Question on dirt track open wheel modified racing in south and when did it become popular again

Question: When did the "dirt" modifieds reappear in the south? I was talking to guy today about how the modifieds remained popular in the northeast all through the decades, more popular than full-bodied stock cars but, in the south they seemed to disappear in the late sixties and replaced with all full-bodied dirt stock cars and the OWM not reappear until the 1990's. I'm talking about dirt modifieds, not asphalt which I know were popular at Bowman Gray, South Boston, and others but, the dirt mods were either left off the news headlines or just quit racing all together.

I know I seemed to attempt to answer my own question but it is more of an assumption than based on fact. Another assumption is that NASCAR was so influential in the south that the full-bodied car was more popular and that drivers raced them due in part from the influence of NASCAR.

The real question now is, am I close on any of this and does anyone know the truth behind the demise and return of dirt modifieds in the south if in fact they ever did disappear at all?
updated by @jim-wilmore: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

The dirt modifieds you probably are referring to are a different animal entirely from the ones from the Northeast. The Dirt Modifieds driven by Tim McCreadie (son of Barefoot Bob), Danny Johnson , Brett Hearn etc. are Big Block Modifieds and the small motor version are 358 Modifieds. The southern version are what parts of the country refer to as e-mods. They started out in the midwest as an economical form of racing. They are limited somewhat in motor and generally race on a DOT type tire. The first time I saw them in the south was in Tennessee around 1992 or so. Jimmy Owens who is a star dirt late model guy ran these cars for several years.

The World of Outlaws World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte in November features the Big Block Modifieds as one of its headliners along with the Sprints and Late Models. Those modifieds put on one heck of a show.

Jim, that's a really interesting question you pose. When I first started going to the local Richmond weekly asphalt track on Friday nights in 1964 that featured NASCAR modifieds, some of the Richmond guys like Eddie Crouse, Al Grinnanand Lennie Pond would go to Langley Field in Hampton which was still dirt at the time on Saturday night and run NASCAR modifiedswith Gene Lovelace, Butch Torrie, Earl Moss, etc. I always thought it was kind of special that these guys were running the same modified on asphalt one night and on dirt the next. Other Richmond drivers like Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins would go to the asphalt South Boston on Saturday. Up until he paved it in 1968, Paul Sawyer was still putting on big special event NASCAR modified shows at the 1/2-mile dirt Richmond track. NASCAR, as you state, did a pretty good job of running the mods away from the Virginia tracks it sanctioned, and they had disappeared from the NC tracks long before.In the mid-60s, theNASCAR "Sportsman" class in Virginia was still open wheel coupes, but in NC it was Late Models.In the late 60s (68-70 or so) when I'd go to theSanford, NC "outlaw" dirttrack (partnered with the old Rockingham track), seems like they ran as many dirt modifieds with James Sears, David Munnerlyn, etc. as they did Late Models with Glen McDuffie, Edsel Kiker, etc. When I moved to Wilson, NC in the summer of 1970, there were no modifieds / open wheel cars running at that 1/2-mile dirt track, only late model divisions. There were no modifieds in 1970 either at the dirt Wake County Speedway in Raleigh or the dirt Chantilly Speedway in Weldon, NC. When I moved to Greensboro, NC in 1981 I don't remember any open wheel cars at the Madison, NC dirt track. But, I don't know when any of those three dirt NC tracksquit running the open wheel cars. Wonder when they did come back or who, as you speculate, may have kept running them?


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Dave, I am pleased to read your response since it lines up with the question I posed. As not to get too particular in what defines a modified I am more or less just stating that the open-wheel modifieds, whether a modified, sportsman, or jalopy seemed to disappear around 1970 and reemerge around the mid-1990's. There is an underlying story behind the when and why and that is what is so intriguing to me.

I tried. Late Models took over. The Modifieds up north evolved into what they are now. The modifieds down south now are basically a support class to Late Models and Crate Late Models. It was considered a step up from a street stock, super stock or whatever before the Late Model class.

Seems to me it was late 80's...maybe early 90's when UMP (the first I can remember) began sanctioning open wheel modified...and it did begin in the Midwest and move east....prolly west, too. I was running street stocks with Jimmy Owens and made the switch to asphalt late models. A lot of guys, including Jimmy went to these low-cost e-mods as a much cheaper alternative to late models. Dirt late models were especially pricey then as the crates weren't born yet and only the richest could compete.

There is another piece of history I'm not familiar with and that is those northeast dirt mods. I'm not talking about the big block mods with the sheet metal bodies. I'm talking about the ones like Bodine (the famous valiant) drove....Ray Hendrick....etc. Those things have been running in the northeast and continually evolving since those early days...I don't think they ever really died.

Dave I guess when NASCAR ran them off they went back North and stayed there until recently when they have been emerging in the South running in Vintage divisions.

Interesting topic.

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Founder/Creator - RacersReunion®

Thanks Jeff, maybe you explained part of it better than me. I didn't want to get into the UMP and IMCA thing as I am not sure how familiar some folks here are with that. I remember when NASCAR allowed the change in the asphalt modifieds from the coupes into the Pinto, Valiant, Vega style bodies. The Cavalier looking style was predominate in later years. We had the Southern Modified tour down here that was separate from NASCAR for many years and then did one of the ASA concepts for a period and now are NASCAR again. Up North there has always been the NASCAR National Modified tour. Other tracks run asphalt modifieds as well.

Jimmy Owens was hell on wheels in the e-mod (where I first saw him at the Gap) as well as in the Late Models now. Terrific cat too.