Bobby Allison (Left) with NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Bobby Santos (Right) at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway. (Photo: Kim Tyler/NASCAR)

The end goal for Bobby Santos had never been about winning a championship. The third-generation driver from Franklin, Mass., has never thought enough of it to even run a full season. But when the opportunity presented itself – at the last minute – to drive for long-time Modified car owner Bob Garbarino, Santos didn’t hesitate. Santos drove the “Mystic Missile” to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship, becoming the youngest champion in tour history and the first driver to win the title in their first full season.

“It’s really exciting to be a champion,” Santos said. “I’ve always looked at it as winning races and that’s all I ever cared about. I didn’t think it was much more of a deal to win a championship. Now that I’ve won one, I understand it a little more. It’s a full year of accomplishment. The (euphoria of winning) lasts longer.”

Santos said it really set in when two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion David Green called him to offer his congratulations.

“He said, ‘You’re in an elite group now being a NASCAR champion,’” Santos said. “That meant a lot.”

As did Santos’ photo with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison, who raced at some of the very same tracks Santos ran on nearly 50 years later and competed against Garbarino’s drivers in the Modified’s early years.

Before his success in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ranks, Allison won two NASCAR Modified Special Division titles in 1962 and ’63, and after the division was absorbed into the NASCAR Modified Division, he won the national championships there in 1964 and ’65.

"Winning the Modified championships were really important and special to me,” said Allison. “We used 1934 Fords and Chevrolets when they had to come from the factory and have steel roofs. We ran a lot of mixed shows and did pretty good against those other cars. I'll tell you how good we were: In 1962, we ran 84 races and I won 41 of them.

“I'm still very proud of what we accomplished in the NASCAR Modified ranks to win those championships."