How hard can it be to win in a modified and a stock car on the same night? Harder than one might think.
Dylan Thornton has won the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals in both modifieds (2024) and stock cars (2023). He has only scored victories in both classes on the same night three times.
Kelly Shryock earned the IMCA Super Nationals stock car win last year. Of course, he’s best known for his nine USMTS national modified championships. Yet, Shryock has won with both a modified and a stock car on the same night only nine times.
Cayden Carter has championships with both types of cars. He won with a modified and a stock car on the same night in May and also in March.
Sliding into one car from another requires a significant adjustment.
“You have to know what you can and can’t do in each car,” Carter, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, said. “It may take a lap to get acclimated.”
The two different classes require two different approaches. Per IMCA rules, the modified weighs 2450 pounds at a minimum and uses a four-bar suspension. The street stock pushes the scales at 2950 pounds at a minimum and rides on a three-link suspension.
“You make a stock car as tight as you can,” said Shryock, of Fertile, Iowa. “You have to drive as smooth as you can and keep the car as tight as you can. In a modified, it’s about momentum — run with the tail out. If you slide the wheels on a stock car, it becomes a pig on ice — a big ole’ heavy boat sliding through the turns.”
You might think by racing both cars in one night, you can use what you learned with one and apply it to the other. Not necessarily, cautioned Shryock.
“Often, you have to set up your modified before the stock car feature,” Shryock said. “A driver can learn track conditions from the stock car feature but can’t make changes to the modified because there is no time. “
Thornton also races late models. He said the advantages to running multiple classes ends there.
“There is nothing — not a single thing — that crosses over between stock cars or modifieds to late models,” Thornton said. “You are talking 4 seconds a lap difference, so nothing applies.”
Regardless, some of dirt-track racing’s best have won in both modifieds and stock cars, even if it’s tough to do in the same night. Thornton feels there’s good reason for that.
“Winning in a stock car makes you a better modified driver,” Thornton said. “It teaches you discipline. When a track slows down, you can take the discipline learned in stock car driving and apply it to driving a modified and not overdrive.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
