The NASCAR Modified Division was formed as part of NASCAR's creation in December 1947. The organization's first sanctioned event was a modified race held on February 15, 1948, on the beach course at Daytona Beach, won by Red Byron. Byron won 11 more races that year and claimed the first NASCAR Modified Championship.
Post-World War II modifieds were built from pre-war coupes and coaches, using stronger truck parts to handle racing stresses. By the 1960s, teams incorporated aftermarket performance parts and later-model chassis, such as the 1955–57 Chevrolet frame. By 1970, these cars featured big-block engines, fuel injection, eighteen-inch-wide rear tires, and radically offset engine locations, making them faster on short tracks than the full-bodied Grand National cars of the era.
The predecessor to the modern tour was the National Modified Championship, determined by total points from weekly NASCAR-sanctioned races and a schedule of national championship events. The northeastern and southeastern United States were hotbeds of modified racing in the 1950s and 1960s; some drivers competed five nights per week or more. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, technology for dirt and pavement modifieds diverged, and as NASCAR ceased sanctioning dirt tracks, its rules became the standard for asphalt modifieds.
By the 1980s, the cost of towing to sixty or more races per year — including events at Watkins Glen International, Daytona International Speedway, Bowman Gray Stadium, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and Martinsville Speedway — became prohibitive for most teams. NASCAR reformatted the division into a limited schedule of non-conflicting races, mirroring changes made to the Grand National and Late Model Sportsman divisions starting in 1972 and 1982 respectively.
The modern tour launched in 1985 as the NASCAR Winston Modified Tour with 29 races. Richie Evans won the first championship posthumously, having already clinched the title before being killed during practice for the final race of the season — the Winn-Dixie 500 at Martinsville Speedway — in October 1985. Evans had won 12 of his 28 starts that year, including five consecutive victories at five different tracks in July and August. He drove cars of his own design and construction, maintained in his own shop in Rome, New York, for sponsor B.R. DeWitt. Mike McLaughlin, driving for Len Boehler, finished second in points that year.
The series switched title sponsorship to Featherlite Trailers in 1994, becoming the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series. In 2005, Whelen Engineering took over sponsorship and the series was renamed the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. That same year, NASCAR established the Whelen Southern Modified Tour for the southeastern United States; the two series held a combined race at Martinsville Speedway. The Southern Tour ceased operations after the 2016 season and merged into the NWMT, bringing Bristol and Charlotte onto the 2017 schedule.
In 2018, New Hampshire Motor Speedway replaced Cup and Truck Series dates it had lost with the NWMT's Musket 250 — at 250 laps and 264.5 miles, the longest race on the tour. The 2020 season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many races postponed or cancelled; Justin Bonsignore won the championship on the strength of three victories. In 2021, Bonsignore and Patrick Emerling contested the title to the final race at Stafford Speedway, where Bonsignore clinched his second consecutive title.
NWMT cars are built on tubular chassis by fabricators including Troyer Engineering, Chassis Dynamics, Spafco, Raceworks, and Fury Race Cars / LFR Chassis. They are 11 inches shorter in height and over 23 inches wider than a Cup car. By rule, tour-type modifieds weigh at least 2,610 lb (1,180 kg) and have a wheelbase of 107 inches. They are powered by small-block V-8 engines of 355 to 368 cu in displacement, limited by a small four-barrel carburetor to 625–700 hp. Restrictor plates are required at larger tracks such as New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Approved body styles have included the Chevrolet Cavalier and Monte Carlo, Dodge Avenger and Stealth, Ford Mustang and Escort, Plymouth Laser and Sundance, and Pontiac Sunbird, J2000, and Grand Prix. All cars use tires from American Racer; the series previously ran Hoosier Racing Tire from 1999 to 2025.
Richie Evans' 1985 death at Martinsville, along with the fatalities of Charlie Jarzombek (1987), Corky Cookman (1987), Tommy Druar (1989), Don Pratt (1989), and Tony Jankowiak (1990), led to questions about chassis rigidity. Straight frame rails were phased out in favor of stepped chassis designed to bend in hard impacts rather than transmitting force to the driver. The 2004 death of Tom Baldwin, Sr. led to mandatory HANS devices and left-side headrests. Following the 2007 death of John Blewett III, rear bumpers were shortened for the 2008 season. After a severed wheel caused a fatality at an Indy Racing League event in July 1999, NASCAR required steel cables — later replaced by marine rope — tethering each front spindle to the chassis.
In September 2017, veteran driver Ted Christopher died in a plane crash near North Branford while en route to race at Riverhead Raceway. Stafford Motor Speedway retired his number 13 from its weekly modified racing. In 2021, car owner Eddie Partridge passed away in the hours after his driver, Ryan Preece, won at Richmond Raceway.
In 2003, NASCAR named an all-time top 10 list of modified drivers:
Richie Evans — nine modified titles between 1973 and 1985, a record unmatched in NASCAR until Stefanik's ninth championship in 2006; 52 wins in 84 events in 1979 alone
Mike Stefanik — seven WMT and two Busch North championships
Jerry Cook — six NASCAR National Modified Championships in the 1970s; served as series director in 1985
Ray Hendrick — raced "anything, anywhere" from the 1950s to 1970s
Geoff Bodine — holds a Guinness record for winning 55 modified races in 1978
Tony Hirschman, Jr. — five WMT championships
Bugs Stevens — three consecutive NASCAR National Modified Championships, 1967–69
Fred DeSarro — 1970 NASCAR National Modified champion
Jimmy Spencer — 1986 and 1987 WMT champion
Reggie Ruggiero — 44 victories, the most of any driver without a championship since 1985
Wade Cole (March 9, 1953 – March 15, 2020) competed in 371 NWMT races between 1985 and 2019, ranking eighth all-time in starts. A race on the 2020 tour schedule was renamed in his honor.
Other drivers who advanced from the WMT to win at the NASCAR Cup Series level include Ron Bouchard, Geoff Bodine, Brett Bodine, Steve Park, and Jimmy Spencer. Ryan Newman was the first full-time Cup Series driver to compete regularly in the NWMT, winning at Bristol and twice at New Hampshire in 2010 driving for Kevin Manion.
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