CARS Tour West Takes To Tucson Speedway for First Practice of Season

What started out as a 40 car entry for Saturday’s CARS Tour West Pro Late Model SoundGear 125, would be down to 35 by the end of Friday afternoon. As the No.05 Eric Schmidt and No.22S John Siereka (withdrew), No.20 Andy Sole (mechanical) No.24B Gabe Brown (engine) and the No.5P of Ryan Phipps (crash damage) would go no further in the Arizona desert.

The stars of the SPEARS CARS Tour West, Pro Late Model division took to the track for a day of practice on Friday, shaking down their cars and getting up to speed ahead of the series’ first ever trip around the 3/8 mile Tucson Speedway to open the 2026 season.

There were four practice sessions taking place on the on a busy Friday afternoon. In practice 1 the PLM field saw a familiar face top the charts, as 2025 Mark Galloway Memorial winner Haeden Plybon jump up to lead the field. The first incident of the day occurred early on as the No.67 of Billy Coles spun around off the exit of turn two and backed his car into the outside wall, ending the Canadian’s opening session after just four laps. Rounding out the rest of the opening session was Keelan Harvick, Austin Herzog, William Sawalich and defending PLM series champion Jace Hale.

In the second practice session of the day, current NASCAR O’Reilly Series driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, William Sawalich was fastest. The driver who originally hails from Minnesota is running in his first ever CTW weekend and led the way over NASCAR Hall of Famer and series owner, Kevin Harvick with his son Keelan, Chase Burgeson and Austin Herzog rounding out the top five, in an caution free practice session.

As third practice got underway, it witnessed the second incident of the day as the No.5P of Ryan Phipps crashed in turn two, sustaining heavy damage to the rear of his car. The team worked hard to repair the damage, but it was too severe ending their day and weekend. Keelan Harvick ended the session as the fastest with Cody Dempster, Sawalich, Herzog and Washington’s Kasey Kleyn rounding out the top-five.

As the sun began to set, drivers took to the track for final practice. It started out with problems for Sawalich, as the Minnesota born driver who showed speed most of the day, came to a crawling stop on the front straightaway. His engine refusing to go any further, causing the yellow to be displayed. The team will swap parts on the motor but the mechanical gremlins would end his practice prematurely. Also getting back out on track in the final session was Coles, whose team worked tirelessly, fixing a broken gear distributor and rocker arm and finished the session in 25th.

Leading the way for most of the final practice was Kevin Harvick, as he set about getting into long run pace. At the very end of the session however, just like the session prior, it was the younger Harvick, who shot to the top spot in happy hour on a long run of his own. Practice 1 leader of Plybon as well improved late in the session to jump up to second with Ethan Ebert, Kevin Harvick and Jace Hale, who found speed late in the day after the team feverishly worked on making the car better all afternoon long, rounded out the Top 5.

Next on track activity for CARS Tour West is qualifying on Saturday ahead of the SoundGear 125, qualifying starts at 9:30 local time, with the race at 4 pm local (6 pm ET), broadcast live on Flo Racing.