Two standout drivers from the CARS Tour had near-simultaneous announcements about their future in NASCAR racing Wednesday morning.
“Honestly, I feel like the CARS Tour is, if not the toughest, one of the most tough Late Model regional series really,” Kvapil said in his introductory press conference. “After Hickory, I jumped out of the Late Model at Hickory and go run Darlington. They drive different. You’ve got to drive different. Drivers are obviously different, but the competition level is quite similar really. I feel like, racing the CARS Tour the past few seasons, it’s gotten harder since I started even. Just being able to be with that group of competition and have that many good cars just like the Xfinity Series has really made it a lot easier switching over.”
As was expected for weeks, two-time defending zMAX CARS Tour champion Carson Kvapil will race full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JR Motorsports in 2025. Kvapil has run eight races and scored three top-five finishes, including a runner-up finish at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware in April.
The announcement comes just days after Carson Kvapil cemented his legacy in the Late Model Stock Car racing world by winning the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway. Kvapil is second on the CARS Late Model Stock Tour all-time wins list with 12 wins, trailing only his predecessor, Josh Berry, who has 22 wins.
Berry now races full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, and will move to Wood Brothers Racing in 2025.
Kaden Honeycutt, a three-time winner on the CARS Tour, has impressed Neice Racing enough in his limited appearance in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to land a full-time ride with the team in 2025.
To date, Honeycutt has two top-fives and nine top-10s in the Trucks.
The two announcements once again shine a light on the CARS Tour as one of the nation’s premier development series. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs ran semi-regularly in the CARS Tour. Bell won five races on the Super Late Model side during the tour’s infancy, while Gibbs ran full-time in 2018 for Greg Marlowe.
A number of other CARS Tour alumni have shined in NASCAR. Corey Heim, Layne Riggs, Christian Eckes, John Hunter Nemechek, Harrison Burton, Chandler Smith, and Connor Zilisch spent time on the CARS Tour.
