Burt Myers, Brian Loftin To Run Partial Whelen Mod Tour Schedule In ’18

Story By: KYLE SOUZA / NASCAR – DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Two former NASCAR modified champion drivers will be back in Whelen Modified Tour competition in 2018.

In an announcement made by champion car owner Eddie Harvey on Friday morning, Burt Myers and Brian Loftin will team with Harvey to compete in a partial schedule next season, planning to run 8-10 races. Both drivers are former champions of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour and Harvey was a multiple-time championship car owner on the Southern Tour as well.

“It’s pretty neat having two Southern Modified Tour champions come on board to our team,” Harvey said. “Being that we had two in the past with George Brunnhoelzl III and Andy Seuss, it’s neat to keep champions in the stable.”

Myers was the final champion of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour in 2016, posting three victories and nine top five finishes in 11 races. He also won the series title in 2010 while winning two races. He had 19 career victories on the Southern Tour and 30 pole awards in 12 years of competition. Myers competed with Harvey in the season-finale at Thompson this year, qualifying seventh and finishing 13th — that is where the deal first started.

“All the stars lined up, it’s just about a perfect pairing,” Harvey said of his deal with Myers. “We just started kicking ideas around on lap two at Thompson. When we were loading up to leave Thompson, it was just about what we needed to do to make this permanent. Burt has a committment to his sponsors to run at Bowman Gray weekly every year but we are going to run the Tour races before Bowman Gray opens and we are going to run the races after Bowman Gray concludes. It all depends on how the schedule looks, we will be running some races next year. We plan to run around 10 races.”

Loftin is a former champion of the Southern Tour, winning the crown in 2008 after scoring four victories that season. In 86 career Southern Tour starts, Loftin scored 12 wins, 40 top fives and 53 top 10s in 10 years of competition. He was also able to post 11 Coors Light Pole awards behind the wheel. His most recent NASCAR modified victory came in 2012 at Caraway Speedway in a race where he defeated L.W. Miller.

“Brian is a good friend of ours, he is a cousin of one of the key people on my race team,” Harvey said. “Everyone knows Brian went through an unfortunate time with the loss of his wife several years back and he had to step away for a while. But this an opportunity for him to get back in a race car. All the stars lined up for this.”