The scenario for the Hartwell Motorsports team was this, the team intends to run the full Milton Cat American-Canadian Tour schedule in 2026 with driver Jake Johnson.
The problem: Johnson is committed to running in a CARS Tour Pro Late Model division event at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C. on Saturday and the American-Canadian Tour is scheduled to run at Star Speedway Saturday.
The solution for Hartwell Motorsports was to find a substitute driver for Johnson for the event at Star.
Mission Accomplished in a big way.
RaceDayCT has learned exclusively that 22-time American-Canadian Tour winner Joey Polewarczyk Jr. will get behind the wheel of the Hartwell Motorsports entry for Saturday’s event at Star Speedway.
“We didn’t know at the start of the season that we were going to be pushing to run every race on the [American-Canadian Tour],” said Jeff Hartwell, who co-owns the Hartwell Motorsports ACT team with Brad Martel. “So Jake already had a commitment to run with the CARS Tour Pro Late Models at Ace Speedway down in North Carolina. I think we did good finding a substitute.
Polewarczyk has madę 153 career ACT starts dating back to 2004.
“It’s a last time minute type thing,” Polewarczyk told RaceDayCT. “Our ACT car isn’t quite ready yet and I guess Jake has some other prior things going on. It’s not too far for me, I like that track, so it should be a good time.”
Polewarczyk has two ACT wins at Star, the first coming 2013 and the last coming in 2019. Saturday’s race will mark his first time driving for the Hartwell Motorsports team.
“They’ve always been around with the series it seems like,” Polewarcyk said. “It’s cool to come together and do this one race deal with them.”
In addition to running the remainder of the ACT schedule for Hartwell Motorsports, Johnson will also run for a Late Model championship at Thompson Speedway for the team. The team won the Late Model championship at Thompson in 2025 with Johnson behind the wheel. Johnson finished second for the team in the Thompson Late Model season opener on April 12.
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