The CARS Tour is headed to the Peach State for the first time in its history this weekend, with two deep fields of talent, a NASCAR Hall of Famer in competition with the Late Model Stock Cars, and a second-generation driver making his CARS Tour debut with the Pro Late Models. In total, 60 cars are making the inaugural trip to Cordele Motor Speedway this weekend.

Headlining the 28-car Late Model Stock Car entry list is two-time Daytona 500 champion and CARS Tour co-owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. This weekend’s race at the ⅜-mile oval south of Atlanta was Earnhardt Jr.’s brainchild, so it makes sense that his first Late Model Stock race of the year comes at this track and this event. Saturday’s race will be Earnhardt Jr.’s fifth CARS Tour race dating back to 2022.

One driver to watch for from the deep south is Michael Hinde, who will be driving a third Lee Pulliam Performance entry. Hinde has plenty of experience at Cordele Motor Speedway in Pro Late Model and Super Late Model competition. Hinde scored his first career PLM victory at Cordele back in 2022, and most recently went to victory lane in the World Crown 300 at Cordele last October. Even though he’s never driven a Late Model Stock Car before, you can get that Lee Pulliam will have Hinde where he needs to be at the end of Saturday’s race.

Meanwhile, Manassas, Virginia’s Mini Tyrrell has to be looked at as one of the favorites for the victory on Saturday just purely based off the Tour’s most recent race. Tyrrell scored his second CARS Tour victory just a couple of weeks ago on the bullring at Wake County Speedway, and he did so in dominating fashion. Tyrrell won the pole and then led every single one of the 125 laps without so much as a single challenge from anybody else. It was a statement-making performance for Tyrrell.

Tyrrell’s closest competitor for most of the night at Wake County was Claremont, North Carolina’s Landon Huffman. Huffman ended up finishing outside the top 10 due to a penalty for his role in a late-race incident with Ryan Millington, but for most of the race Huffman ran no lower than third in his brand new Reynolds Racing Chassis for Carroll Speedshop. Huffman just went to victory lane in a weekly event at Tri-County Speedway in his own personal Reynolds Racing Chassis, and has told FloRacing that his confidence is back at a level that he hasn’t felt in quite some time.

Points leader Connor Hall is always a contender, especially right now with his JR Motorsports team. Hall has an average finish of 1.5 in two races so far after winning the season opener at New River All-American Speedway, and pulling off an improbable second-place finish at Wake County. And the only reason we describe his finish in such a manner is because of everything that happened to Hall and his No. 88 up until that point. They struggled in practice and qualifying, found some speed in the race, but at one point Hall’s car was ramping skyward off the back of another car. It looked like the type of incident that could end a race, but there was Hall on the frontstretch after the race anyway, celebrating a runner-up result.

Saturday night will be one of the rare times that the Late Model Stock Car division doesn’t have a larger car count than the Pro Late Model division. But, the CARS Tour is heading out of the normal LMSC region and into Super and Pro Late Model territory, so the Pro Late Model field bringing a stout 32 cars to Cordele shouldn’t be a surprise.

Headlining the entry list is two-time SpeedFest Pro Late Model winner, Casey Roderick. The veteran driver from Lawrenceville, Georgia will arguably have the most experience of any of the 60 drivers across both divisions at Cordele this weekend. Roderick has won the PLM portion of SpeedFest twice, and scored multiple podiums in the Super Late Model portion of SpeedFest as well. Roderick will be piloting a No. 62 car for Ty King Motorsports.

Roderick won’t be the only driver behind the wheel of a No. 62 Pro Late Model. In fact, there’s three of them, including Roderick. Driving the No. 62X as a teammate to Roderick will be Alpharetta, Georgia’s Luke Yarbrough. 

And driving the other 62 car in the field out of the Rackley/WAR stable is young Keelan Harvick, who will be making his CARS Tour debut. This will be Harvick’s second attempt at his CARS Tour debut. It was initially supposed to happen last month at New River All-American Speedway, but the second generation driver got sick on race day and was unable to make the start. 

Other notable drivers in the Pro Late Model field include Hudson Bulger, Tristan McKee, Isaac Kitzmiller, Brody Monahan, Tyler Reif, Jett Noaldn, and TJ DeCaire, who came so close to scoring his first victory at New River. DeCaire crossed the finish line first, but was disqualified in post-race technical inspection due to a weight infraction.

Race fans can watch all of the action from Cordele Motor Speedway live on FloRacing beginning at 4 p.m. ET when qualifying will begin for the Pro Late Model division. 28 cars will be taken from qualifying, with two provisionals allotted for each division.

Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.

CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car Entry List

CARS Tour Pro Late Model Entry List