Kevin Harvick said the four-person CARS Tour ownership group (Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton and Justin Marks) had one mission during its first season: “Don’t screw it up.”
With the quartet of NASCAR figures purchasing the CARS Tour last January, the group took a “learning approach” to this past season as they aimed to build on what former owner Jack McNelly had created.
“The CARS Tour is a series that Jack (McNelly) has built over the last 10 years and late model stock racing in the Southeast is alive and well,” Harvick said. “For us, we had a great first year. We did everything that we wanted to do.”
But now that Harvick, Earnhardt, Burton and Marks have a season’s worth of experience, the ownership group has rolled up their sleeves to implement changes for year two.
During a CARS Tour press conference on Monday, zMAX was introduced as the series’ new title sponsor. A 19-race schedule — featuring a season finale at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway — was also released. And earlier this year, Kip Childress was brought on board as the series’ new executive director.
“As we go into 2024, you start to see the small things that everybody’s been working on come together. Adding a title sponsor like zMAX to the series just continues to hopefully build on that credibility that we’re trying to give our competitors and teams a stable place to race,” Harvick said. “A place where, you know, if you show up, you’re going to get some great competition and some great exposure.”
The newly retired Cup Series driver made it clear helping grassroots racers has been the core focus of the ownership group since they acquired the CARS Tour.
“A lot of people think that you buy the series and we’re just four guys that are hands off, but we’re as involved in the day-to-day operations as you could possibly imagine,” Harvick said.
It helps that the series is a shared passion for Harvick, Earnhardt, Burton and Marks — all of whom raced stock cars at one point or another. Harvick and Earnhardt competed in a few CARS Tour late model stock car features this season.
Their combined knowledge and understanding of late model racing guided the creation of next year’s schedule, which will conclude nearly a month earlier than in years past.
“Late model stock racing has three or four big races at the end of the year. So, us ending our season earlier, hopefully that’ll give those race tracks a little bit of time to breathe,” Harvick said. “We’ve also been trying to work as much as possible with NASCAR on their late model stock car program.”
CARS Tour officials worked out the schedule to go hand-in-hand with the Virginia Triple Crown, the IceBreaker, The Fall Brawl and Thanksgiving Classic — among other late model stock crown jewels.
The CARS Tour’s return to North Wilkesboro, which will include two races next year, is also part of that.
The first event will be during NASCAR’s All Star Race weekend at the .625-mile short track in mid-May, while the second will be a standalone CARS Tour program in mid-October.
“When you look back at everything that’s happened at North Wilkesboro, the CARS Tour is a big part of that, with running the race they had there (in August, 2022) to re-open the race track,” Harvick said. “We’re fortunate as a series and, really as a racer in general, to be able to have something that sat there since 1995 and have it be back to what it is today.
“We need to protect our short-track system, and North Wilkesboro is something that nobody ever expected to be back.”
Harvick is among the many racing leaders appearing during Race Industry Week, which began on Monday and will run through Dec. 1. There is no charge to attend — click to register. Or, click here for the full schedule.