RPW Exclusive: Teddy Hodgon and family making gains with NASCAR Whelen Tour Modifieds and new partnership with JMA Motorsports in 2026

RPW EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY: Stephen Durham / RPW – SEEKONK, MA – Throughout the last few years, Teddy Hodgdon at 25 years-old has been gaining momentum in tour-type modified action across New England. Hodgdon now over the last two years has taken on the NASCAR Whelen Tour with the family owned 05, and now as well teaming up with JMA Motorsports competing with the Monaco Modifieds Tri-Track Series.

Hodgdon has picked up wins already over the last several years, from SK Lights to the tour type modifieds, winning at Seekonk in 2024 with the Monaco Modifieds, along with multiple wins at his hometrack, Stafford Motor Speedway.

The 2026 season has started off steady for Teddy Hoddgon with both series, and most recently bringing home a top 10 finish in the ‘Spring Sizzler’ at Stafford Motor Speedway with the JMA Motorsports 07.

Hodgdon knows the season is early, but feels it has been a steady start.

“I feel like it’s been a fairly good start, we’ve had little ups and downs, but we’ve shown flashes of speed,” a confident Hodgdon says, “especially on the tour with the new tire with the American Racers. It’s been challenging to get on top of those for sure. I know a lot of guys are struggling with the new tires.”

For the young driver out of Danbury, Connecticut, getting to follow the NASCAR Whelen tour is special with the family owned car, especially having his father Ted Hodgdon there, not just as the team owner, but there helping wrench on it.

“Ever since I was born, he’s been basically living his dream through me and we have a very good father-son relationship to be able to do this type of racing throughout pretty much my whole life,” a very appreciative Teddy Hodgdon says “I’ve been very grateful and blessed at the opportunity that I’ve been given running with the family team for as long as I have, and I’m committed to do it as long as he wants to do it. It’s pretty much all we talk about at home and at the garage and whatever it is, it’s the 05. So it’s, you know, it’s awesome to have that bond between us.” 

With the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series, Hodgdon has recently teamed up with Justin Albernasz and the family owned JMA Motorsports 07 team out of Rehoboth, Massachusetts to tackle the full 2026 season. 

The combination has already shown flashes of speed and strength with a strong run at the Icebreaker 2026 at Thompson earlier in April and then a strong run as mentioned in the ‘Spring Sizzler’ at Stafford.

“Jumping on board with Justin, Mike and all the guys at JMA Motorsports and the 07 has been huge. They’ve been awesome to work with and we’ve definitely had some strong runs already, just not the finishes that we wanted, of course,” a pleased Teddy Hodgdon explains, “it’s just been a lot of learning. A lot of chemistry is being built and just trying to build our notebook and have stronger races over the stretch of the summer here.” 

For car owner of the family owned JMA Motorsports, Justin Albernaz has already enjoyed working with the Hodgdon family and having Teddy behind the 07 early on in 2026.

“Working with Teddy has been great so far this season. All the guys from both sides are gelling well. We are still obviously working out all the little things that can help us perform on race day but after two races together you really can’t ask for much more,” an appreciative Albernaz says, “Thompson wasn’t the best, we struggled with tires all day as well as other teams. But at Stafford we showed strong pace all day it just didn’t pan out in the end after the pit stop and that long red flag. All in all I’m happy where we are now and the season is only getting started.”

Hodgdon has gotten the opportunity to be in the JMA Motorsports 07 two times so far this year, and knows the relationship is already strengthening.

“It’s been super awesome. first off, the whole family, Justin Mike, his mom, Christy, and Landon, I mean all the guys there are awesome people and they welcomed me and my crew  with open arms,” a very grateful Hodgdon explains “but Justin, he is super smart. You know, he knows a lot about these race cars and he’s got a lot of people that help him and that know a lot about these race cars. So, it’s nice to bounce ideas back and forth and to be able to talk to someone or with somebody really knowledgeable. Being able to diagnose issues that we’re working with. You know, it’s been refreshing, to be honest.”

Coming off a strong top 10 finish in the ‘Spring Sizzler’ at Stafford, Hodgdon looks forward to the rest of the season, especially returning to tracks like his hometrack with both the NASCAR Whelen Tour and Monaco Modifieds.

“We over-adjusted on the pitstop a little bit and went the wrong way. We were going good there for a while and just about to take the lead and then everything then everything seemed to kind of fall apart from there,” Hodgdon explains “we have a good baseline to be honest. I’m excited to definitely go back there and for the tour races for sure. I want to show those guys what I’ve got because I’ve been so close to winning in an open mod at Stafford or a tour race I want to do it really bad.”

In 2025 Hodgdon made his debut with the NASCAR Whelen Modifieds with the family-owned 05, their same car they competed with on the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series with. Teaming up with JMA Motorsports now has helped lighten the load on the family owned modified while still getting to race and chase both series.

“It’s been a huge relief.  If we wanted to run our built motor on some tracks, you’d have to do it and then swap over for the tour(NASCAR) stuff tour because of the tour motor rules. We had to purchase a spec motor last year and we were able to do some tour stuff, but if we wanted to run the built motor, we had to swap it,” Hodgdon explains.

With just one car and two motors, that meant more time in the shop, but not focusing on setups.

“A lot of time was spent switching engines and stuff. So to be able to just focus on the Monaco Tri-Track stuff with the built motor and then the tour stuff with the spec motor is a lot of weight off our shoulders on the mechanic’s side of things,” Hodgdon says, “and they’ve done an awesome job with that, Justin and Mike and everyone. They’ve done a great job of maintaining and having a good reliable race car come race day.” 

With a busy schedule between the NASCAR Whelen Tour and Monaco Modifieds, Hodgdon enjoys how the series compliment each other.

“They do have tracks that do overlap with both series, so it’s nice to flip-flop back and forth and say, oh, I like this here, so maybe we’ll try it with this car and vice versa or whatever,” Hodgdon says, “But, the diversity of tracks that I go to now running both series is awesome…You can run somewhere like Loudon, that’s a mile or Star Speedway, that is a little bull ring…Then we’re going to Riverhead in a couple weeks, which I’ve watched, but I’ve never raced at. So that’ll be interesting to do. And then coming to favorites like Stafford and Thompson. There’s a really good balance of tracks that we go to between both series.”

This weekend, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to the home-track for JMA Motorsports, Seekonk Speedway. Hodgdon has won previously at Seekonk with the Monaco Modifieds, but its been a track that has taken time to grow for the young driver.

“When I 1st went to Seekonk I didn’t really like it, to be honest with you. A lot of the bull rings I really didn’t really like. I’m used to Stafford and Thompson with high speeds and lots of corner speed,” Hodgdon explains, “now coming to the bull rings, but now I’m starting to learn about the importance of a really, really good handling race car. Like Seekonk, I feel like it is one of the racier tracks, you know, if your car’s good on the top. You can make some passes and vice versa, if your car’s good on the bottom, you can make some runs too.” 

Hodgdon is very grateful for all his team around him and the sponsors that continue to support him.

“Just special big thanks once again to Justin, Mike, and everybody at JMA Motorsports for giving me the opportunity to run their car. Thanks to Business Time Motorsports, Montanari Fuel, Gator Sport Fishing, Landau Team of Re/Max, Pettit Race Engines, Robert Yates Racing Engines, Creative Racing, Mike Carrigg, and all the guys back at the shop. Dennis Bloom for his housing us this year with our family car,” a very thankful Hodgdon says.

Make sure to follow Teddy Hodgdon Racing on Facebook and visit https://www.teddyhodgdon.com/ to follow the results and where the team heads next throughout the 2026 season.