Winston-Salem, N.C. (February 25, 2007) - NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour director Mark Suddreth and Whelen Modified Tour Director Ed Cox hosted a "pre-inspection" day Saturday in Winston Salem for all Whelen Southern Modified Tour cars to be inspected for the 2007 season, have fuel cells checked, carburetors sealed and safety equipment verified. But unlike the previous season's traffic jam in the pit area of Bowman Gray Stadium with several new cars and a full day of inspections, today was like a ghost town without the tumbleweeds drifting by.

Not a single modified was seen or heard on Saturday and Suddreth and crew loaded up their tools confident that Friday, March 23rd at Caraway Speedway was going to be a very busy day. "With the AutoZone Elite Series shutting down, the inspection equipment has been collected and distributed to the Busch East Series and Modified Tours to better facilitate tech inspection and move the inspection lines more quickly along" Suddreth said. "I'm sure we'll be wide open on Friday at Caraway getting everyone through tech rather smoothly."

There were a few crew chiefs and drivers who came by to pick up a 2007 license application, driver medical forms and ask questions but for the most part, the officials took advantage of the slow day to gather, meet and prepare for the upcoming season. One modified team that did show up ready (sans car) was Phillip Smith Motorsports driver Burt Myers, car owner Phillip Smith and new crew chief for 2007, Scott Widener. I took the opportunity to talk to Burt and Scott and get an idea what 2007 holds in store for them.

CB: Give me your opinion on the 2007 Schedule?
BM: "I hadn't seen it. I know about the six races at Caraway but, I wish we could get some races other than six at Caraway but if it fills our schedule up what can you say? And with the situation that we face against in the summer time, we don't have a lot of choices that we'd like. So schedule or not, I mean where ever it's at, I guess we'll be there regardless but whether it's six at Caraway or spread 'em out everywhere else."

CB: How do you feel about Nashville? Are you looking forward to that?
BM: "I'm looking forward to it because I like going to new tracks. I like going to somewhere that you know, we haven't run that the modifieds haven't been to in this era, I guess you could say. I don't know, I guess they ran there years ago but daddy (Gary Myers) ran there when he was driving Grand National years ago and he says it should be real good for the modifieds. I'm looking forward to it. Like I said, I love fast new tracks. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it."

CB: Are you going to miss Motor Mile or any of the other tracks we're not going to this year?
BM: "Yeah, it's a shame that we're not going. I mean Motor Mile is one of our best races and it's one of the nicest facilities that we go to. At Hickory we ran 150 laps side by side without a caution. I mean, the fans in the stands had to see one of the best races that we've ever run. So, I guess there's factors that we don't have control over that determine those situations. But I mean, what can you say? Like I said, all we can do is whatever the schedule says we go by. The politic end of it I don't guess we get a say so but, so what can ya do?"

CB: After your first year with the NASCAR Tour you finished second, and last year you finished fourth. What are you going to do different this year to win the Championship?
BM: "I’m gonna plan on winning it this year. Well we, last year we were still....Well, let me put it to you this way. This year I think we're little more grounded. We've kind of got things more organized. We picked up Scott Widener and I think that's going to be a big asset to us. He used to be Michael Clifton's crew chief for 12 - 15 years now, I think. So, something happened there but anyway, and we ended up teaming up and I think he'll be good for me and I'll be good for him. We're planning on winning every race we go to. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do, right?"

CB: Personally, putting the Stadium aside, tell me what was your best race of 2006?
BM: *laughs* "Well, you're talking tour only, right? I had it rough at the stadium. Well, you're talking modifieds, too. I don't know. On the tour I didn't really have a real good year, this year. I mean, we went without a win. Our season, the way we kind of look at things is, we don't really look at it as per se tour versus the stadium versus something else. I mean, we just kind of, at the beginning of the year we may look at the first three or four races and then, that's as far as we go. And if the tour is off one weekend and the stadium is off one weekend, we'll grab a late model and go run. So, we've got so much going on that it's, in other words if you just took the tour, I didn't have a really good year but if you take everything else, I won eight races all together counting the late model, the stadium and the ASA (modified) tour. So I mean, it just depends on how you want to look at it. But uh, I don't know, *laughs* that's a hard one. I don't know what my best race would have been last year."

CB: Okay well what about, let me turn that around and ask you what your worst race of 2006 was?
BM: "My worst race. (stops and pauses) We had several of them, too. My worst race? (pauses again) The 199 was pretty bad. Yeah, when I got wrecked on the first lap, that was pretty disheartening. Especially after sitting on the pole and winning it the year before and us coming back and sitting on the pole this time. But on the other hand, all that kind of got lost when Jason won. So I mean, it's hard to....I don't really have a best or a worst. I mean, we kind of look at the whole season as a whole. Like I said, I won eight races all together counting everything but if you look at just the tour, I didn't win a race. It's kind of hard to pin point one or two down that were good or bad."

CB: You've been around Southern Modified racing for quite a while now, pretty much your whole life. Since NASCAR has taken over the Southern Tour, is Southern Modified racing heading in the right direction?
BM: "You're trying to get me in trouble (laughs). Well, there's definitely positive things that I've seen from NASCAR and with NASCAR, you carry more clout. Well, we've got NASCAR's name behind us and we just lost two NASCAR tracks that we ran last year so I don’t have an answer. I don't."

CB: What kind of suggestions would you make, to make it better?
BM: *Exhales deeply* "We're going to have to fill our schedule up. We're going to have to. Any tour that sits dormant for a couple months during the main, prime racing months of the season is not going to be very successful."

CB: So, would you go race the tour instead of Saturday night?
BM: "Absolutely. Absolutely. If we had a full schedule on the tour every Saturday night, there wouldn't be a Bowman Gray Stadium. But with Bowman Gray Stadium, you're not going to have what I just said."

CB: Do you have any new cars? Any new equipment?
BM: "No. My new Ford motor is going to be done Tuesday. He's got it back and went through it and last time I think we were in such a rush to get it back that I told him, it was the first modified motor he'd ever built and I told him that we didn't want a whole lot on the bottom end because a lot of the tracks that we run are so wore out and we took our carburetor and our headers and my dyno sheets from my Chevrolet so we're looking real forward to getting that back. But other than that, I've got my same two cars. I've got my old stadium car that I've run that I ran a whole lot on the tour this year and my 03 Troyer. But other than that, same old stuff."

CB: What is your stadium car?
BM: "It's an '86 Troyer. We've clipped both ends but the original cage is an '86."

CB: You'll have that.
BM: *Laughs* "Oh yeah. They're going to bury me in that!" *laughs*

CB: Talk about combination races with the Northern Tour. Would you like to see more of them?
BM: "Well, it's a double edged sword because on the driver's end of it, on my end, I like racing with them. I welcome the challenge. I welcome it, I mean I enjoy it. It's like you hear the basketball players and the star player wants the ball you know? It's kind of that same situation. I love racing with them. But, if it's a situation like Martinsville then no, I don't want to go into that situation because they get twice the money we do and we have to go because they are paying southern points. They get more tires, they get more bonus money, they get more purse and at the end of the year they get more point fund. Well two years ago, I was leading the points going into that race and got into a wreck with a guy I never even, didn't even know who he was. Never even raced with him before in my life and I got into a wreck with him and lost the point lead and ultimately lost the championship. So I think that races like that, unless they're going to be equal, unless they're going to pay the same amount of money, same everything to the north and the south, I think that it ought to just be that Martinsville ought to just be a northern race and we're invited to come, if we want to come or be an open competition race."

CB: Do you have any plans to skip a Saturday night at Bowman Gray on August 25th to race with the Northern Tour at Mansfield, Ohio?
BM: "It's possible; it just kind of all depends on what's going on at the time. But we've definitely thrown around the idea of running some northern races. That's not really a yes/no question right now, but it kind of depends on what the circumstances are."

CB: But you're interested in it?
BM: "Oh Absolutely, Absolutely. Financially, it's one of the main reasons we don't go up north. Because it's just doesn't make sense you know? And the Nashville deal, unless they give us some tow money, it's not going to make much sense either. But I mean, you know, the true racers race for the trophy but you got to pay your tire bill, too. *laughs* It just kind of, as far as racing with the northern, you asked me about racing with the northern cars, I like it. Phillip spending the money probably doesn't like it."

CB: Is there anything you'd like to tell your fans going into 2007 that they can look forward to?
BM: "Just that this year, we're planning on just, we don't really care what anybody else is doing. We kind of focused ourselves on not beating ourselves and we're not worried about what anybody else is doing. We're going to go out and if we're the fastest car and we win the race, then we're happy. That's what we're going to strive to do, is just be the fastest car and try and win. Same as last year. Like I said, I think we're more focused. I think we're a little bit more organized so that ought to help a little bit, Just going to keep digging."

CB: Can you give any clues as to what's going on over on Jason's side? Is he ready for this year?
BM: "Yeah, he got a brand new Troyer car this winter and he's also got a Ford motor that’s going to be done in a couple weeks. But basically he and I will probably do about the same thing as normal it just kind of depends on circumstances as the year gets going. In the last three or four years we've run roughly 40 races a year, me and Jason both."

CB: Typical Myers.
BM: "Typical Myers."

It's interesting to note that I got to see a side of Burt today that most people who boo and curse him on Saturday nights don't get to see. He had his 7 year old daughter Jade with him and it showed a side of him that most fans really don't get to see. The personable 31 year old with the sparkling smile and shiny Simpson firesuit was much more subdued today in his ripped jeans and much softer spoken tones. With new crew chief Scott Widener in his corner, Myers could be taking home a lot of red hats this year and possibly hampering Michael Clifton who's known as a threat when the timing lights are set up in the afternoons for qualifying.

It also remains to be seen whether Michael Clifton makes a return to the tour this year or not, but Widener assured me there were no hard feelings between himself and Clifton. "Michael just didn't want to race as much as I wanted to and we'd always had the agreement that I was free to look elsewhere if he wasn't going to race. So, that's what I did. I just never expected to end up here," he explained.

Burt's first two starts with Widener calling the shots led him to two consecutive front row starting spots at both the North South Shootout and the Mason Dixon Meltdown, last November. Myers handily led the first half of the Meltdown until tire pressures foiled his second half.

Time will tell if the combination will lead to wins, as well.