Final Lap: ASA STARS National Tour ends Sunday at New Smyrna

The 61st running of the Bill Posey Florida Governor’s Cup arrives Sunday at New Smyrna Speedway as a multi-faceted celebration: crowning a national Super Late Model champion while capping the 2026 ASA STARS National Tour season in one of Florida short-track racing’s most historic races.

The race also serves as the curtain closer for the tour’s four-year run under the ASA STARS moniker, headlining an action-packed weekend on the high-banked, half-mile paved oval south of Daytona Beach.

While the national championship battle has already been settled, this race also sees a sunset to the CRA Super Series, and closes out the Southern Super Series season. Additionally, the race will conclude the inaugural Sunshine State Four Crown Challenge.

The race will feature local heroes, touring stars and grassroots short track royalty in a 200-lap feature on Sunday afternoon.

The field of contenders

Sunday’s 200-lap feature pits seasoned Florida veterans against elite national regulars:

Carson Brown: The newly crowned ASA STARS champion aims to bookend his standout 2026 campaign at the venue where it kicked off. Brown scored a dominant victory in the season-opening Clyde Hart Memorial 200 at New Smyrna in February and looks to add one of Florida’s biggest trophy to his mantle before heading to NASCAR competition.

Ty Majeski: A three-time Governor’s Cup winner, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standout returns looking to match Ed Howe as the only four-time winners in race history.

Stephen Nasse: The local favorite and 2023 Governor’s Cup victor, Nasse has been on a tear in crown-jewel level races, and is fresh off of winning last weekend’s All American 400.

Garrett Mitchell (Cleetus McFarland): The popular grassroots racer and internet personality will make his New Smyrna Super Late Model debut, adding high-profile intrigue to Sunday’s starting grid. Mitchell already has starts in Michigan earlier in the season at the famed Berlin Raceway with the UARA National Tour and his own Cleetus branded Pro Late Model series.

Kyle Steckly: While he is out of championship contention, Steckly is looking to finish out a strong 2026 season driving for Wilson Motorsports. Steckly rolls into New Smyrna having earned a top five in the All American 400 last weekend after starting deep in the field.

Brad May: A race at New Smyrna Speedway of this magnitude can’t forego a mention one of the speedway’s most prolific drivers, Brad May. May has over two dozen wins at New Smyrna Speedway and multiple track championships. 

Titles decided

Carson Brown enters the weekend with zero championship pressure after mathematically clinching the 2026 ASA STARS National Tour crown ahead of the finale. Brown locked up the national Super Late Model title following his victory at the Winchester 400 in October, amassing an insurmountable 207-point lead over runner-up Kyle Steckly. Following Sunday’s race, he will officially hoist the ASA STARS National Tour championship hardware before moving to a full-time ride in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with Richard Childress Racing next season.

While Brown has the ASA STARS title wrapped up, there is still the ASA CRA Super Series up for grabs. Brown leads Chase Pinsonneault by four points heading into New Smyrna. Third place Michael Simko isn’t entered, which could lead to a shake up among the top five with Kyle Steckly, Jade Avedisian, and Tristan McKee all running on Sunday.

In addition to the standalone race purse, drivers are battling for the inaugural Sunshine State Four Crown title and its $10,000 championship bonus. Co-sanctioned with the Southern Super Series, the miniseries awards its payout to the driver with the best average finishing position across four marquee events: New Smyrna’s Clyde Hart Memorial 200, Pensacola’s Sunshine State 200, Five Flags Speedway’s Blizzard Series finale, and Sunday’s Governor’s Cup. Going into Sunday’s finale, newly crowned Southern Super Series champion Spencer Davis leads this battle with a 5.33 finishing average over Stephen Nasse’s 8.33 average.

Six decades of Governor’s Cup history

First contested in 1965, the Florida Governor’s Cup stands as one of pavement short-track racing’s oldest and most prestigious Super Late Model races. The event was established by Florida Gov. C. Farris Bryant and Gov. Haydon Burns to crown a definitive state champion while honoring Al Keller, a Tampa native and Indianapolis 500 competitor killed in a 1961 championship car crash. Wayne Reutimann won the inaugural 1965 edition at the now-defunct Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa, which staged the race through the 1960s and 1970s.

During that era, Michigan chassis builder Ed Howe emerged as the standard, winning four titles (1972, 1974, 1976, and 1977), while NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison scored a win in 1975.

When suburban growth and noise disputes forced Golden Gate to close in the late 1970s, the race bounced between venues such as Sunshine Speedway in St. Petersburg and DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton. It found its permanent home in 1988 when New Smyrna Speedway owner Clyde Hart and Gov. Bob Martinez revived the event on the high banks.

Local ace Dick Anderson won the first two New Smyrna editions in 1988 and 1989. A decade later, his son Wayne Anderson matched Howe’s record-setting prominence by claiming three victories in 1999, 2003, and 2007.

Over recent decades, the 200-lap, controlled-pit-stop format has attracted national stars including Erik Jones, William Byron, and Majeski to square off against Florida icons like David Rogers and Nasse.

Bill Posey legacy

When the field takes the green flag Sunday, the race will bear the name of a competitor whose involvement with New Smyrna Speedway stretches five decades from the driver’s seat to the halls of Congress. Now officially dedicated as the Bill Posey Florida Governor’s Cup 200, the race honors former U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, who represented Florida’s Space Coast from 2009 through 2025 following tenures in the Florida House and Senate.

Posey was an active Late Model competitor across Florida and the Southeast, frequently wheeling cars at New Smyrna Speedway and Orlando Speed World through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s before stepping away from the cockpit in 2008.

His advocacy behind the scenes helped modernize the event. During his time in the Florida Senate, Posey leveraged legislative ties to bring then-Gov. Jeb Bush to the track as grand marshal, sparking a sellout crowd and statewide media coverage that revitalized the classic. Later in Washington, Posey co-chaired the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus and championed the RPM Act to protect grassroots racers from federal emissions rules on modified production vehicles.

Weekend schedule & format

Saturday, Nov. 14 features Prelude to the Cup, headlined by a 100-lap Pro Late Model feature and local division racing. In the lead up to the night’s feature racing, the ASA STARS Tour will hold two 60-minute practice sessions.

Sunday, Nov. 15 sees a 30 minute final practice for Super Late Models with ASA STARS Pole Qualifying a Noon. The 200-lap main event is set to go green at 2pm, ET.

Live national streaming coverage of the entire weekend will be broadcast on TrackTV.com and FloRacing.

Entry list

3 Kasey Kleyn – Quincy, WA
5 Casey Johnson – Edgerton, WI
5 Tristan McKee – Kannapolis, NC
8 Nicholas Naugle – Dartmouth, NS
9 Derek Kraus – Stratford, WI
9 Brad May – Oviedo, FL
10 George Gorham Jr – Winter Haven, FL
14 Chase Pinsonneault – Belle River, ONT
15 Trenten Henick – Inverness, FL
17 Hudson Bulger – Fort Valley, GA
18 Zack Walker – Bradenton, FL
22 Kyle Steckly – Milverton, ONT
22 George Phillips – Charlotte, NC
22 Ryan Herbert – Gainesville, FL
24 Jade Avedisian – Clovis, CA
27 Bobby Good – Lake Mary, FL
28 Dustin Hester – Leesburg, FL
33 Cleetus McFarland – Bradenton, FL
35 Luke Yarbrough – Milton, GA
51 Stephen Nasse – Pinellas Park, FL
81 Carson Brown – New London, NC
91 Ty Majeski – Kaukauna, WI
96 Derek Thorn – Bakersfield, CA
96 Spencer Davis – Statesville, NC
98 Holden Myers – Dover, FL
99 Anastasia Markovic – Dade City, FL
711 Gabrielle Grigsby – Curtice, OH