CORDELE, Ga. — The zMAX CARS Tour made its long awaited debut at Cordele Motor Speedway on Saturday (April 12), with an entry list headlined by none other than series co-owner and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The famed No. 8 returned to the grassroots scene with ‘Little E’ behind the wheel for the first time since Florence Motor Speedway last season, when the equally-famous Budweiser No. 8 made its grand return to competition after decades away from the sport.
Earnhardt qualified 15th in the 27-car late model stock car division, but quickly found his way to the top 10, spending most of the evening from ninth to 11th. He suffered a minor setback when Lanie Buice spun in front of him and caused his car to stall, but rebounded quickly. By the final restart, Earnhardt was lined up in fifth, third on the inside lane.
That’s when Carson Loftin, restarting just ahead of Earnhardt in third, stumbled as the field took the green, causing the two-time Daytona 500 winner to smash into Loftin’s No. 22 and destroy the hood of the No. 8.
With only a handful of laps to go at that point, Earnhardt ultimately limped his now-wrecked racecar behind the wall for a disappointing 21st-place result.
Initially believed to be due to a fuel pickup issue (as most cars were dangerously low on fuel at that point), Loftin later told Frontstretch he missed a shift to cause the stack up.
“Restarts have really been my struggle,” Loftin said post-race. “It’s just a lot different than what I’m used to, coming from the modified. I was kind of in my head on that last restart and I missed the shift, and cost us a good finish.”
Loftin didn’t suffer as much damage as Earnhardt, but still faded from third to ninth. The pair engaged in a discussion after the race.
”Dale Jr. came over and said something to me [about] what he does to not let that happen,” said Loftin. “That’s pretty neat for him to talk me through that.”
Loftin was far from the only driver on the night to miss a shift. In the Pro Late Model (PLM) race, TJ DeCaire missed a shift from the front row on a restart and caused a huge crash that brought out a lengthy red flag for cleanup.
TJ DeCaire misses a shift and we have a JUNKYARD in turn 1.#CARSTour #ProLateModels #Byron225 pic.twitter.com/Jitvv1IGPJ
— Anthony Damcott (@AnthonyDamcott) April 13, 2025
Keelan Harvick (son of CARS Tour co-owner Kevin Harvick) also missed a shift from the lead. While it didn’t cause a crash, it took him out of a shot to win in his PLM debut. In the Late Model Stock Car feature, PLM winner Tristan McKee caused a big crash after his car also stumbled from third.
This isn’t the first time the CARS Tour’s seen a prominent missed shift. Last August at North Wilkesboro Speedway, eventual race winner Treyten Lapcevich missed a shift early and caused a huge wreck, drawing the ire of several competitors.
The shifting gremlins returned in a major way at Cordele.
Earnhardt noticed, even before falling victim to them himself with Loftin.
”We’ve got a lot of guys missing shifts,” Earnhardt said after the race. “Going down the backstretch coming to the green, I’m going from third to fourth [gear] over and over. … Just getting some muscle memory in my arm — because I don’t wanna be that guy that destroys the field.”
Earnhardt said he wasn’t mad at Loftin for his mistake, aside from the fact his car got destroyed. But he was frustrated about the overall product, which was plagued with crashes, cautions and red flags that caused the combined 225-lap affair to stretch on for nearly four hours.
The race ran so long that LMSC drivers were on the verge of running out of fuel before making it through all 125 laps due to all the caution laps. Landon Huffman was among the most vocal drivers about the issue after the race.
“We’re Late Model Stock racing, we shouldn’t be fuel mileage racing,” Huffman said. “That’s pretty aggravating. It’s funny, we know that, so I save from the beginning. … Honestly, we gotta clean up the cautions. If we have a caution, (we’ve) gotta get it sorted out faster than (in) four, five (or) six caution laps, just so we’re not sitting there wasting fuel.”
“We came down here to Cordele with a lot of people watching,” Earnhardt added. “We had a lot of folks in the stands and we had probably a good crowd watching on Flo[Sports] — and we didn’t put our best product together. We had a lot of cautions, the show ended way too late.
”Just some frustrating things that we’re trying to do better as a series. … There’s some things we need to improve.”
The late show wasn’t exactly the fault of the drivers, as the control tower held cautions for a long time. Michael Hinde went for a spin in turn 2 and got back going, but the series kept the yellow out for what felt like 20 laps (not aided by the fact that caution laps don’t count in either division). Red flags felt similarly arduous to sit through – again not aided by the fact that there were two apiece in each race.
”I’m in the car tonight wishing I was in the [control] booth helping them move things along,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know everything going on, so you’re sitting there in the car going ‘alright man, why didn’t we get the one to go there?’
“Every caution feels like it adds two or three more laps than it should. What are the reasons for that? And there are probably some good reasons that I don’t understand.“
Earnhardt gave his thoughts on future fixes for the series by stating more bodies needed to be in the control tower. He would also like to establish a wave around and free pass policy while speeding up the length of time spent under caution.
”We’re trying to run a short track race like we always did before streaming,” Earnhardt said of the product. “Now that streaming’s here, you gotta serve this in a neat little package.
“Our drivers have very fair arguments and disappointment, and I do too. I’m in the car and i was so freaking frustrated with all the cautions and all the mistakes and the drivers’ mistakes and everything else. We had a great opportunity to showcase the great things about this Tour, and we missed that opportunity. And I hate that.”
The pace of the races are going to be a big discussion for the next month. The CARS Tour, FloRacing and FOX Sports recently reached an agreement to simulcast the upcoming North Wilkesboro race live on FOX Sports 1 – yes, national television – in May.
”Getting us on FOX Sports 1 is amazing for our teams and amazing for the Tour,” said Earnhardt. “We’re gonna have to do a damn better job than we did tonight to fit in that 1.5-hour window we’ve got. Because it ain’t gonna be no joke — the FOX Sports 1 deal is gonna be ‘hey, here’s your window. Start your race, finish your race.’ We can’t be messing around and riding around under caution like that, or we’ll go off the air without a finish.”
Earnhardt said the CARS Tour was not committed to returning to Cordele next season, but not due to the track itself. With a seven-hour drive for most teams coming from the heart of Mooresville, N.C., Earnhardt didn’t rule out exploring other racetracks within an eight-hour radius.
”Our teams enjoyed their trip,” Earnhardt said. “I know we tore up a bunch of sh*t, so there’s probably some people not too happy about dragging their torn up cars home. But I think there’s a weekend out of the calendar year where we can do something fun. … So we [may] take this one weekend and go, ‘Hey, what fun thing can we do with it? Where can we go that we haven’t been before that our teams would love to go?’
“I’m thankful they embraced [Cordele] — that was my ask, and they embraced it. We’ll see what [the track] thought about it.”
If there’s one reason Earnhardt could be convinced to return, it’s that his full-time driver, Connor Hall, took home the victory. Hall was engaged in a battle with polesitter Mini Tyrrell all night and was able to get the better of the No. 81 to earn the victory in the Tour’s inaugural race at Cordele.
Hall was one of the drivers who greatly embraced the atmosphere and racing at Cordele, and praised his team owner in part.
“To the track ownership group, amazing job,” Hall said post-race. “To the CARS Tour ownership group — I don’t know who was the chicken or the egg, but shout out to both of them because this was a pretty special event.
”To see what Dale and his group have done for short track racing is just awesome.”
”Connor’s gonna take care of Connor,” Earnhardt said of his driver. “He’s awesome. He’s gonna do what he does — he’s a good driver, good winner. If we give him a good car, he’s gonna finish good with it. … He understands that he’s gotta walk a straight line and buckle down, and man, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to.
”I’m not gonna change a thing about what he does on the racetrack.”
Overall, it wasn’t the best night on the tour for Junebug – as an owner or driver. But it wasn’t really the worst, either.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.