2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 8/19
| Race | Jersey Shore 150 at Wall Stadium Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, July 8, 2023 |
| Track | Wall Stadium Speedway |
| Layout | 0.333-mile oval |
| Location | Wall Township, New Jersey |
| Start time | 8 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 150 |
| Posted Awards | $81,600 |
| Tickets | Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: July 15, 11 a.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 7/19
| Race | Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 |
| Date | Saturday, June 24, 2023 |
| Track | Riverhead Raceway |
| Layout | Quarter-mile oval |
| Location | Riverhead, New York |
| Start time | 8 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | TBA |
| Tickets | Trackside only |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 6/19
| Race | Seekonk 150 |
| Date | Saturday, June 10, 2023 |
| Track | Seekonk Speedway |
| Layout | 0.333-mile oval |
| Location | Seekonk, Massachusetts |
| Start time | 8 p.m. ET (Local racing at 6 p.m. ET) |
| Laps | 150 |
| Posted Awards | $81,600 |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: June 18, 12:30 p.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 5/19
| Race | Granite State Derby at Lee USA Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, May 27, 2023 |
| Track | Lee USA Speedway |
| Layout | 0.375-mile oval |
| Location | Lee, New Hampshire |
| Start time | 7:45 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 175 |
| Posted Awards | $88,100 |
| Tickets | JDV Productions |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 4/19
| Race | Buzz Chew Chevrolet Cadillac 200 at Riverhead Raceway |
| Date | Sunday, May 21, 2023 |
| Track | Riverhead Raceway |
| Layout | Quarter-mile oval |
| Location | Riverhead, New York |
| Start time | 2:45 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $81,600 |
| Tickets | Trackside only |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 3/19
| Race | Duel at the Dog 200 at Monadnock Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, May 6, 2023 |
| Track | Monadnock Speedway |
| Layout | Quarter-mile oval |
| Location | Winchester, New Hampshire |
| Start time | 5 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $83,450 |
| Tickets | HERE |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: May 13, 9:30 a.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 2/19
| Race | Virginia is for Racing Lovers 150 at Richmond Raceway |
| Date | Friday, March 31, 2023 |
| Track | Richmond Raceway |
| Layout | 0.75-mile oval |
| Location | Richmond, Virginia |
| Start time | 6:30 p.m. ET (Complete schedule of events) |
| Laps | 150 |
| Posted Awards | $120,400 |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: April 8, 3 p.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour: Race 1/19
| Race | New Smyrna Beach Visitors Bureau 200 at New Smyrna Speedway |
| Date | Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023 |
| Track | New Smyrna Speedway |
| Layout | Half-mile oval |
| Location | New Smyrna Beach, Florida |
| Start time | 7:30 p.m. ET |
| Laps | 200 |
| Posted Awards | $122,108 |
| Tickets | Click Here |
| TV Channel | CNBC (Delayed: Feb. 19, 10 a.m. ET) |
| Live stream | FloRacing (Live) |
QUICK LINKS:
TULSA, Okla. – Chase Briscoe has a love-hate relationship with the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.
That relationship continued Saturday night inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the driver of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 14 Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series fell three positions short of advancing to the 55-lap championship feature that headlines the biggest midget racing event in the world.
This year’s Chili Bowl delivered another heartbreaking result for Briscoe, who has come agonizingly close to making the finale via the B Mains several times over the last few years.
“We got going pretty good there at the beginning. The first five, 10 laps, I felt pretty good and felt like I was in a good spot,” Briscoe said. “I think I came out running sixth, and I felt like if I didn’t make a mistake I could have come out running fifth. Honestly I was just logging laps.
“I was hoping honestly it went green to checkered. I felt like that was probably my best chance to [advance]. The way the cautions kind of fell at the end were kind of weird for me. I’d just got passed, and I was running seventh and still felt like I was in an OK spot.”
At the Chili Bowl, only the top seven drivers in each of the two B Mains advance to race in the Chili Bowl finale. Briscoe was running seventh when the final caution flag of his B Main waved with three laps to go.
Instantly Briscoe knew he was in trouble, because he knew he had a huge target on his back.
“The caution came out and stacked everybody back up, and when you’re seventh with three laps to go, you’re kind of panicking here I feel like because you know big sliders are coming,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe’s panic was warranted. In the final three laps, Briscoe nearly flipped and dropped from seventh to 10th, eliminating him from contention.
“[Kevin Thomas Jr.] had been running the bottom fairly consistently, and I kind of expected him to do the same,” Briscoe said. “He kind of changed lanes real last minute and checked me up, and then [Ryan] Timms came in there and slid me. From there I just kind of got swallowed up.”
Despite the obvious disappointment, Briscoe’s enthusiasm and love for the Chili Bowl hasn’t wavered.
He considers the Chili Bowl one of the greatest motorsports events in the world, and the statistics back it up. More than 15,000 fans pack the SageNet Center every January to watch drivers from a variety of racing disciplines do battle on a temporary fifth-mile dirt oval.
It’s no wonder Briscoe and other NASCAR drivers like Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Tony Stewart have made the pilgrimage to Tulsa to participate in the Chili Bowl through the years.
“I feel like these are the best race car drivers in the world at what they do. You want to be considered one of the best,” said Briscoe, who qualified for his only Chili Bowl finale in 2017. “For me, I’ve been able to taste what the Saturday A-Main is like, but I got flipped over 12 laps in, so I really haven’t been able to experience the full thing, and I was so overwhelmed.
“It was my second time ever here, and I didn’t really savor the moment. I want to do that again and enjoy it a little bit more.”
While Briscoe has all the passion in the world for the Chili Bowl, he’s also realistic. At 28, he realizes he’s slowly slipping out of his midget racing prime.
This year alone Briscoe could only watch as a couple 14-year-olds, his teammate Brent Crews and Ryan Timms, raced their way into their first Chili Bowl championship finale. He knows his time could be running out, but that doesn’t mean he is going to stop trying.
“I’m getting older, I know that sounds weird being 28, but I don’t know how much longer I’m going to realistically do this and be able to do this at a [winning] level,” Briscoe said. “The kids are getting better and better and younger and younger.”
As much as the Chili Bowl broke Briscoe’s heart on Saturday night, his passion for the event still burns as bright as ever.
He’s not afraid to be disappointed, and he’s willing to have his heart broken. All in pursuit of a chance to race for a Golden Driller trophy.
“It’s definitely a week-long event where the anticipation keeps continuing and continuing, and I think that’s why this race creates such passion for it,” Briscoe said. “Because you’re always so close, or you make it and it’s exciting because you’ve been here all week long, or you’re dejected when you don’t make it because you’ve been here all week long.
“That’s part of what makes the Chili Bowl special, and I’ll always keep coming back.”
TULSA, Okla. – Logan Seavey admitted he had lost a bit of confidence in himself.
Entering the 37th edition of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, Seavey hadn’t won a midget race in more than a year.
He went so far as to ask Kevin Swindell, his midget car team owner and crew chief each year at the Chili Bowl, if he was going to have him back to compete in the 2023 edition of the race.
“We kind of leave this race every year and we just kind of look at each other and nod, like, ‘OK, we’ll do it again next year,’” Seavey said. “This year, I was like, ‘Hey, what are your Chili Bowl plans? I know you’re building a car.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m building a car.’ I said, ‘Well, whose driving it?’
“He said, ‘Well, you are if you want to.’ That’s all that was said.”
Fast forward to Saturday night inside the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Seavey suddenly has all the confidence in the world following a convincing drive to victory in the Chili Bowl.
“As soon as we got in this car, instantly I had a lot of people see it visually, we had a lot of speed and I was comfortable right away and able to drive really hard,” said Seavey, the 25-year-old from Sutter, California. “That’s what it takes to win this race. You have to be comfortable enough to run 100 percent for 55 laps. That’s what it takes to win.
“My confidence turned around pretty quickly.”
🗣️ An emotional @Logan_Seavey talks about his Lucas Oil @cbnationals championship-winning run!
Presented by @Lucas_Oil | MAVTV on FloRacing pic.twitter.com/M0YPkLN5Tk
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) January 15, 2023
Winning the Chili Bowl is no easy task. That has been proven time and time again by those who have won and, perhaps more importantly, those who have not.
In the 37-year history of the Chili Bowl, 23 drivers have visited Victory Lane. Seavey became the 23rd different driver to win a race that dirt racing legends like Doug Wolfgang, Steve Kinser and Dave Darland and modern stars like Chris Windom, Justin Grant and Buddy Kofoid have failed to win.
Things got off to an ominous start a week ago when, as the team was putting the finishing touches on Seavey’s new race car, they attempted to fire the engine for the first time.
Except the engine didn’t fire.
Rather than panic, the Swindell-led crew figured out the problem and got the car running in time for Sunday’s practice day. It was obvious to Seavey then that he had a car capable of winning the Chili Bowl.
He backed up his belief with a dominant victory in his preliminary event Friday, which he followed early Saturday evening by securing the pole for the 55-lap finale via the annual Pole Shuffle.
All that remained were 55 of the most intense laps in midget racing.
Intense, as it would turn out, was the operative word. Seavey led the opening 20 laps of the race, but just as he was about to catch slower traffic, second-place Cannon McIntosh rocketed past him to take the lead.
That could have been the end of a magical run at the Chili Bowl for Seavey, but he remained focused on his mission. Ten laps later, Seavey dove back under McIntosh to regain the lead.
Despite near constant pressure from McIntosh and defending Chili Bowl winner Tanner Thorson, Seavey survived to claim his first Golden Driller trophy. His name now can now be mentioned in the same breath as Sammy Swindell, Tony Stewart, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson and more as a Chili Bowl champion.
“I just happened to make the move at the right time, and it worked out,” Seavey said. “For right now, it feels awesome. It didn’t even set in until I got the Driller.”
He also joined his team owner and crew chief, Kevin Swindell, as a Chili Bowl winner. Swindell, who won four-straight Chili Bowls as a driver from 2010-13, saw his driving career end after a brutal sprint car crash at Knoxville Raceway in 2015.
This year Swindell branched out, forming his own midget team rather than working as part of his father Sammy Swindell’s program. Saturday’s Chili Bowl was his first as a midget team owner.
“I’m just so happy to do it for Kevin. He deserves it,” Seavey said. “He’d probably have a lot more if it wasn’t for his accident. It means a lot to win this race in general, but to win it in the No. 39 in our first try is really, really cool.”
Legends are made inside the SageNet Center every January. Now Seavey can count himself among one of those legends. Like the winners before him and the winners that will follow him, he will forever be known as a Chili Bowl winner.
Confidence is no longer a problem for Seavey. Now all he has to do is look at his new Golden Driller and know he has what it takes. He proved it not just to himself, but to the entire world.
