A little over half of the 2025 ASA STARS National Tour season has come and gone, with several important notes and stories having unfolded throughout the year.
One of the biggest storylines coming into the season was the creation of the Platinum Program, a season-long incentive program originally valued at $950,000, or $65,000 for each of the original 15 participating race teams.
Each qualifying team received a plethora of bonuses and other perks if they signed on. Among other items, some of these aforementioned perks included:
- $1,500 in additional starting money for each event
- Free entry to all 12 events, saving $200 per event
- Four hard card pit passes per event
- Two Track TV annual subscriptions
- Guaranteed starting provisionals in each race if needed
At the expense of a $10,000 buy-in and a commitment to the full season, that’s obviously an extremely good deal. And teams quickly caught on; the program had overwhelmingly positive reception, leading to a 925% increase in full-time competition from 2024.
But with seven events complete and just five remaining, how has the program held up?
Overall, it’s safe to say that the program has proven to be a big success. Through the Wisconsin race weekend, 11 of the original 15 teams remain as full-time competitors. Even if that’s only 73% of the original full-time roster, it’s still a big boost from the number of full-time teams in years prior.
The four drivers that have fallen out of full-time competiton to this point in the year are Johnny Sauter, Ty Fredrickson, Billy VanMeter and, most notably, Bubba Pollard.
It’s a pretty big deal when any of those four drivers fall off of a Super Late Model series, but Pollard in particular is a substantial loss. The famed short track ace had yet to complete a full ASA STARS season before this year, with many believing that the Platinum Program could finally be the right incentive to lock down Pollard for the entirety of 2025.
That’s not to say that Pollard won’t return for any remaining STARS events this year. According to officials during the ASA STARS visit to Madison International Speedway, Pollard evidently cited obligations with his family-owned sanitation business as the cause for him missing the series’ doubleheader in Wisconsin. The door is seemingly still open for Pollard to return to STARS competition whenever he wants to.
In years past, Pollard has fallen off of the tour when he has deemed himself to be out of contention for the title hunt. Others have done the same as well, including another Super Late Model ace and rival to Pollard, Stephen Nasse.
With only a little over half of the season complete, the 2025 title chase is starting to wind down. Series points leader Cole Butcher has stretched his lead to a margin of 85 points over rookie competitor Carson Brown. According to the ASA STARS point system document, the maximum amount of points that a driver can score on any given weekend is 100.
This means that we are almost to the point where Butcher can miss a whole race and still hold the championship lead. This shows that for drivers further back in the standings, this 2025 championship is going to be a tall, if not mathematically impossible, achievement to obtain.
In years past, this point of the season – right around the Wisconsin weekend – is where racers have decided to pull out of the title fight because it wasn’t mathematically feasible. So far, the field’s largely still sticking around.
While the overall number of STARS Tour races has increased to 12 in 2025 as opposed to 10 in previous seasons, we are still in a crucial point of the calendar. This next stretch of the season will tell if the benefits of the Platinum Program outweigh the improbability of some drivers’ championship aspirations.
But regardless of how things turn out throughout the remainder of 2025, the ASA STARS Platinum Program has undoubtedly been a huge step forward for the series, improving car counts and making the tour exciting to watch. It’ll be interesting to see how things unfold from here.
