CARS Tour is back.

The most prominent pavement Late Model touring series is as stacked as ever in its second year under the ownership of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kevin Harvick, Justin Marks and Jeff Burton, while also remaining genuinely true to the principles established by founder and president Jack McNelly, who still oversees the tour on a weekly basis.

At 16 races, it is the most robust schedule in series history with a full-time roster of competitors to match it.

JR Motorsports, Lee Pulliam Performance, Nelson Motorsports and Chad Bryant Racing remain the standards at the top but there are no shortage of challengers entering the sport to try to topple them. Kevin Harvick Inc. will have a full-time team this year, for example.

The series is so full of rich personalities and big personas. The racing product is as good as it gets in short track racing, hard nosed but also respectful, as any fighting or intentional crashing results in an automatic suspension and is not tolerated.

As a result, racers on this tour get as close to the edge as they can get, but without going over. If this description sounds over the top in its praise, its only because you haven’t watched a race.

CARS Tour is that perpetually good.

If you cant attend in person, every race airs on FloRacing, and here’s a primer of its biggest and expected full-time contenders.

CARSON KVAPIL
No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet

The two-time and defending CARS Late Model Stock Tour champion will work towards two goals this year and both of them are daunting. The 20-year-old son of 2003 NASCAR Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, Carson has been the standard bearer for CARS Tour since replacing Josh Berry at JR Motorsports. He has nine series wins in 30 starts. Kvapil intends to chase a third championship this summer but is already going to miss the spring race at Hickory to make his Xfinity Series debut and pursuing a career at the highest level is his other goal. On one hand, he would sacrifice the championship to get a full-time national touring championship but also, why not both?

BRENDEN QUEEN
No. 03 Lee Pulliam Performance Toyota

Brenden Queen, 26, was poised to be a local Late Model racer who spent most of his time racing at home near Langley Speedway, occasionally starts at Dominion or South Boston, and that was a good life. Then came a chance meeting with local Virginia businessman and dirt racer, John Staton, who really took a liking to Butterbean. That is the funding behind Queen, who took the championship fight to Queen in 2023 and is set to do so again in 2024. Between the mullet, his love of Waffle House, and genuine affability, Queen is one of the best personalities in Stock Car racing.

CONNOR HALL
No. 22 Nelson Motorsports Toyota Camry

The reigning NASCAR Weekly Series national champion has spent the past several years in CARS Tour racing with Chad Bryant Racing but makes the move to Nelson Motorsports, who won three championships with Bobby McCarty. Connor Hall will still make the occasional weekly series start with CBR but will chase the elusive CARS Tour title in the No. 22 this season. His 4 wins in 28 starts is also amongst the best of active contenders.

BOBBY MCCARTY
No. 6 R&S Race Cars Toyota

With Josh Berry now racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, no one is more emblematic of the CARS Tour than three-time champion Bobby McCarty with his 11 wins in 78 stats and a relatable everyman personality. He is Mid-Atlantic Late Model Stock racing personified. He broke a 22-race winless streak last summer at Dominion in a finish of the year and found the funding to keep racing in 2024. Everyone wins when Bobby Mac is up front.

STEPHEN NASSE
No. 51 Stephen Nasse Racing Chevrolet

One of the most notorious stars of Super Late Model racing intends to chase a full CARS Tour Late Model Stock championship this season. He will do so with veteran racer and crew chief Chase Pistone making the mechanical decisions. Nasse is no stranger to the CARS Tour, having raced and won in the now defunct Super Late Model division, but enjoyed so much his time that he is jumping back in with a Late Model Stock. Nasse is most known for his explosive on-track rivalries but has told everyone not to expect that in CARS Tour, mostly because the series runs such a tight ship that his brand of retaliation won’t be necessary in a tour run by Jack McNelly.

TREYTEN LAPCEVICH
No. 77 Chad Bryant Racing

The reigning NASCAR Canada Series has come stateside and will drive for the Chad Bryant Racing team that has been amongst the best in the series over the past three years. In what used to be called the Pinty’s Series, the third-generation Lapcevich won nine races in 39 starts and did so on every track type — short track, dirt and road courses. At 17, he’s one of the top prospects in the discipline and now he’s paired with one of the best teams in this sub-discipline.

RYAN MILLINGTON
No. 15 Saville Millington Motorsports Chevrolet

Millington ran the full season in 2023 and scored five top-5s and nin top-10s in 16 starts, which is pretty impressive considering the resources of a family team versus some of the mega teams of the sport. Millington, the 2017 Hickory Motor Speedway track champion, is back and should continued to carry the torch for the traditional Late Model Stock guard. His one win in series history came at Ace in 2020 in one of the series most notorious events.

RONNIE BASSETT JR.
No. 04 Bassett Racing

Billy Weatherman

It’s taking awhile but Bassett Racing and Ronnie Jr. specifically are working to get back to where they were before their NASCAR Xfinity Series stint, which means getting back to a form where he was a 10 race UARA winner with NASCAR weekly wins at Hickory. There were flashes of brilliance last year, the near win at Coastal Plains chief amongst them, and now Bassett returns with a notebook to work with.

LANDON HUFFMAN
No. 37 Jimmy Mooring Racing Chevrolet

The most popular driver from last season didn’t even plan to run more than a handful of races on the Tour, and probably just the races at Hickory alongside his pursuit of back-to-back championships, but then the Nelson Motorsports No. 22 became available and they won the Old North State Nationals together. They nearly won Martinsville too. Now, Huffman is back but this time paired with Jimmy Mooring Racing, who has previously won a championship together with Jared Fryar.

DEAC MCCASKILL
No. 08 R&S Race Cars Ford

A day one CARS Tour racer, McCaskill has 11 wins in 96 starts. That’s also the most appearances all-time on the Tour. The 2016 champion doesn’t always run the full season but he’s one to beat when he does with championship finishes of second (2015), first (2016), fourth (2017), third (2018), third (2019) and fifth (2021) in his full season. Now aligned with R&S Race Cars, McCaskill should once again win races and contend for the title. The 46-year-old is also one of the classiest humans on the planet.

BRANDON PIERCE
No. 2 Carroll Speedshop Chevrolet

Pierce is arguably the heart of the CARS Tour as no one carries the torch and exemplifies what the series stands for quite like Driver No. 2. After a seven year stint with Lee Pulliam Performance, Pierce moves to Caroll Speedshop this season. He has a series win that came back in 2019 at Southern National and his entire working focus is about getting back to that point. He also co-hosts the Big Time Auto Racing podcast alongside Dylon Wilson that spotlights life on the tour.

JACOB HEAFNER
No. 95 Carroll Speedshop Chevrolet

Heafner keeps knocking on the door of primary contention, especially in the first half of last year where he opened the season with a sixthm fifth and seventh and then the other shoe dropped. Every good run seems to follow a series of bad runs. It was the same in 2022 too. Heafner has a high ceiling but he’s going to look to find consistency this year.

MINI TYRELL
No. 81 Timmy Tyrrell Racing

Mini has been on the tour for five years now and always brings the positive energy no matter what. The past couple of years have been hit or miss, holistically, but even within the confines of the season. There are races where Tyrrell leads laps and runs up front and others where he’s in the back half of the field. He won on the tour in 2021 at Tri-County. Off the track, Mini’s Mission’s charity might be the most impressive in short track racing. He’s approaching a million dollars in donations raised for Friends of Jaclyn Foundation and the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation amongst others.

ANDREW GRADY
No. 1 Torp Chassis Chevrolet

Second generation driver Andrew Grady remains on the tour and brings a lot of heart and personality onto the tour. He’s most known for the physical altercation during the 2022 Martinsville 300 but wants to establish a larger reputation for winning races and contending for titles in a Late Model Stock Car.

BRENT CREWS
No. 29 Kevin Harvick Inc.

Recently crowned a Super Late Model winner and the champion of the World Series of Asphalt last month, Brent Crews will now seek to do the same thing in a Late Model Stock Car and the CARS Tour. Crews is as decorated a prospect in motorsports as they come. At 15, he’s the youngest TransAm TA2 winner at 14 years, 3 months and 4 days. He went on to win the championship and was the youngest TA2 champion too. He’s also made a Chili Bowl Midget Nationals feaure as well. Now that is coming to CARS Tour.

CHAD MCCUMBEE
No. 16 McCumbee Elliott Racing Ford

One of the most versatile racers in the field, Chad McCumbee has won in a Late Model Stock, in the CARS Tour, and across numerous IMSA sports car and SCCA categories as well.  In CARS Tour, McCumbee is perpetually racing around the top-5 with one career win, nine top-5s and 26 top-10s in 49 starts. He’s finished sixth, fifth and eighth in the standings the past three years. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities that McCumbee finds that last little bit to win races and in bunches this year.

SCHEDULE

Sunday, March 10, 2024 – Southern National Motorsports Park (Lucama, N.C.)
Saturday, March 23, 2024 – New River All American Speedway (Jacksonville, N.C.)
Saturday, April 6, 2024 – Hickory Motor Speedway (Newton, N.C.)
Saturday, April 20, 2024 – Orange County Speedway (Rougemont, N.C.)
Wednesday, May 14, 2024 – North Wilkesboro Speedway (North Wilkesboro, N.C.)
Saturday, May 25, 2024 – Tri-County Speedway (Granite Falls, N.C.)
Saturday, June 1, 2024 – Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway (Hampton, Va.)
Saturday, June 15, 2024 – Dominion Raceway (Thornburg, Va.)
Wednesday, July 3, 2024 – Caraway Speedway (Sophia, N.C.)
Saturday, July 27, 2024 – Throwback @ Hickory Motor Speedway (Newton, N.C.)
Friday, August 9, 2024 – Ace Speedway (Altamahaw, N.C.)
Saturday, August 24, 2024 – Wake County Speedway (Raleigh, N.C.)
Friday, August 30, 2024 – Florence Motor Speedway (Timmonsville, S.C.)
Saturday, September 14, 2024 – South Boston Speedway (South Boston, Va.)
Saturday, October 12, 2024 – Tri-County Speedway (Granite Falls, N.C.)
Saturday, October 19, 2024 – North Wilkesboro Speedway (North Wilkesboro, N.C.)