The stars and cars of NASCAR’s oldest division are bound for the Sunshine State this weekend. The Whelen Modified Tour begins the 2024 season Saturday with the running of the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 (7:15 p.m. ET on FloRacing).

Saturday’s race marks the third consecutive year the Modified Tour season starts at New Smyrna Speedway as part of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, a nine-day racing extravaganza that features more than 10 divisions.

Ron Silk, the defending Modified Tour champion, is also the defending winner of the event at New Smyrna. The victory kicked off a five-win campaign for Silk, who claimed his second championship and first for Haydt Yannone Racing.

More than 30 drivers are entered in Saturday’s event, with each looking to prevent Silk from repeating as a Tour winner at New Smyrna while concurrently trying to add their names to the legendary list of World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing victors.

Tickets to the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 are available here. Below is everything you need to know for Saturday’s opening race of the 2024 season.

New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway

What to watch for:

It’s been more than 100 days since Ron Silk was crowned NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion at Martinsville Speedway. His march to a third series championship begins Saturday night at the same track where he opened his 2023 campaign with a victory.

Silk is one of 35 drivers slated to compete in the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200, but none have more momentum than him. He led the Modified Tour in nearly every statistical category last year, including wins (five), average finish (3.3), top fives (15) and top 10s (17). Last year, he led 33 laps on his way to victory at New Smyrna, but it was far from an easy task.

His chief title rival last year was Justin Bonsignore, the same man Silk battled in the closing laps last year at New Smyrna. In search of his fourth series championship in 2024, Bonsignore will begin a busy week Saturday at New Smyrna before heading to Daytona International Speedway to make his ARCA Menards Series debut one week later.

RELATED: Watch the New Smyrna race live on FloRacing

Other likely contenders Saturday night include Austin Beers, who led 51 laps early last year at New Smyrna, as well as Doug Coby, who led a race-high 106 laps. Both are entered again as they look to kick off a new season with a trip to Victory Lane.

Two familiar names to NASCAR Cup Series fans, Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman and Stewart-Haas Racing driver Ryan Preece, are set to compete at New Smyrna. Newman will pilot the No. 15 for Advantage Motorsports; Preece will drive his own No. 40 that he also piloted to victory in October at Martinsville.

Three members of the Catalano family, Tommy, Trevor and Tyler, are among the 35 entrants. Patrick Emerling will kick off a busy seven-day stretch at New Smyrna before he, too, heads to Daytona to compete the following weekend. Matt Hirschman, the 2022 New Smyrna winner and four-time World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing champion, will look for another New Smyrna victory.

Other notable entrants include Eric Goodale, Craig Lutz, Jake Johnson, Joey Coulter, Kyle Bonsignore, Tyler Rypkema, J.B. Fortin, Spencer Davis and Ronnie Williams, among others.

The complete entry list for the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 can be found here.

RACE FACTS

Schedule: Saturday, Feb. 10 … Practice from 1 to 1:45 p.m. ET … Final practice from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 5:30 p.m. ET … New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 at 7:45 p.m. ET (FloRacing)

Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustments or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau 200 is limited to 32 starters including Provisional Positions.

Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is fourteen (14) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR Officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is six (6) tires, any position.

A chunk of the 2024 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season will operate with a wrinkle in how some of the fastest cars line up to start races.

A re-draw process will be implemented for select Modified Tour races, beginning with the May 4 event at New Hampshire’s Monadnock Speedway.

At events where the re-draw procedure is implemented, the following policy/procedure will be used:

1. The fastest qualifier will draw a pill to determine the number of drivers that will re-draw for their starting positions.
   a. 4, 6, 8 or 10 positions will re-draw.
2. Once the fastest qualifier draws the initial pill, NASCAR will have the various buckets ready to immediately start the re-draw procedure. Drivers will re-draw in their qualifying order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 – however many are applicable).
3. The pole position and any bonus will be awarded to the fastest qualifier and will be the pole of record.
4. Driver introductions will be done by qualifying order.
5. When the field rolls off for pace laps, the cars will re-align themselves by how they re-drew their starting positions as the cars roll off.
6. If qualifying is rained out, the field will be set by the rule book. The re-draw procedure will still take place based on the rain lineup. Pole awards are not paid on rain lineups.

Racing at Daytona International Speedway was not something Justin Bonsignore had on his 2024 bingo card.

The three-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion will get the chance to do just that when the ARCA Menards Series opens its 2024 season on Feb. 17 with the Daytona ARCA 200.

Bonsignore will make his ARCA and Daytona debut driving the No. 30 entry for Rette Jones Racing. He never would have reached this point if not for the Road to Daytona program, which gives NASCAR touring and regional champions the chance to turn laps at the legendary superspeedway during the annual ARCA pre-race practice.

Originally, the opportunity to take part in the pre-race practice was offered to 2023 Modified Tour champion Ron Silk. But when he was unable to fit the opportunity into his schedule, it was offered to Bonsignore, the 2023 runner-up.

“Obviously Ron Silk was unable to attend, and they reached out to me because I was next in line,” Bonsignore said. “I thought it was a really good opportunity to run laps at Daytona. I think that happened on a Thursday.

“On Friday and Saturday, I started thinking, ‘If I enjoy the test as much as I think I’m going to, we should probably try looking into seeing if we could put together a deal with a team.’”

Before he even made it to the pre-race practice, Bonsignore started making phone calls. One of the first he made was to fellow Modified racer Andy Seuss, who is a regular face in the ARCA garage as part of KLAS Motorsports.

“He gave me a lot of insight on what to look for at the pre-race practice and teams and this and that,” Bonsignore said. “He said, ‘You should call Mark Rette. I think he’s in need of a driver.’ I made a call to David Lewis at Roush Yates Racing Engines, my engine builder on the Modified Tour who does a lot of ARCA stuff. He reached out to Mark on my behalf immediately.”

Rette, the co-owner of Rette Jones Racing alongside partner Terry Jones, knew Bonsignore was big on the Modified Tour, but he didn’t know much more than that.

When Lewis connected the two, Rette did a little research and quickly realized Bonsignore is a three-time series champion who ranks fourth on the all-time series win list.

In other words, Bosnignore knows how to drive.

“I’m from the Northeast. I’m New Jersey born and bred guy. The Modified Tour, those cars, I love them,” Rette said. “I’d always known Justin’s name. I obviously have tried to keep up with those guys and watch them. Those cars are near and dear to my heart from my childhood.

“I started googling. I’ve known the name, I’ve known the Bonsignore name and watched him race. I never realized he won three Modified Tour championships and is fourth on the all-time win list. The things that he has accomplished most recently in the last couple years … wow. It was way more than I thought.”

Initially, Rette wasn’t sure he would have space for Bonsignore in his program at Daytona. He had been working with Frankie Muniz, who raced for the team during the 2023 ARCA Menards Series season, about potentially competing at Daytona again.

However, in the weeks following the Daytona pre-race practice, Rette’s deal with Muniz fell apart. That opened the door for Bonsignore to fill the seat and make his ARCA Menards Series debut at Daytona.

“Up until two weeks ago, we were working on a program to put Frankie in the car for some ARCA races. Frankie was wanting to go to Daytona, and we couldn’t get the deal put together. Fortunately as one door closes, another door opens,” Rette said. “I picked up the phone and called Justin. We talked pretty much every other day, anyway. I said let’s put this deal together.”

From a logistical standpoint for Bonsignore, things really couldn’t have worked out any better.

He’ll first travel to Charlotte for a seat fitting in the Rette Jones Racing ARCA car on Wednesday, Feb. 7 before making his way to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to compete in the Modified Tour opener on Saturday, Feb. 10.

He’ll then spend the next few days on vacation with his family, something that was planned long before the opportunity with Rette Jones Racing developed. Then, on Feb. 15-17 he’ll turn his attention to Daytona and the ARCA opener.

“For the last three or four years we’ve actually stayed and made a nice little vacation out of it,” Bonsignore said. “We’re going to spend the whole week there and then obviously the ARCA deal will pick up on Thursday and Friday with practice and qualifying.”

From an expectation standpoint, Rette believes Bonsignore can be a threat to win given his Modified experience combined with his maturity as a driver.

“My expectations are high. I think this guy can go compete,” Rette said. “Strength is in numbers with Venturini obviously having five cars, Rev Racing having two cars. Strength is in numbers when it comes to superspeedway racing. But I think if we put ourselves in the right position, I think we can go down there and compete and have a shot at it.

“It would be a storybook thing for Justin. Modified guy comes to Daytona, races at New Smyrna in a Modified Tour car on Saturday night, and a week later he’s competing for a win at Daytona. How cool is that story?

“I want to go win this thing.”

And to think, without the Road to Daytona program, none of this would have even been possible.

“Without the call from the NASCAR to be part of the Road to Daytona program, I never even would have considered pursing it any further,” Bonsignore said. “It’s something that came together last minute and very quickly, but it’s shaping up to be a very good opportunity in front of us.”