Counting CARS: 3 Takeaways From The CARS Tour’s Cordele Debut

CORDELE, G.A.- For the first time ever, the CARS Tour field had Georgia on their minds.

The series made its highly-anticipated debut in the Peach State this past Saturday night (April 12) at Cordele Motor Speedway, showcasing Late Model Stock cars (LMSC) for the first time at the Georgia track.

There was no shortage of action throughout the night. But while things got messy behind him, Connor Hall kept his usual poise and held off Mini Tyrrell in a fierce battle to pick up his second Tour win of the year.

From missed shifts and messy restarts to a solid LMSC debut, here are three takeaways from the CARS Tour’s first trip to the watermelon farms in Cordele.

Hall, Tyrrell Put On A Clinic Despite Chaos Behind

In large part, the racing we saw on Saturday night was sloppy and left something to be desired. But the same cannot be said about the battle for the win, as Hall and Tyrrell put on a masterful display of clean, hard racing in a race-long battle for the win.

After taking the front row in qualifying, the two ran 1-2, swapping the lead all night long. Hall had the advantage on the short run, but as the laps began to click off in each run, Tyrrell’s No. 81 would come to life. The duo each other fairly, never laying a fender on one another as they battled side-by-side and nose-to-tail.

In the end it was Hall that prevailed, taking advantage of a caution frenzy in the closing stages to pick up the win.

“It’s gonna be a fun battle between the two of us all year,” Hall said of Tyrrell post-race. “The number one thing I think I really enjoyed, whether I came out on top or not, was the professionalism and the cleanliness between him and I in our racing.

“It’s really fun and refreshing. I said the same thing about Bobby [McCarty] at New-River. It’s just fun to race and not have to worry, ‘Oh, is he gonna drive through me or not?’

“It’s a blessing to compete on this tour and I’m super pumped to win this race. This was a big one for me. Hopefully there’s gonna be a couple more.”

Hall and Tyrrell have now split all three pole awards and race wins to open the 2025 season, with Tyrrell leading in the poles category 2-1 while Hall has the upper hand in race wins. Hall has the upper hand so far, but Tyrrell and the No. 81 team are off to a hot start and seem to be in championship form.

“He was able to take off from the green a lot better than I could,” Tyrrell said of Hall. “I don’t know if it was just the way we had our pressures and letting them come up, maybe could have changed it a little bit. Definitely had the long run speed on him, I feel like if we got strung out for 15-20 laps I was just slowly inching back to him.

“I had a shot to get down there and possibly toss him out of the way, but we raced each other so clean all night. I just showed him the same respect he gave to me all night.”

After the past couple weeks, seeing these two not only preach respect, but practice it on racetrack, was refreshing – a welcomed change from the issues that have plagued short track racing at higher levels in recent months.

Both Tyrrell and Hall seem to be firing on all cylinders. If not for a restart stack-up early on at New-River All American Speedway, Tyrrell might be right along side Hall at the top of the standings.

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone else can join the championship battle. But for now, the Nos. 88 and 81 are a step above the rest.

Hinde Survives Spin-Filled Race for Top 10 In LMSC Debut

South Georgia, and more specifically Cordele, is in the heart of Super Late Model (SLM) country. When the CARS Tour announced that it would be racing at the facility, many wondered who from the SLM world would take their shot at LMSC competition.

The answer was Michael Hinde.

The 19-year old out of Hernando, Fla., is no stranger to success at Cordele. Hinde picked up his first big money victory at the track last fall, winning $35,000 dollars at the revival of the World Crown 300.

But even with that experience, switching from the much lighter SLM to a LMSC is a tall order for anyone – even if your first start comes in top notch equipment with Lee Pulliam Performance.

Hinde delivered for the majority of the day, putting the car fourth in qualifying and holding strong in the top five for a majority of the race. But things began to fall apart as the cautions stacked up late in the race.

Hinde spun on a restart with 15 laps to go and looped around again toward the back of the field with eight laps remaining. But his car emerged from the accidents intact and Hinde rallied to eighth in the closing laps to claim a top 10 in his LMSC debut.

“I could’ve done a little bit better job as a driver,” Hinde told Frontstretch post-race. “I saw they were slow on the restart. I don’t know if they missed a shift or what happened. Tried to fill the hole and just got a little loose and spun it.

“These cars are a lot different than I’m used to – a lot heavier – so it’s more of a lazier feel. Just a different feel than I’m used to.”

After an eventful, but ultimately successful, night for Hinde, the itch is there to run more LMSC races. The Floridian doesn’t have anything in the works at the moment, but would love to jump behind the wheel for LPP again in 2025.

“We haven’t talked about anything, but I definitely would like this to not be our last race in a Late Model Stock this season,” he admitted. “So we’re gonna talk and try to work something out. I’d definitely like to try and run it (at least) once or twice more this season.”

It’s always fun to watch drivers from different areas of late model racing venture out and take on new challenges. If Hinde has interest, it would be intriguing to see him travel north to LMSC country. There’s an upcoming $50,000-to-win race at Hickory Motor Speedway that might spark his interest.

Restart Problems and Fuel Mileage Racing Needs to Change

Four hours.

That’s how much time passed between the start of the Pro Late Model race and the end of the Late Model Stock car race. And it’s an obvious sign of a show that ran for far too long.

There’s no reason we should be taking four hours for a late model show at any racetrack. Tracks shouldn’t have fans still at the racetrack trying to watch the end of a race with midnight drawing near

There are a multitude of reasons why this happened Saturday night and the series is well aware, so there will surely be discussions had about what can be fixed. But it’s also fair to say that this isn’t a new problem – just one that has finally come to a head.

A 2024 trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway saw missed shifts tear up a host of racecars. Last fall at Tri-County Speedway, caution frenzies led to far too many caution laps and a fuel mileage race.

Those factors all combined to make for a messy Saturday night at Cordele.

At least four cars missed shifts from the front of the field in the two races, causing multiple expensive stack-ups, including one that ended series co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr‘s night. Couple that with a multitude of spins towards the back of the field and the cautions began to pile-up.

The cautions themselves could use work, too. It’s taking far too long to get the line-ups right, meaning cars just roll around and burn fuel under caution. As these issues begin to feed off of each other, the clock ticks away.

“We didn’t put our best product together tonight,” Earnhardt said post-race. “We had a lot of cautions, just a late show. The show ended way too late. Just those frustrating things that we’re trying to do better as a tour, as a series.”

Earnhardt went on to mention how earlier start times may be necessary. And while big car counts for both series are a great thing, it may also incidentally be exacerbating these issues.

Drivers have their own opinions on the issues at hand and what can be done to fix them. Landon Huffman has never been one to shy away from voicing an opinion, and shared his on fuel mileage racing after a third place finish.

“We’re Late Model Stock racing, so we shouldn’t be fuel mileage racing,” Huffman told Frontstretch. “That’s pretty aggravating. It’s funny, we know that (it’s coming), so I save fuel from the beginning. You hate to do that. You hate to already have to prepare for things like that, but you do in these races.

“Honestly, they just need to clean up the cautions. If we have a caution, we’ve got to get sorted out faster than (in) four, five (or) six caution laps, just so that we’re not sitting there wasting fuel.”

It’s a shame that these are the things needing to be discussed, because the atmosphere at Cordele was great. The fans showed out and it was fun to get outside the comfort zone of the Carolinas and Virginia. But a two-hour late model stock feature is something that puts more of a stain on the series than boosts its reputation, and it can’t become a regular trend.

What’s Next?

The CARS Tour now takes a week off for Easter weekend before returning to Orange County Speedway on Saturday, April 26. Both the Late Model Stock cars and Pro Late Models will be back in action, with coverage from FloRacing.