The SMART Modified Tour is back in action this Saturday, March 19 at North Carolina’s Southern National Motorsports Park for the second race of the 2022 season, and an extremely strong group of ground-pounders are expected to be on-hand.

The pre-entry list for the Lucky Charms 99 boasts a stout 27 cars, featuring the usual cast of characters, and some unexpected ones as well.

Headlining the list is the man known as “Big Money” Matt Hirschman. The Northampton, Pennsylvania native is off to fierce start in 2022. Hirschman won four times at New Smyrna Speedway’s World Series of Asphalt in February, including the opener for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Hirschman also scored the victory in the season opener for the SMART Modifieds, taking that win at South Carolina’s Florence Motor Speedway just a couple of weeks ago.

Back to challenge Hirschman once again is young Caleb Heady. Heady turned heads last year when he scored his first Modified victory at Florence, and once again a few weeks ago when he did everything but pass Hirschman in the closing laps at Florence on his way to a second-place finish in the season opener.

Defending series champion Burt Myers and his brother, Jason Myers, will be on-hand as usual. You can always expected the boys from “Dirty South Racing” to make their presence known as the laps wind down.

VIDEO: Enjoy sights and sounds from the SMART Modified Tour season opener At Florence.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the appearance of Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modified regular, Max McLaughlin. The son of “Magic Shoes” Mike McLaughlin has made a handful of Modified starts over the last couple of years on pavement. Saturday at Southern National will be his first start behind the wheel of a Modified on pavement in 2022.

Another driver on the entry list that you can file under the “shocker” heading is Mason Diaz. The Manassas, Virginia driver has turned plenty of laps at Southern National throughout his career, but most of those laps have come with fenders on the car. Diaz is a Late Model regular with some ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series starts to his name, but never a start in a Modified.

Making his first start of the season as well is former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner, Joey Coulter. Coulter had Brandon Ward behind the wheel of his machine at Florence earlier this month.

All in all, Saturday’s 99-lap showdown at Southern National Motorsports Park should be a barn-burner with 27 strong Modifieds ready to take the green flag at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET live on FloRacing. If you're not already a FloRacing subscriber, click here to join today and watch all of the SMART Modified Tour races in 2022. 

SMART Modified Tour Entry List (As of March 15)