“The Greatest Race in the History of Spring” returns this weekend with the running of the 51st NAPA Spring Sizzler at Connecticut’s crown jewel half-mile, Stafford Motor Speedway. As the track and the competitors continue to prepare for the event, Stafford Motor Speedway officials have released a massive entry list stacked with talent.

Entries continue to trickle in for the 51st Annual Spring Sizzler at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway. The latest entry is one of the biggest names in Modified racing, but the dirt kind. That name is Max McLaughlin, a multi-time Dirt Modified race winner.

This year's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season had it all. From new rivalries to first-time winners and a spectacular championship battle, there wasn't much to not like this season. Now that 2022 is a few weeks from being complete, it's time to take a look back at some of the best moments from this past season before we turn the page to 2023.

(Stafford Springs, CT)--- Stafford Speedway officials have put the finishing touches on their 2023 racing schedule. 23 events dot the calendar from late April to late September with a focus on weekly racing highlighted by special events throughout the season. The 2023 season marks the 53rd consecutive season the Stafford Springs, CT half-mile has been operated by the Arute family and will kick off with the biggest Modified event in the country, the 51st running of the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler®, April 29th & 30th.

Barre, VT & Naples, ME ­— Pro All Stars Series and American-Canadian Tour officials are excited to announce a change in the 60th annual Sunoco World Series presented by Budweiser at Thompson Speedway. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will now headline Sunday of World Series weekend with their Sunoco World Series 150 presented by Phoenix Communications Inc. and the Thompson Outlaw Open Modifieds will now compete in the new $10,000-to-Win Open Modified Sunoco 100 joining the Saturday, October 8th program alongside the PASS Super Late Models and American-Canadian Tour.

The last time the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour visited Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park, in 2020, Craig Lutz brought home his third career win in the series.

As the 2022 racing season starts to wind down, the points battles across the three premier touring series under the NASCAR Roots banner are starting to come to a boil.

Thompson, CT ­— With doom and gloom forecasted for Wednesday, August 17th in Northeast Connecticut, American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Officials have postponed the return of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour to Thursday, August 18th. The schedule in its entirety will remain the same simply pushed back from Wednesday to Thursday.

For the first time since 2020, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Wednesday, Aug. 17, for the running of the Phoenix Communications 150.

Up until this week, Evan Shotko had been mostly unknown amongst the broader Super Late Model scene. But he’s an unknown no more as Shotko just rattled off two massive wins in a matter of days.

(Stafford Springs, CT)---Stafford Speedway hosted the biggest and richest SK Modified® race of the 2022 season on Friday, August 5 with the 9th Annual NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k.  A draw just prior to the start of the race determined the feature distance would be either 60, 70, or 80 laps and the 80 lap number was drawn by NAPA rep Bruce Pinto.  Marcello Rufrano scored his first career SK Modified® victory in the biggest race of the season.  Rufrano’s win gave him a payday of $5,725 in purse and contingency money from total posted awards of over $35,000.  Other feature wins on the night were scored by Tom Fearn in the Late Model feature, Tyler Alkas in the SK Light feature, Jeremy Lavoie in the Limited Late Model feature, and Travis Downey in the Street Stock feature.

(Stafford Springs, CT)---For Stafford Speedway SK Modified® driver Michael Christopher, Jr., the 2022 season has been a struggle.  The 2021 season saw Christopher win a total of 4 races, including the non-points All-Star Shoot-Out as well as the NAPA SK 5k, and he finished second in the points.  One year later sees Christopher with only one podium finish and two top-5 finishes through the first 12 races.  Christopher and the #82 New England Turf / Eastport Feeds team have been hard at work looking to get back to their winning ways and he has the August 5 NAPA SK 5k circled on his calendar as the race that could see them return to feature winning glory.

With FloRacing becoming the new home for pavement racing across North America, we knew we needed to have a way to rank the best of the best across all of the disciplines. With so much racing across Late Models, Stock Cars and Modifieds, nailing down the 10 best drivers might be a challenge, but we figure we are up to the task.

(Stafford Springs, CT)—The 2008 Daytona 500 winner, Ryan Newman, has filed his entry to compete in the July 1st GAF Roofing Open Modified 80 at Stafford. Newman has entered the #53 Mike Curb owned Troyer Modified with support from Casella Waste Systems.

(Stafford Springs, CT) --- Open Modified cars returned to Stafford Motor Speedway for their third of five visits of the 2022 season on Friday, June 10th for the Bud Light Open 80.  Woody Pitkat led the final 13 laps to come home the winner after Ronnie Williams and Ronnie Silk made contact while racing for the lead and had to restart from the rear of the field.