-awaited returns in 2026. Oxford Plains Speedway rejoins the Tour for the first time since 1991 with a race on May 2, while Stafford Speedway returns on Aug. 28 with the Riverhead Building Supply 150 for the first time since 2021.
“There’s no place like home for the Modifieds, and Stafford Speedway has always been that home,” said Paul Arute, Chief Operating Officer of Stafford Speedway. “Our history with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour runs deep, spanning generations. With support from our partners at Riverhead Building Supply, we’re proud to welcome the Tour back and continue that tradition next August.”
Stafford Motor Speedway will return to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for the first time since 2021. (Photo: Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)
“Riverhead Building Supply is a proud sponsor of Stafford Speedway, and we’re excited to see the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour return to the premier short track in 2026,” said Eric Goodale, Director of Marketing at Riverhead Building Supply and a competitor on the Tour. “The rich history shared between Stafford and RBS makes this partnership a perfect fit to bring the best in Modified racing back to the New England racing community.”
Classic short tracks remain the heartbeat of the series.
Seekonk Speedway (Massachusetts) will host races on May 16 and July 1.
Riverhead Raceway (New York) will stage events on May 30 and Sept. 19.
Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (Connecticut) returns with three marquee events: the Icebreaker on April 12, a mid-summer midweek race on Aug. 5, and the Tour’s season finale on Oct. 11 as part of the World Series of Speedway Racing.
Front Row Motorsports announced Thursday it signed Zane Smith to a multiyear contract to remain the driver of its No. 38 Ford.
Smith joined FRM’s Cup ranks this season, producing a team-high five top 10s through 34 starts in his sophomore Cup Series season. In addition to Smith’s extension, FRM announced crew chief Ryan Bergenty will return atop the pit box in 2026.
“We’ve had an up-and-down year, but heading into the offseason, I feel like we’ve put our program in a great position to hit the ground running in 2026,” Smith said in a team release. “Front Row has always felt like home — the people, both on the road and at the shop, truly make this a special place and I’m excited for what next season holds.”
Before his 2024 rookie campaign, Smith, 26, had been making starts across NASCAR’s three national series since his Craftsman Truck Series debut in 2018. After two runner-up performances in the Championship 4, Smith had a breakout year in 2022 with Front Row, driving the No. 38 truck to a season-best four wins, including the season finale at Phoenix to earn the championship.
Smith’s first full-time opportunity in Cup came when Trackhouse Racing announced Smith to a multiyear contract in September 2023, partnering with Spire Motorsports for Smith’s rookie campaign in 2024 in the No. 71 Chevrolet.
Smith earned a career-best second-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway, but Trackhouse ultimately announced it would part ways with Smith following the 2024 season, instead bringing Shane van Gisbergen into its fold.
That led Smith back to FRM and onto a No. 38 team that has more regularly found itself fighting inside the top 15.
Smith sits 27th in the Cup Series points standings ahead of Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
