Doug Barnes, Jr. will be joining his younger brother, Trent, in competing in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour in 2015. Barnes, 17, will be racing full-time for Scott Whitaker and J&J Motorsports.
Barnes, who comes from Whiteford, Maryland, started racing Go-Karts in Maryland as a kid where he won several races and championships before running Legends and progressing up to Late Models. Last year, he raced in a Limited Late Model at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, North Carolina.
Barnes competed part-time in the X-1R Pro Cup Series, which is now the CARS Tour, last season, scoring two-top five finishes and four top-10 finishes in four starts with a career high third place finish coming at Southern National Motorsports Park – the track which will host the inaugural race for the CARS Tour.
“We were planning on doing some Late Model races and Pro Cup Series but since Pro Cup turned into CARS, we’ll do the full schedule in that and find what else we can do,” Barnes said. “I’m looking forward to the first one to see how the competition stacks up. I’m sure it’s going to be crazy. I’m just excited to race against everybody.”
Barnes hopes to get some top-five finishes and some wins.
“I guess we’ll shoot for top-five finishes to start but I want to get some wins in there. We definitely need wins to get recognized.”
When asked if he could score wins, Barnes said he has the equipment to score wins and said that it’s mostly his fault he hasn’t – but he has learned a lot and expects to be able to win this season.
“These guys bring the best cars to the track each week. It was mostly my fault we couldn’t win. I learned a lot about tire conservation. If we don’t win any races, it will be my fault because they bring great equipment each week.”
Along with the CARS Tour, Barnes might run the season ending races at Martinsville Speedway, Myrtle Beach Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park if he can get the funding to do so.
