On the heels of honoring the 2016 champions at the annual CARS Tour banquet held at Hendrick Motorsports Team Center in Concord, NC, The CARS Tour announced multiple qualifying and race event formats for the upcoming 2017 season, set to kick off March 11 at Concord (NC) Speedway. The formats are meant to add identity, strategy, and variety to the young touring series heading into its third season of competition, according to a press release from CARS Tour.

Three different qualifying formats will be used over the course of the 12-race season. Traditional single car qualifying will continue to set the starting field at select events, with the fastest car starting from the pole position, just as has been done since the series inception in 2015.

New for 2017, however, will be Group Qualifying, in which drivers will be grouped via random draw, and have five laps to set the fastest time. The fastest qualifier overall will start from the pole position for the feature event.

Perhaps the most intriguing new qualifying format for 2017 will be Knockout Two Step Qualifying. Teams will get eight minutes in round one to make a qualifying attempt, with the fastest eight competitors advancing to round two. After a short four minute break between rounds, round two participants will get five minutes to qualify on the pole position for the events feature race. With hopes of increased fan attendance, CARS Tour officials will make an effort to schedule these timed sessions closer to the feature event start times.

Similar to qualifying, three different race formats will be utilized throughout the 2017 season. The majority of the events will still see the traditional 100-150 green flag lap races that followers of the CARS Tour have become accustomed.

The two new race formats introduced for the upcoming year will be Duel and Live Pit Stop race formats. In Duel events, each division will have two 50-75 lap feature events each paying $2,500 to win and $300 to start with each race awarding championship points. Thus the 2017 championship battle will see drivers have 15 chances to earn points at 12 different events.

The Live Pit Stop format is said to have the ingredients for suspense and unpredictability that fans of short track racing desire. Competitors will be required to make two pit stops, for position, under yellow flag conditions throughout races 100-150 laps in distance. The pit stops will consist of a single crew member removing an item from the car as set forth by CARS Tour officials. No tires or fuel can be changed or added during the stops thus the format will add no additional cost to teams, while still adding a vast amount of strategy.

“You have to be adaptive, unique, and create fresh new ideas that keep people interested and entertained. As a society it’s pretty evident that we think, act, and socialize different than we did even as a little as five years ago. At the end of the day we understand that we as a series are in the entertainment business while our competitors are in the competition business. We feel these new formats not only add to the entertainment value, but in fact add to the competition value with a true team effort via strategy now necessary to win at some CARS Tour events, “ explained Chris Ragle, CARS Tour Series Director. “Our sport, unlike that of many stick and ball sports, has gotten complacent at times over the years when it comes to changes. That’s something we want to make sure doesn’t happen within the CARS Tour. We feel these are changes that will add to our series overall and make for an exciting 2017 season."

As part of the continued education process of these formats as well as the major events at Bristol, Anderson, and the new Mid Atlantic Classic on the 2017 schedule, the CARS Tour will host two Facebook Live question and answer sessions open to fans, drivers, owners, and sponsors. The first one will be Monday January 23rd at 8pm, followed by another one on Wednesday February 8th at 8pm. These two sessions will lead up to the 3rd Annual CARS Tour Media Night at SRI Performance in Mooresville, NC on Wednesday March 1st at 7pm. The official CARS Tour Facebook page can be found here.

All 2017 forms for the upcoming season including rulebooks, owner/driver registration forms, annual race entry, and the hard card application have been released on the CARS Tour website at www.carsracingtour.com. For more CARS Tour information, call 704/662-9212.

March 11
Circle Track Warehouse 200	Qualifying Format: Knockout
Concord Speedway-Concord, NC	Race Format: 100L Live Pit Stop Races

March 25
Duels at Dominion 300	Qualifying Format: Single Car
Dominion Raceway-Thornburg, VA	Race Format: 75L Duel Races

***Highest average SLM finisher in both races locked in US Short Track Nationals at Bristol***

April 22
Orange Blossom 300	Qualifying Format: Group
Orange County Speedway-Rougemont, NC	Race Format: 150L Green Flag Races

May 6
Catawba Valley 300	Qualifying Format: Single Car
Hickory Motor Speedway-Hickory, NC	Race Format: 75L Duel Races

***Highest average LMSC finisher in both races locked in US Short Track Nationals at Bristol***

May 21
U.S. Nationals of Short Track Racing	Qualifying Format: TBA
Bristol Motor Speedway-Bristol, TN	Race Format: 100L Green Flag Races

June 10
CARS Tour/SSS 250	Qualifying Format: Single Car
Anderson Motor Speedway-Williamston, SC	Race Format: 125L Green Flag Races

June 24
Do The Dew 200	Qualifying Format: Group
Tri-County Motor Speedway-Hudson, NC	Race Format: 100L Green Flag Races

July 22
Mid Atlantic Classic	Qualifying Format: Single Car
Orange County Speedway-Rougemont, NC	Race Format: SLM 150L Special TBA - LMSC 100L Green Flag

*** SLM - $50,000 Purse-$10,000 to Win-$1,000 to Start***

August 5
Throwback 276	Qualifying Format: Single Car
Hickory Motor Speedway-Hickory, NC	Race Format: 138L Live Pit Stop Races

August 26
Race to Remember 250	Qualifying Format: Knockout
Concord Speedway-Concord, NC	Race Format: 125L Green Flag Races

September 16
BakerDist.com 200	Qualifying Format: Knockout
Myrtle Beach Speedway-Myrtle Beach, SC	Race Format: 50L Duel Races

October 14
SoBo 250	Qualifying Format: Knockout
South Boston Speedway-South Boston, VA	Race Format: 125L Live Pit Stop Races

Qualifying Format Breakdown         Race Format Breakdown
Single Car: 5                                       Green Flag Traditional: 6 (LMSC) 5 (SLM)
Group: 2                                              Duels: 3
Two Step Knockout: 4                         Live Pit Stop: 3
TBD: 1                                                TBD: 1 (SLM)