 | |
| Category | Stock Cars |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | United States |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Mooresville, North Carolina |
| Chairman | Jack McNelly |
| CEO | Kip Childress |
| Other key staff | Karsyn Elledge Danny Willard Brandon Willard Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jeff Burton Kevin Harvick Justin Marks |
| Official website | |
| www | |
TheCARS Racing Tour sanctions a pair oflate modelstock car racing series in the United States: thezMAX CARS Tour (formerly known as theUSAR Pro Cup Series andCARS Pro Cup Series) and theSPEARS CARS Tour West. They are sanctioned by the Championship Auto Racing Series and sponsored byzMAX and SPEARS Manufacturing. The series competes on pavedshort tracks inArizona,California,Colorado,Georgia,Nevada,North Carolina,South Carolina, andVirginia.
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| Category | Stock cars |
|---|---|
| Classes | Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock Car |
| Constructors | Five Star Racecar Bodies |
| Manufacturers | Chevrolet · Ford · Toyota |
| Engine suppliers | Ford · General Motors |
| Tyre suppliers | Hoosier |
| Current champions | Brenden Queen (LMSC) · Kaden Honeycutt (PLM) |
| Makes' champion | Toyota (LMSC) · Chevrolet (PLM) |
| Teams' champion | Lee Pulliam Performance (LMSC) · Mavrick Page Motorsports (PLM) |
 Current season | |
The sanctioning body was formed byHooters ownerRobert Brooks. Brooks created the organization to honor the memories of four people who died in an April 1, 1993 airplane crash: Brooks' son Mark Brooks, reigningNASCAR championAlan Kulwicki, Dan Duncan, and pilot Charlie Campbell.[1] The sanctioning body started as the Hooters Cup late model series in 1995. Brooks decided to stop sanctioning the late model series in favor of the Pro Cup series while at the September 1997 race at theMilwaukee Mile. Brooks wanted to move to steel-bodied racecars much like those raced in the NASCAR Busch Series (now NASCAR Xfinity Series) and ARCA Racing Series at the time. There were eleven races in 1997.[1] The series was expanded to twenty races in 1998.
In 2001, the series devised a "northern division" and a "southern division" that race separately. After the regular season, the top drivers from each division participate in a five-race playoff series called the Four Champions Challenge. Winners of the respective division are awarded a 25-point bonus for the playoff and a cash bonus as regular season champions. The driver who gets the most points in the Four Champions races, and the seeding points, (four races in 2001, five races from 2002 until 2005, six in 2006, 5 races in 2007) is declared the USAR champion.
At the end of the season, each of the top 30 teams that competes in at least half of the series' regular season races in their division is given entry points based on the number of points one competitor can earn for finishing in that respective position in a race. Beginning in 2006, the top 15 in each division automatically qualified. Each driver collects points for each race they participate in during the Championship Series, adding to their entry points collected from their regular season finish. A ten-point bonus is awarded for every driver who attempts to qualify at every race, although driver must race three of the six races to qualify for postseason bonus prizes. Cash bonuses are available for winning four, five, or all six postseason races. In 2003, Shane Huffman won a bonus for winning three of the five races. The success of this series led to NASCAR devising its own playoff system in 2004. The sanctioning body's owner, Robert Brooks, who also owned the Hooters restaurant chain, died in July 2006,[2] leading to the eventual sale of the series and the restaurant chain's disassociation. USAR officials combined the Northern and Southern divisions in 2009. Hooters dropped its sponsorship of the series the same season, and the series later re-branded itself as theUSARacing Pro Cup Series.
On August 25, 2011, Series Director and Owner Jack McNelly announced that the series would be operating under the name "Championship Auto Racing Series" (CARS Pro Cup). The series picked up title sponsorship from Revolution Oil, renaming the series the Rev-Oil Pro Cup Series through the 2013 season.
After entries began dropping through the final years of the season, during the 2014 playoff (only ten cars were entered at some races during the season with a low of four cars at Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville, NC), CARS began to transition the series into a Late Model Stock Car series. Late Model Stocks (which use perimeter chassis, not to be confused with offset chassis Super Late Models) were permitted in selected races. By the end of the 2014 season, with the demise of the UARA-STARS Tour after a year's suspension, CARS effectively transitioned the Pro Cup into the CARS Tour which effectively absorbed the former UARA tour by adding a division for Late Model Stocks (the perimeter style cars run at places like Martinsville and most tracks in the southeast) and Super Late Models (the types of cars run in the Snowball Derby, Winchester 400, Oxford 250, among other races nationally). The new two-division format started in the 2015 season, with car counts averaging 55 cars per stop in the ten-race tour combined.
The sanctioning body once again broke the mold in 2015 by becoming the first asphalt tour to carry its own streaming and broadcast service, CARS Tour TV, a division of Pit Row Media and their Pit Row TV brand. For the first time in asphalt late model history, an entire tour's schedule was broadcast online and has been since the tour's re-inception in 2015. Pit Row Media has a long-term agreement with the tour to produce and carry event broadcasts, including syndication agreements to REV TV in Canada, SPEED SPORT on MAVTV in the USA, and other networks and distribution partners.
The new format consisted of a 100-150 lap race in each division. The Super Late Model Tour has a working relationship with the United Super Late Model Rules Alliance, which consists of the ARCA/CRA Super Series, ARCA Midwest Tour,SRL Southwest Tour and the Southern Super Series for a common Super Late Model rules package to establish teams in any of the major tours can run all series with few changes.
After three seasons with the format, CARS split the two divisions on selected weekends beginning in 2018, in order to prevent conflicts with major Super Late Model and Late Model Stock races from a regional and national basis.
In 2021, the Late Model Stock Tour had plans to once again visitRockingham Speedway, formerly known as "The Rock" during its NASCAR days, reviving the dormant track for a second time under new ownership and management.[3]
Starting in 2022, the CARS Tour will discontinue the Super Late Model Division and replace it with a Pro Late Model Division in an attempt to draw more competitors.
In 2025, the CARS Tour will make itsFox Sports 1 broadcast debut during theNASCAR All-Star Race weekend atNorth Wilkesboro Speedway.[4]
On January 9, 2023, the CARS Tour was acquired by a consortium of four companies:DEJ Management,Jeff Burton Autosports, Inc.,Kevin Harvick Incorporated, andTrackhouse Racing. All four are NASCAR-related, with two current national series team owners, a Cup Series champion, and a Cup Series veteran.[5][6] FloSports will have media rights in 2024, and theNorth Wilkesboro Speedway races (one onNASCAR All-Star Race week and one in September) will be two-day events while the others are one-day events. A new title sponsor deal with zMAX was revealed on November 27, 2023. In addition, the winner of the Cook Out 225 as part of thePrelude to the Southern 500 in Florence will determine pole position for the Charlie Powell Memorial 400 (a non-championship race) in November at the circuit.
On October 28, 2025, the CARS Tour announced its 2026 East Tour schedule. The 15-race Late Model and 12-race Pro Late Model Tour will feature two Cup Series-adjacent rounds -- on Friday of theWindow World 400 atNorth Wilkesboro Speedway and the Cook Out 225 atFlorence Motor Speedway (13 miles from Darlington Raceway) on Friday of the Cook Out Southern 500 meeting. The series will make new stops atNashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville and Newport Speedway, both in Tennessee, and return toSouthern National Motorsports Park.[7]
On January 5, 2024, the CARS Tour announced that Pro Late Models will be split into an East and West Tours. Co-ownerKevin Harvick made the expansion of the tour part of his goals.[8] CARS West will use the same Pro Late Model rules but will be a separate series for West Coast drivers, with races in California and Nevada. The new West Tour races will be broadcast live on TrackVision TV, which is a partnership with local west coast racing broadcaster Low Budget TV andSpeed Sport.
On November 15, 2024, the CARS Tour announced the 2025 West Tour schedule. The current Pro Late Model division will be rebranded to the Limited Pro Late Model (LPL) running Hoosier 980 slicks. The new Pro Late Model divisions rules and regulations will be exactly like the East Tour's Pro Late Model division. The West Tour will also introduce a Super Late Model andLegends division.[9]
In 2026, the CARS Tour West will split the Pro Late Model series into Southwest and Northwest divisions, which will include crossover races.[10]
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| Category | Stock cars,Legends cars |
|---|---|
| Inaugural season | 2024 |
| Classes | Limited Pro Late Model, Pro Late Model, Super Late Model, and Legends |
| Manufacturers | Chevrolet · Ford · Toyota |
| Engine suppliers | Ford · General Motors |
| Tyre suppliers | Hoosier |
| Current champions | Jeffrey Peterson (LPLM) |
| Makes' champion | Chevrolet (LPLM) |
| Official website | www |
| Current season | |
| Year | Late Model Stock | Super Late Model |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Brayton Haws | Cole Timm |
| 2016 | Deac McCaskill | Raphaël Lessard |
| 2017 | Josh Berry | Cole Rouse |
| 2018 | Bobby McCarty | Jared Fryar |
| 2019 | Bobby McCarty (2) | Matt Craig |
| 2020 | Jared Fryar | Matt Craig (2) |
| 2021 | Bobby McCarty (3) | Carson Kvapil |
| Year | Late Model Stock | Pro Late Model |
| 2022 | Carson Kvapil | Luke Fenhaus |
| 2023 | Carson Kvapil (2) | Caden Kvapil |
| 2024 | Brenden Queen | Kaden Honeycutt |
| 2025 | Landen Lewis | Ben Maier |
The following drivers won the Four Champions playoff series after the series was split into two divisions:
| Year | Super Late Model | Pro Late Model | Limited Pro Late Model[12] | Legends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | n/a | n/a | Jeffrey Peterson | n/a |
| Year | Late Model Stock | Super Late Model |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Myatt Snider | Zane Smith |
| 2016 | Christian Eckes | Raphaël Lessard |
| 2017 | Brandon Grosso | Nolan Pope |
| 2018 | Sam Mayer | Corey Heim |
| 2019 | Mini Tyrrell | Carson Kvapil |
| 2020 | Connor Mosack | Sammy Smith |
| 2021 | Kaden Honeycutt | Garrett Hall |
| Year | Late Model Stock | Pro Late Model |
| 2022 | Chase Burrow | Luke Fenhaus |
| 2023 | Cameron Bolin | Katie Hettinger |
| 2024 | Brent Crews | Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. |
| 2025 | Carson Loftin | Ben Maier |