Martinsville, VA -- The SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic opens its season on Saturday, February 28th at Florence Speedway with the second running of the” Zach Brewer Memorial.” While the Mod Squad hits the track for the second-time to honor Brewer, a Modified racer who passed in 2024, so much has changed since the last time their tires hit the track at Florence. Silly season has been wild in the southern modified scene. Let’s get you up to speed with the changes in the pit area.

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• 2026 SMART Modified Tour Schedule

BRANDON WARD IS BACK

Brandon Ward returns to the SMART Modified Tour with the Kevin Powell Speed Motorsports team.  The KP team led Ward to the 2025 Modified Championship at Bowman Gray Stadium, NASCAR’s longest running weekly racing track. Ward instantly became a favorite for the SMART Mod Tour crown as his only two previous full-time efforts, in 2022 and 2023, produced a pair of runner-up finishes in the standings for the veteran driver. The Winston-Salem, NC driver has six career wins on the Tour.  The team will be led by trusted crew chief Will Spaugh. KP Speed also fields a full-time fendered-ride for their other Brandon, Brandon Pierce, in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock series. 

SS RACING’S NEW LOOK AND A CELEBRITY CAR?

Senator-Stanley Racing, owned by former NASCAR racer Hermie Sadler and Virginia Senator Bill Stanley, enters Florence as the most interesting team make-up coming out of silly season.  The team returns with two-time and defending SMART Champion Luke Baldwin, as the Neal Cantor-led team looks to go for the three-peat.  But the second car in the stable is where it gets interesting. Car owner Hermie Sadler will race the 16va in the season opener at Florence Motor Speedway.  Plans are not official on who will race in the car for the remainder of the season but the rumor mill is swirling with names of guest drivers that could make for a very interesting season for the team and Tour. The team announced Tuesday that Elliott Saldler, a three-time Cup and 13-time O’Reilly Series winner, will pilot the ride during the King of the Modifieds race at his home-track South Boston Speedway.

CASH GOING HILLBILLY

Jonathan Cash broke through for his first career SMART Mod Tour win in 2025 in the Cardinal 99 at Coastal Plains Speedway. However, the two-year full-time effort with Cash and SS Racing ended at the conclusion of the racing season. The Oxford, NC driver has taken his seat over to the Hillbilly Racing #79 ride for 2026. Cash finished out the ‘25 season ninth in points and recently starred in the “Ram Race for the Seat” competition and reality-tv show.

BRAUN QUICKLY PICKS UP NEW RIDE

Joey Braun left the Hillbilly Racing stables during the off-season and was rumored to be in line for multiple rides.  The Long Island native, who finished eighth in Tour points as a rookie, teams up with a returning car-owner, as the Buddy and Lisa Ellis owned Amerfast no. 24 team returns to the Mod ranks. Braun hopes that ride, previously campaigned by Danny Bohn and Jonathan Brown, propels him to his first SMART Mod win in his sophomore season. Braun did score his first major Tour-Type Mod victory in November by winning the prestigious Islip 300 at Long Island’s Riverhead Raceway.

BAD TO THE BOHN

Another driver coming back to full-time competition is Danny Bohn. Last season, the third generation driver stepped into the potent Team 25 ride in the summer and was immediately a contender at every event. The combo rattled off two wins and seven top-five runs in the nine races they competed in.  Bohn, a former Bowman Gray Stadium Modified Champion, and occasional racer in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, is surely a threat to contend for the title in 2026. 

NO WORD YET ON WHO WILL BE IN TOMAINO 99

Two seasons ago Jimmy Blewett ran the potent Jamie Tomaino owned no. 99 on the Tour. Last year, Jake Crum made the SMART Playoffs in the car, but turmoil between the driver and team led to a split after the penultimate race of the 2025 season. Fast forward to this off-season and Sam Rameau was in-line to be the full-time driver of the FNO Chassis Mod. That duo’s debut went south during the 60th World Series of Asphalt Racing at New Smyrna Speedway at the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour opener.  A massive crash during the race resulted in a badly wrecked racecar and Sam suffering a fractured elbow and a concussion. Rameau and the team have since split after the brief Speedweeks stint. 

JAKE CRUM FIELDS HIS OWN EFFORT FOR 2026

Once departed from the Tomaino team, Jake Crum put together a deal to finish out the SMART season to run the finale at North Wilkesboro. Crum, who finished fifth in last year’s standings, comes into 2025 with his own Modified to campaign. His wife, Annabeth Barnes Crum, is rumored to make some starts as well as she has now dipped her toes into the open-wheel ranks in both 602 Crate and Tour-Type Modifieds. Is a husband / wife duo in the cards in the Crum camp? 

SHADY GRADY TEAM USING A PAIR OF YOUNGSTERS

The Grady Jeffreys owned no. 15 ride will have a pair of teenagers behind the wheel as they look to chase the owner’s championship. Carson Loftin, who is focused on his full-time ride in the Barry Nelson owned no. 22 Late Model Stock Car on the CARS Tour, will race part-time when his schedule allows it. Loftin was recently listed 18th in the FloRacing “20 Under 20” rankings. 

The rest of the races will be filled by 602 Modified graduate Sean McElearney. Sean practiced the car at the Hickory Hundred in 2025 and made a great impression with the team. That was the genesis of the eventual partnership. McElearney is the grandson of one of Long Island, NY’s all-time winningest racers, Paul McElearney. The 19-year old “Mac-Attack” has been cutting his teeth racing Legends Cars and 602 Modifieds for the past few seasons. 

JACK BALDWIN RETURNS FULL-TIME

Nobody had a more up and down year in 2025 than Jack Baldwin. The colorful older-brother of Tour Champion Luke, had two disastrous crashes paired with nine top-ten finishes across 14 races in a rookie effort that ended in an sixthplace finish in the standings. New sponsor Stokes Shoes has Jack locked in to run full-time in 2026 in the Tommy Baldwin Racing 7ny.

A PAIR OF LONG ISLAND ROOKIES LOOK TO MAKE A SOUTHERN SPLASH

Two racecar drivers will make the long tow south from Long Island will compete full-time with SMART and headline the Racing Electronics Rookie class. 

Max Handley and the Joe Densieski owned no. 45 team gained valuable experience running three races on the SMART Tour in 2025. Handley’s best run was a ninth at  Coastal Plains Speedway. The team competed with brother Jack Handley Jr during Speedweeks in the 602-Modified. Max will be behind the wheel of the Tour-type Mod for a full-time southern effort.

Sports Car racer Will Lambros has made six career starts over two seasons of racing in the southern Modified ranks. Coming off a strong fifth place effort at the season finale at North Wilkesboro, the East Northport, Long Island, New York native has support from PSR Chassis for his ‘26 full-time run. 

BRYCE BAILEY JOINS THE FACTORY

Bryce Bailey has proven he has raw speed, scoring three-pole positions in the 2025 season racing in a part-time effort between various rides. Bailey has landed a deal to race a part-time schedule with Factory 39 Racing. 

OTHER NOTES

The Blewetts will back, but not this week. Jimmy Blewett will pilot the Gershow Recycling no.2 that he fielded during Florida Speedweeks, while his 17 year-old son James is planning to make his SMART debut driving the family-owned no. 76 Modified. The only question is when that will happen? Last weekend’s Blizzard in the northeast, and more snow this week forced the family to miss the show at Florence.

Other notable drivers that plan to compete for the Racing Electronics Rookie of the Year honors include former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour racer Melissa Fifield. New Jersey racer, and JR Motorsports fabricator, Carsten DiGiantomasso plans to race his no. 33 full-time on the SMART Tour, beginning with the second race of the season, March 7, at Anderson Speedway in South Carolina. 

Two-time Bowman Gray Stadium Sportsman Champion Chase Robertson will try his hand at Modified racing in the Fuquay no. 11 ride in a part-time effort that will begin at the third annual King of the Modifieds at South Boston Speedway in March. 

Cody Norman, a veteran of the 602 Mod ranks, has raced part-time on the SMART Tour for a few years. Is this the year he shifts more focus to the Tour-Mod program? 

The first two races of the SMART Modified Tour will be interesting, as always, and will be filled with some surprise entries as the top-20 in points are guaranteed a starting position in the Tour’s crown jewel event, the 20-thousand dollar-to-win King of the Modifieds event at South Boston Speedway.

More information regarding the Zach Brewer Memorial, including the Raceday Schedule, is available in the Event Hub for the Florence Motor Speedway race on Saturday, February 28. This is the second-straight year the race will honor the late Zach Brewer.

All races are streamed live on FloRacing, the official streaming broadcast partner of the SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic.

For updates on the SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic, be sure to follow the series on social media (Facebook: SMART Modified Tour| Twitter: @SMARTMods_ | IG: @smartmods_), as well as visiting the official series website.