PASS retools season-ending PASS 400 with $100,000 up for grabs

The Pro All Stars Series’ unique season finale is getting upgraded.

October’s championship-deciding PASS 400 will not only comprise the full advertised distance, but will offer an enhanced prize purse that could be worth $100,000 to the winning driver.

PASS announced the changes Sunday evening on behalf of series president Tom Mayberry, who also offered new ways for drivers to secure a spot in the field later this year.

The PASS 400 Weekend was revived in 2023 as the season-ending event at Oxford Plains Speedway, though in name only. Paying homage to previous long-distance events staged under the PASS banner, the “400” combined 300 laps for the Super Late Models with season-ending tilts for support series like the PASS Modifieds.

Moreover, the 300-lap Super Late Model showdown was modeled after Thunder Road International Speedbowl’s legendary Vermont Milk Bowl, with three 100-lap segments and full-field inverts scored “Monza-style” with the lowest aggregate finishing position clinching the overall race win. Gabe Brown won the first PASS 400 under the new format in 2023, with Joey Doiron claiming last year’s PASS 400 win.

This year, all 400 titular laps will be dedicated to the Super Late Models. Fifty-lap qualifying races will set the field for the Sunday-afternoon showdown on October 19. The 400-lap race distance will be broken into two opening 100-lap segments and a final 200-lap segment. Full-field inverts will set the grid for the second two segments. Teams will have 12 tires to budget through the 400 green-flag race laps and qualifying races.

In a change from previous years, though, each of the three segments will pay full PASS championship points, creating a significant wildcard in what was a 12-race points schedule.

The prize purse for the race, as in previous runnings, will be paid out based on the overall aggregate finishing order after all three segments, with the lowest combined finishing position taking a $25,000 winner’s share. However, the winner of each segment will also earn $25,000 for their victory.

A driver who sweeps all three segments, and therefore earns the “overall” win, could stand to take home $100,000.

PASS’ announcement also confirmed six provisional berths for the big-dollar showdown. In addition to the traditional PASS and Oxford Championship Series points provisionals, Friday’s non-points Sunoco 150 and the Kennebec Equipment Rental 150 on September 7 will offer a provisional for the highest-finishing driver in each race who has not otherwise qualified for the race.

Beyond the PASS sphere, racers from the Canadian Maritimes will have the opportunity to earn a provisional through the upcoming Yard Gear 250 at Speedway 660 in Geary, N.B., the cornerstone of the track’s SpeedWeekend festivities. The United Auto Racing Alliance is also cooperating with PASS, promising a provisional to its highest-ranked driver with at least three 2025 starts. The UARA sanctioned last week’s Tekton 250 Battle at Berlin, in which Doiron finished a surprising third in his first visit to the oval. PASS competitors Austin Teras and Dave Farrington, Jr. also competed at Berlin, with Teras notching a strong top-ten finish.

Sunday’s announcement is another shakeup in a season that has seen PASS step outside the tried-and-true path. The region’s top Super Late Model touring series shortened its points schedule in 2025 and removed its traditional long-distance events from the points race, instead combining them into a separate Oxford Crown Jewel Triple Crown. The final 200-lap stint of the PASS 400 will be the longest points-paying event on the calendar for the PASS Super Late Models.

Mayberry already cast tradition aside last year in introducing a winner’s purse that eclipsed the Oxford 250, a race long billed as the richest one-day show in the Northeast. For years, the Oxford 250 has paid $25,000 to win, plus lap leader bonus money totaling another $25,000. Last summer’s Celebration of America paid more, but the purse was slimmed down this year to accommodate May’s Memorial Day Clash.

The massive winner’s payout promised for October’s finale, with $1500 paid to start, is without rival in the region, even if the likelihood of one driver sweeping all three segments is slim.

These changes infuse renewed grandeur into a race that, at times, can become procedural. Last October, D.J. Shaw only needed to take the green to clinch his sixth career PASS North crown. More importantly, the late-season date falls when many teams have exhausted their season’s resources. There is little incentive for drivers to turn out for a race they have little chance of winning.

But the per-segment winner’s purse throws a new wrinkle into race strategy. A driver could sacrifice one or two segments, but still steal a $25,000 segment bounty, if strategy all plays out.

There are no guarantees, but there’s always the potential.

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