The CARS Tour will begin the 2018 season with a big dollar draw.

The season-opening race will be held at Tri-County Motor Speedway and will award the winner $10,000 as part of a record purse for the Late Model Stock portion of the series.

The Do the Dew 150 is scheduled for March 10 during the daytime, with more details about the day to come soon. CARS tour owner Jack McNelly says the tour’s relationship with Tri-County made the race a win-win.

“This will be our fourth season running the Late Model Stocks and we have had their support from the beginning.  The consistent car counts at every event and the loyalty of the driver’s year after year allows us to go all in for the 2018 late model stock season,” said McNelly.

Tri-County hasn’t raced Late Model Stocks on a regular basis in the past several years, and the track is only open for special events. Teams will not be able to test independently because of those restrictions; instead, teams will have only March 3 for testing.

McNelly also promised additional news to follow about a loyalty program. That’s expected to be announced on Friday night during a press conference in advance of the championship weekend at South Boston.

‘We expect this race to have a very strong turnout of cars. Along with $10,000 to win and $800 to start, we will soon be announcing loyalty programs that exceed anything currently being done in the region for the Late Model Stocks and I’d probably venture to say Super Late Models across the country,” said McNelly.

The full race format, lineup and schedule will be released at a later date.

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