The CARS Tour heads to one of its original tracks on Saturday night for a battle in Rougemont, North Carolina at the ⅜-mile Orange County Speedway. At least four cars will be sent home from the Late Model Stock Car field as 32 cars, including 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, attempt to make the 28-car starting field.

Headlining the entry list this week is the previously mentioned Newman. The South Bend, Indiana native is attempting to make his CARS Tour debut for Matt Piercy Racing in the No. 7 machine. Newman, who has won the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in his NASCAR career, has been running pavement Modifieds with the SMART Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour the last few years. Newman just scored a SMART Modified Tour victory right here at Orange County just a few weeks ago.

Two notable drivers are returning to CARS Tour competition this week with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series taking the weekend off. 

We’ll start off with Front Row Motorsports driver Layne Riggs, who will be piloting the No. 17 for Tom Usry Racing on Saturday night. The Bahama, North Carolina driver has won at Orange County in the past, including leading every single lap at Orange County close to a decade ago now. Riggs grew up just a few minutes away from Orange County Speedway, so he has plenty of laps around this unique, high-banked oval.

Joining Riggs and the CARS Tour on their Truck Series off-weekend is reigning CARS Tour Pro Late Model champion Kaden Honeycutt. The Aledo, Texas driver will be doing double-duty this weekend at Orange County. He is piloting a Late Model Stock Car for Hettinger Racing, and a Pro Late Model for Bryson Lopez Racing, the team he won the championship with last season. Honeycutt went to victory lane twice at Orange County last year in the inaugural Orange Krush 200, and the CARS Tour Pro Late Model race. Honeycutt pulled double-duty at Orange County last year as well, scoring the PLM win and finishing second to Brent Crews in the Late Model Stock feature.

Saturday’s race is the fourth of 15 on the calendar for the Late Model Stock Car division. So far this season race wins have belonged to Connor Hall, who won the season opener at New River All-American Speedway and most recently at Cordele Motor Speedway, and Mini Tyrrell, who took home the trophy from Wake County Speedway.

While it’s still early in the year, Hall leads the championship points battle over Tyrrell by 21 points thanks to an average finish of 1.3 over three races. Kade Brown sits close behind Tyrrell in third, 25 points back, while Landen Lewis and Doug Barnes Jr. are tied for fourth, 28 points behind Hall. 

The complete entry lists for both divisions can be found below.

Saturday’s CARS Tour doubleheader at Orange County Speedway goes live at 4:30 p.m. ET with qualifying set to follow at 4:40 p.m. ET. Racing will begin at approximately 7 p.m. ET with the 100-lap Pro Late Model race. The 125-lap Late Model Stock Car feature is expected to go green close to 8:30 p.m. ET.

Race fans can watch all of the action live on FloRacing with a FloRacing subscription. Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.

CARS Tour Late Model Stock At Orange County Entry List

CARS Tour Pro Late Model At Orange County Entry List