‘Race of the year contender;’ CARS Tour enjoys first look at Cordele

The CARS Tour has arrived for its debut appearance at Cordele Motor Speedway in Georgia and the vibes are largely immaculate.

Track general manager Ricky Brooks did a thorough job of cleaning every acre of the facility. The new suites have been completed, every wall has been repainted and every bathroom has been renovated and deep-cleaned all in advance of the biggest event in track history.

That last statement should speak volumes.

This is a venue that has hosted the likes of Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, David Ragan and Johnny Sauter for Speedfest in January and sometimes each of them at once. However, this is a big deal because it’s the track debut for the Late Model Stocks and Dale Earnhardt Jr. has unloaded his JR Motorsports No. 8 on the property.

His series ownership co-hort, Kevin Harvick, was also on property and looked every bit like a proud father watching the vision come to fruition.

“When I came out here two years ago in January, I went home and talked to Dale and said ‘hey, Cordele would be a great spot for our Late Model Stocks and Pros’ and to come back and see all the work they have done to the facility, because I haven’t been here, and see the enthusiasm despite a little more travel, the reception has been really gratifying.”

Read more: All the work that went into new Cordele

For the most part, everyone on the property this weekend is excited by the prospects of something new and appreciated what Brooks did to make the facility feel pristine and welcoming.

Brandon Pierce, who has spent nearly a decade on the Tour, was effusive with his praise.

“I can’t say enough in the little bit of time we’ve been here about how beautiful the facility is, first off,” Pierce said. “And then, just the racetrack, I mean it has a lot of character to it and it’s not rough, it’s actually the opposite.”

Cordele Motor Speedway has long been considered one of the ‘crown jewel’ racetracks for Super Late Model competition and that was before it was purchased by Greg and Lori Noland last year and the facility improvements that have started to follow over the past 15 months.

As the ASA STARS series learned last week at Dominion, there isn’t a lot that transfers over from a Super to a Stock but the consensus is that CARS Tour is going to still put on a very good race on Saturday night.

With a 18 degrees of banking in the corners, and 12 on the straights, Cordele races like a wide bullring and Pierce expects it to deliver.

“You know that I’m a guy that has a soft spot in my heart for Florence and abrasive race tracks and while it’s not quite as abrasive, I still think it’s going to race that way because we can move around a lot,” Pierce said. “I think it’s going to be a fantastic race and I’ll go as far to say that I have a feeling this could be the race of the year.

“I could see us coming to the line two or three wide at the finish of this thing.”

His Carroll Speedshop teammate Landon Huffman is not naturally inclined to like tracks like Cordele but still came away with positive vibes after a test day on Thursday.

“Historically, this is probably not a track that I would generally like because it has some similarities to Florence and I do not like Florence but I really enjoyed this yesterday,” Huffman said.

“It’s fun and it’s fast. You sit here on pit road and the cars don’t look like they are going that fast but we are moving pretty good here. I think it’s going to race well. I’m optimistic for that. I think we will have multiple grooves.

“I’m excited to see how the track kind of evolves with more cars on track and more rubber.”

Ryan Millington also enjoyed his test day and is ready to make this an annual stop. He compared Cordele as a cross between Coastal Plains and Wake County.

“There is definitely a lot of excitement around this event because it’s new to 80 percent of us,” Millington said. “Six hours away from our house and up to 10 for some guys further north but the atmosphere has been great.

“I already want it back on the schedule next year. It could be nice to come down here and maybe venture out to another new track or so but within this same distance range for sure.”

For what it’s worth, CARS Tour has explored a race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, which is the same distance as a Cordele or Dominion, but also New Smyrna as part of Speedweeks but the scheduling hasn’t made sense yet.

New Smyrna wanted to run them on Super Bowl Sunday.

“This is a hell of a facility,” says current championship leader Connor Hall, who is also a two-time NASCAR Weekly Series National Champion.

“It’s really beautiful from the moment you walk through the gates to using the bathroom; it’s all top-notch. I think it’s exciting to go anywhere new on the Tour because it was pretty redundant there for awhile but the new ownership group and everyone that works at CARS Tour are making a lot of positive moves.”

His teammate and team owner, Earnhardt, has made this is first start of the year and that always generates a lot of interest and enthusiasm for these events too.

Millington called Earnhardt a ‘glow’ for the series.

“Whenever he shows up, there’s just good energy,” Millington said. “He packs the stands and we’re going to pack them in the pit area so it’s always great when he shows up and grows the sport and it’s good for everyone.”

Kade Brown of R&S Race Cars echoed much of that sentiment but also added, ‘at the end of the day, we’ve raced him before and he’s just another guy in a good car that we have to deal with come the end of the race.’