Entry List For NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour At North Wilkesboro Speedway

The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is set to open NASCAR’s All-Star Race day on Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, and NASCAR’s oldest division is bringing a stacked entry list for their 150-lap race. 

Headlining the entry list is the four-time and defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion, Justin Bonsignore. The Holtsville, New York driver is the defending winner of this race, as he put in an absolutely dominating performance last October. Bonsignore led 130 of the 150 laps and won by 6.473 seconds. He lapped all the way up to fifth-place too, all the while telling his competitors with one race left on the calendar that he was going to win the championship no matter what. 

But after two races in 2025, Bonsignore’s season has not gotten started the way he would have hoped. He rebounded from two laps down to finish third at New Smyrna, but late-race contact on pit road and a bad restart at Thompson left him with a fifth-place finish. Is a third and a fifth in two races bad? No, but it’s still beyond the norm for the 45-time race winner. But heading to North Wilkesboro after last October’s dominating race might be exactly what Bonsignore and his Ken Massa Motorsports team led by crew chief Ryan Stone needs.

A fun addition to the entry list this week is a past winner of the NASCAR All-Star race in one of Modified racing’s most historic race cars. Ryan Newman, the winner of the 2002 All-Star race, then known as “The Winston,” will pilot the legendary No. v4 “Mystic Missile” Modified in place of Tim Connolly, who is recovering from surgery. Newman took the victory in 2022’s first Modified race during the “Racetrack Revival” week of festivities. He also finished 13th in last October’s race at North Wilkesboro driving Gary Putnam’s No. 77.

Speaking of Putnam’s No. 77, that car will be driven on Sunday by former NASCAR Cup Series driver and former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race winner, Corey LaJoie. Sunday’s race will be LaJoie’s first NWMT start in nearly two years. LaJoie’s last race came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the summer of 2023 where he finished seventh. His previous Modified start before that race came at Martinsville Speedway at the end of the 2022 season, which ended with LaJoie celebrating in victory lane.

The driver who finished second in this race last year, albeit a distant second, was Northampton, Pennsylvania’s Matt Hirschman. Hirschman is back on the entry list this weekend and is looking for his second victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Hirschman won this race two years ago on the old pavement at the end of 2023.

Speaking of Northampton, Pennsylvania, Hirschman’s neighbor, Austin Beers finished one spot behind Hirschman in this race last year. Beers led four laps in last year’s race. Beers has also won the pole for this race each year it has been held so far.

Lastly, the current points leader, Patrick Emerling, has been on fire to start off 2025. He dominated much of the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway, he scored the season-opening NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race also at New Smyrna after starting dead last, and rebounded from a pit road mistake to finish second at Thompson. Emerling was decent at North Wilkesboro last year, finishing a distant fourth behind Bonsignore, Hirschman, and Beers.

The entire entry list for Sunday’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour “FaithFest Evangelistic Ministries 150” at North Wilkesboro Speedway can be found below.

Sunday’s race can be seen live on FloRacing as part of the FloRacing subscription, as can all NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races all season long. Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour At North Wilkesboro Entry List