NASCAR Featherlight Modified Series - Turning 20

Editor's Note: NASCAR announced in September that Whelen Engineering, a Connecticut-based company, will become title sponsor of the NASCAR Modified Series beginning in 2005. Featherlite Trailers, title sponsor since 1993, will remain involved through sponsorship of the Featherlite Most Improved Driver Award.

The 1985 NASCAR Official Record Book and Press Guide explains it simply enough: "In past years, the NASCAR Modified divisional championship has been determined both by weekly points and special championship events. However, a new system will begin in 1985. A series of between 20 and 25 championship races will determine the NASCAR Modified champion."

Thus, today's NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series was born. NASCAR's vision in 1985 has since evolved into one of the most distinctive (and most thrilling) divisions in the sport today.

The orderly 19-race schedule of 2004 is a far cry from the division's founding years, when drivers such as Bobby Allison, Bugs Stevens, Ray Hendrick, Rene Charland, Ed Flemke, Jerry Cook, and Richie Evans-along with countless others-would barnstorm across the countryside, racing three or four nights per week in pursuit of that prestigious NASCAR title. Yet, the mystique of the Modifieds has endured, as subsequent generations of drivers upheld the unique blend of NASCAR-style stock car racing with open-wheeled bravado.

"It's just a thrill to drive open-wheeled race cars," says Reggie Ruggiero, a 19-year veteran of the Featherlite Modified Series who was named one of the NASCAR Modified All-Time Top 10 Drivers in 2003. "I've driven NASCAR Busch Series cars, Late Models, and Pro Stocks, and you don't really know what a race car is until you drive a Modified race car.

"They're light, they're low to the ground, they have big tires, and they handle like nothing else," explains Ruggiero, adding that it's not only the speed and handling that make the Modifieds so special. The ability to slow the car and quickly rebuild momentum is a hallmark of NASCAR Modified racing. "Because the tires are so wide and the cars are so light, they can stop. You can make fast moves with 'em and change lanes. They're just a great race car to drive."

Jeff Fuller, the 1992 Featherlite Modified Series champion who now competes in the NASCAR Busch Series, sums it up this way: "If you look up the term race car in the dictionary, you should see a picture of a Modified."

Fuller agrees that the stopping power of the wide tires and lightweight nature of these machines makes driving a dream. (Incidentally, the Featherlite name is not a reference to the car's lightness. Featherlite Trailers Inc. has sponsored the series since 1993.)

"I love those cars; you drive them so much different than anything else," says Fuller. "When you get to the end of a straightaway in a Busch car or Cup car-which weighs 700 pounds more than a Modified-you can't use the brake in the full-fendered car that you can in a Modified. They're 2 inches lower to the ground, they've got those big fat tires, and with a Busch or a Cup car, it's that much more weight and momentum that the front end dips, the rear end dips, and the car lays over on the right side.

"With the Modified, it's like a slot car-you just drill it in as hard as you can, then slam the brake on and get to the middle of the corner. Even before that push mode stops in the middle, you can slam the throttle and let the [tire] stagger do the work coming out [of the corner]."

In other words, no need to slow down and wait for the weight of the car to carry through the corner; Modified drivers can get back on the throttle quickly.

Fuller, who has gone on to national success since his winning years in the Featherlite Modified Series, says that this type of racing is guaranteed to improve any driver's skills.

"If you can stay an inch off somebody and run wheel-to-wheel with them like the Modified drivers do-I don't think that makes you a better driver, I know it does," says Fuller.

Racers and fans alike have been drawn to this style of racing throughout the history of NASCAR. In 1948, when NASCAR began sanctioning events on the famous beach and road course in Daytona Beach, Florida, Modifieds were the main attraction. Back then, teams simply "modified" their street cars for better performance.

The unique race car design found in the Featherlite Modified Series can be traced to those early years, as the bodies and suspension packages evolved from homemade "jalopies" into coupe-style cars in the 1960s and '70s. Ford Pinto bodies were the popular design during the '80s, and those eventually took on the sleek, low-slung design of today's cars.

With the technical changes came an additional layer of sophistication (and costs), and soon NASCAR officials realized they needed to take this division on the road to help it succeed.