Competition Drives Ebersole to Succeed in Modifieds

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Second-generation NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Kyle Ebersole was born with racing in his blood.

The Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, native grew up watching his father, Bob, and uncle, Jeff, compete at local dirt tracks throughout the Northeast. When the family had an off weekend, they’d travel the country to watch NASCAR races.

Ebersole realized that he wanted to be more than a fan, so he began racing go-karts as a nine-year-old. He thrived in the lower series as well as the World Karting Association, so Ebersole kicked off what has become a burgeoning asphalt modified racing career in 2007 when he began competing at Pennsylvania’s Evergreen Speedway in a car purchased from five-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Tony Hirschman. The rough, one-third-mile track taught Ebersole how to drive the car aggressively and how to win a championship.

His race team was comprised of just father and a few friends, but Ebersole decided after high school to continue chasing his dream. In college, Ebersole commuted 45 minutes each way to attend classes at York College of Pennsylvania. Ebersole kept working at his craft on the track as well.

“I ended up getting my mechanical engineering degree from York and during that time, we ran really well in the Race of Champions Tour, so that was a very busy year,” Ebersole said. “We would travel north to New York and south to North Carolina and all at the same time I was trying to get a college degree. It was definitely a lot of work, which paid off in the long run.”

He reached the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour in 2012 and he recorded seven top-10 finishes to end the year sixth in the championship standings. The following season, Ebersole finished second in points, losing the championship by just 31 points to George Brunnhoelzl III.

In 2014, Ebersole earned his second career NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour win at South Boston Speedway in Virginia.

He finished fifth in points last year and continued his string of success this year when he prevailed in a North-South combination race on Aug. 17 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Winning, Ebersole said, isn’t easy when the depth of modified competition increases. It won’t be easy in the Bad Boy Off Road Southern Slam 150 on Oct. 6 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, either.

Still, Ebersole is up to the challenge.

“It’s crazy to see how the competition level in the tour has drastically increased over the past three years,” he said. “Back four or five years ago, there were probably four or five cars maximum that could win a race and now we’re looking at 10 cars that could win a race.”

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