It all comes down to this. The crowning of the 2018 CARS Response Energy Tour champions, in both the Late Model Stock and Super Late Model divisions, will take place at the famed South Boston Speedway in Virginia. Late Model Stock championship points leader Bobby McCarty made his CARS Tour debut in the same race a season ago, fast forward to this weekend and McCarty, from Summerfield, NC is on the verge of becoming a series champion. McCarty has maintained his points lead since winning the season-opening race and a $10,000 check at Tri-County on March 10. McCarty’s closest suitor is two-time NASCAR All American champion Lee Pulliam, who would need a win and McCarty to have a catastrophic outing at SoBo to make up the 20 point deficit.
On the Super Late Model things, the battle between Trinity, NC driver Jared Fryar, and Canadian wheelman Raphael Lessard is much closer. Just eight points separate the two heading into the finale. Lessard, the 2015 SLM champion, is looking to be the first ever driver in CARS Tour history to repeat as champion. While Lessard’s win at Bristol was a high point on his season, he has failed to match the results of the ever so consistent Fryar. With Lessard not making an appearance at this weekend and Fryar’s average finishing position of 6.63 this season, Jared Fryar will be crowned the 2018 CARS Super Late Model Tour champion upon taking the green flag.
NOTES & QUOTES
NOTES:
Track/Location: South Boston Speedway-South Boston, VA
Track Size: .410 mile
Event Name: AutosbyNelson.com 250
Laps/Distance: 125L (SLM)/125L (LMSC)
Event Schedule: Practice: 9:45AM-10:50AM, Qualifying: 12:45PM, Green: 3PM SLM/LMSC
Twitter Handle/Event Hashtag: @CARSTour / @SoBoSpeedway57 / #AutosbyNelson300
CARS LMSC Tour Pre-Entered Drivers:
#01 Camden Gullie
#07 Eric Winslow
#1M Craig Moore
#2 Chris Denny
#2P Brandon Pierce
#5 Lee Pulliam
#9 Sam Mayer
#5G Cole Classon
#8 Tyler Hughes
#9B Rodney Boyd
#9D Jessica Dana
#9W Charlie Watson
#12 Timothy Peters
#17 Stacy Puryear
#18 Ty Gibbs
#22 Deac McCaskill
#22C Grayson Cullather
#22M Bobby McCarty
#24 Mason Diaz
#24G Colin Garrett
#27 Tommy Lemons Jr.
#44 Mason Hudson
#74 Ronald Hill
#75 Logan Jones
#77 Trevor Ward
#81 Mini Tyrrell
#88 Josh Berry
#95 Jacob Heafner
#99 Layne Riggs
(29 total)
CARS SLM Tour Pre-Entered Drivers:
#00 Anthony Cataldi
#2 Danny Gilchrist
#2T Gracie Trotter
#6 Mike Wallace
#6W Matt Wallace
#7 Tyler Church
#7S Taylor Stricklin
#8 Tate Fogleman
#14 Jared Fryar
#16 Molly Helmuth
#17 Mike Speeney
#21 Ryan Mathews
#24 Colin Garrett
#34 Nolan Pope
#49 Jeff Batten
#78 Corey Heim
#97 Brandon Lynn
(17 total)
Media Coverage:
-Speed51 (speed51.com) will provide Trackside Now Live Coverage
-Race22 (race22.com) will provide RACEDAY Live Coverage
-Speed Sport News on MAVTV – Tape delayed national broadcast of the LMSC race
-CARS Tour TV (www.carstour.tv) – LIVE Broadcast Video Production Coverage
-CARS Tour Facebook (facebook.com/CARSTour) / CARS Tour Twitter (@CARSTour)
From Debut to Domination:
At this same race a season ago Summerfield, NC driver Bobby McCarty, driving for Nelson Motorsports, made his first career CARS Tour start. To kick off the 2018 season McCarty said, “I’m here”, with winning the season-opening race at Tri-County Motor Speedway that paid $10,000 to win. Three wins later and twenty point lead headed into this weekend’s AutosbyNelson.com 250, McCarty is on the verge of scoring his biggest achievement behind the wheel of a racecar, being crowned a CARS Tour champion.
“The first race we ever race with the CARS Tour was at South Boston a year ago, I was really impressed with how the series was ran, and how good the competition was. Now looking back from that time till now, and being on the verge of winning the series championship is an unreal feeling. We never even thought about championship points until we had to make a decision on going to Bristol, and now to be close to winning my first and the team’s first late model championship is incredible. We still have a race to run and my goal is no different than its been all year, and that’s to go and win the race Saturday afternoon. After getting those wins out team’s goal kind of became to win six of the twelve races this season. Unfortunately, we won’t hit that goal, but it would be nice to get five. We aren’t approaching this race at SoBo as anything special, it’s just another race we want to win this year.” Bobby McCarty
Looking Back at a Successful 2018 Season:
The 2018 season marks the fourth year of existence for the CARS Tour. Without question, this year’s version of the series has been the most successful, exciting, and profound in the short four-year history of the tour. When it comes to car counts the LMSC division has averaged 24.09 cars, while the Super Late Model division has averaged 21.4 cars on solo sanctioned races (24.75 including co sanction races). The largest crowd to ever witness a CARS Tour race at the Hickory Motor Speedway as part of the Throwback 276 weekend. And three nationally televised races via Speed Sport on MAVTV will be aired on tape delay this season. When reflecting back on the 2018 season, Series owner Jack McNelly contributes it to many factors.
“It takes time and all involved pulling the rope in the same direction, per say, to build a business and make it successful. With the support of the teams, fans, sponsors, and our staff we were able to put together our most successful CARS Tour season yet. Without a doubt, if we don’t have all involved, this series would not be what it is today. We now have a few races that are becoming our marquee events and now with a few of the races broadcast on MAVTV, we should expand our presence even more. Even though we’ve had a good year, we have plans to make the fifth year of the tour, even bigger and better. You have to keep working in this business, and moving forward.” Jack McNelly – CARS Response Energy Tour Series Owner
