CARS Tour

zMAX CARS Tour

Category	Stock Cars
Jurisdiction	United States
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Mooresville, North Carolina
Chairman	Jack McNelly
CEO	Kip Childress
Other key staff	Keeley Dubensky Karsyn Elledge Danny Willard Brandon Willard Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jeff Burton Kevin Harvick Justin Marks
Official website
www.carsracingtour.com

The zMAX CARS Tour (formerly known as the USARacing Pro Cup Series, USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, CARS Pro Cup Series, Rev-Oil Pro Cup Series, CARS X1-R Pro Cup Series) is a stock car auto racing series in the United States. It is sanctioned by the Championship Auto Racing Series and sponsored by zMAX. The series races throughout the United States on paved short tracks in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The sanctioning body was formed by Hooters owner Robert Brooks. Brooks created the organization to honor the memories of four people who died in an April 1, 1993 airplane crash: Brooks' son Mark Brooks, reigning NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki, Dan Duncan, and pilot Charlie Campbell.^[1] The sanctioning body started as the Hooters Cup late model series in 1995. Brooks decided to stop sanctioning the late model series in favor of the Pro Cup series while at the September 1997 race at the Milwaukee Mile. Brooks wanted to move to steel-bodied racecars much like those raced in the NASCAR Busch Series (now NASCAR Xfinity Series) and ARCA Racing Series at the time. There were eleven races in 1997.^[1] The series was expanded to twenty races in 1998.

In 2001, the series devised a "northern division" and a "southern division" that race separately. After the regular season, the top drivers from each division participate in a five-race playoff series called the Four Champions Challenge. Winners of the respective division are awarded a 25-point bonus for the playoff and a cash bonus as regular season champions. The driver who gets the most points in the Four Champions races, and the seeding points, (four races in 2001, five races from 2002 until 2005, six in 2006, 5 races in 2007) is declared the USAR champion.

At the end of the season, each of the top 30 teams that competes in at least half of the series' regular season races in their division is given entry points based on the number of points one competitor can earn for finishing in that respective position in a race. Beginning in 2006, the top 15 in each division automatically qualified. Each driver collects points for each race they participate in during the Championship Series, adding to their entry points collected from their regular season finish. A ten-point bonus is awarded for every driver who attempts to qualify at every race, although driver must race three of the six races to qualify for postseason bonus prizes. Cash bonuses are available for winning four, five, or all six postseason races. In 2003, Shane Huffman won a bonus for winning three of the five races. The success of this series led to NASCAR devising its own playoff system in 2004. The sanctioning body's owner, Robert Brooks, who also owned the Hooters restaurant chain, died in July 2006,^[2] leading to the eventual sale of the series and the restaurant chain's disassociation. USAR officials combined the Northern and Southern divisions in 2009. Hooters dropped its sponsorship of the series the same season, and the series later re-branded itself as the USARacing Pro Cup Series.

On August 25, 2011, Series Director and Owner Jack McNelly announced that the series would be operating under the name "Championship Auto Racing Series" (CARS Pro Cup). The series picked up title sponsorship from Revolution Oil, renaming the series the Rev-Oil Pro Cup Series through the 2013 season.

After entries began dropping through the final years of the season, during the 2014 playoff (only ten cars were entered at some races during the season with a low of four cars at Coastal Plains Raceway in Jacksonville, NC), CARS began to transition the series into a Late Model Stock Car series. Late Model Stocks (which use perimeter chassis, not to be confused with offset chassis Super Late Models) were permitted in selected races. By the end of the 2014 season, with the demise of the UARA-STARS Tour after a year's suspension, CARS effectively transitioned the Pro Cup into the CARS Tour which effectively absorbed the former UARA tour by adding a division for Late Model Stocks (the perimeter style cars run at places like Martinsville and most tracks in the southeast) and Super Late Models (the types of cars run in the Snowball Derby, Winchester 400, Oxford 250, among other races nationally). The new two-division format started in the 2015 season, with car counts averaging 55 cars per stop in the ten-race tour combined.

The sanctioning body once again broke the mold in 2015 by becoming the first asphalt tour to carry its own streaming and broadcast service, CARS Tour TV, a division of Pit Row Media and their Pit Row TV brand. For the first time in asphalt late model history, an entire tour's schedule was broadcast online and has been since the tour's re-inception in 2015. Pit Row Media has a long-term agreement with the tour to produce and carry event broadcasts, including syndication agreements to REV TV in Canada, SPEED SPORT on MAVTV in the USA, and other networks and distribution partners.

The new format consisted of a 100-150 lap race in each division. The Super Late Model Tour has a working relationship with the United Super Late Model Rules Alliance, which consists of the ARCA/CRA Super Series, ARCA Midwest Tour, SRL Southwest Tour and the Southern Super Series for a common Super Late Model rules package to establish teams in any of the major tours can run all series with few changes.

After three seasons with the format, CARS split the two divisions on selected weekends beginning in 2018, in order to prevent conflicts with major Super Late Model and Late Model Stock races from a regional and national basis.

In 2021, the Late Model Stock Tour had plans to once again visit Rockingham Speedway, formerly known as "The Rock" during its NASCAR days, reviving the dormant track for a second time under new ownership and management.^[3]

Starting in 2022, the CARS Tour will discontinue the Super Late Model Division and replace it with a Pro Late Model Division in an attempt to draw more competitors.

On January 9, 2023, the CARS Tour was acquired by a consortium of four companies: DEJ Management, Jeff Burton Autosports, Inc., Kevin Harvick Incorporated, and Trackhouse Racing Team. All four are NASCAR-related, with two current national series team owners, a Cup Series champion, and a Cup Series veteran. ^[4][5] FloSports will have media rights in 2024, and the North Wilkesboro Speedway races (one on NASCAR All-Star Race week and one in September) will be two-day events while the others are one-day events. A new title sponsor deal with zMAX was revealed on November 27, 2023. In addition, the winner of the Cook Out 225 as part of the Prelude to the Southern 500 in Florence will determine pole position for the Charlie Powell Memorial 400 (a non-championship race) in November at the circuit.

On January 5, 2024, the CARS Tour announced that Pro Late Models will be split into an East and West Tours. Co-owner Kevin Harvick made the expansion of the tour part of his goals.^[6] CARS West will use the same Pro Late Model rules but will be a separate series for West Coast drivers, with races in California and Nevada. The new West Tour races will be broadcast live on TrackVision TV, which is a partnership with local west coast racing broadcaster Low Budget TV and Speed Sport.

On November 4, 2024, the CARS Tour announced the 2025 East Tour schedule. The 15-race Late Model and 13-race Pro Late Model schedule will feature events with the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway and the Cook Out Southern 500 (the CARS Tour race is held at Florence Motor Speedway, 13 miles from Darlington Raceway). The winner of the Cook Out 225 feature at Florence will again earn pole position for the 33rd Charlie Powell Memorial 400 in November.^[7]

On November 15, 2024, the CARS Tour announced the 2025 West Tour schedule. The current Pro Late Model division will be rebranded to the Limited Pro Late Model (LPL) running Hoosier 980 slicks. The new Pro Late Model divisions rules and regulations will be exactly like the East Tour's Pro Late Model division. The West Tour will also introduce a Super Late Model and Legends division.^[8]

The following drivers won the Four Champions playoff series after the series was split into two divisions:

• 2014 Caleb Holman
• 2013 Clay Rogers
• 2012 J.P. Morgan
• 2011 Jeff Agnew
• 2010 Clay Rogers
• 2009 Clay Rogers
• 2008 Benny Gordon
• 2007 Bobby Gill
• 2006 Clay Rogers
• 2005 Benny Gordon
• 2004 Clay Rogers
• 2003 Shane Huffman
• 2002 Jason Sarvis
• 2001 Bobby Gill

• 2000 Bobby Gill
• 1999 Bobby Gill
• 1998 Jeff Agnew
• 1997 Mario Gosselin

• 2014 Codie Rohrbaugh
• 2013 Brady Boswell
• 2012 Dalton Hopkins
• 2011 Blake Jones
• 2010 Logan Ruffin
• 2009 Lucas Ransone
• 2008 Drew Herring
• 2007 Brandon Ward
• 2006 Derek Kale
• 2005 Woody Howard
• 2004 Matt Carter
• 2003 Benny Gordon
• 2002 Brian Ross
• 2001 Toby Robertson
• 2000 Brian Vickers
• 1999 Steven Christian
• 1998 Jeff Agnew
• 1997 Brad May
• 1996 E. Shane Rice

• CRA
• CRA Super Series
• ASA
• ASA Midwest Tour
• ACT
• PASS
• SRL Southwest Tour

• Official CARS Racing Tours Website
• Official CARS Tour TV website
• CARS Tour Digest Website
• CARS Pro Cup Series stats from 1997 to present
• USAR history, written in 1999 and 2002, accessed June 2006
• Insight to new Pro Cup owners
• https://web.archive.org/web/20120426085404/http://www.procuponline.com/trackback.php?id=20110825102747910