Plato will be part of a multi-car team fielded by ex-BTCC competitor John Bintcliffe, who commented "This series is where it's at. Big cars, big horsepower, big speed and big television coverage, means big entertainment.".

Plato stated that he wanted to defend his title in 2002, but as time moved on it became clear that he would be unable to secure a drive in the championship after Vauxhall decided not to renew his contract. Plato has been looking at moving to the NASCAR Winston Cup in the United States, he sees ASCAR as the first step towards this goal, "I've been a fan of this type of racing in the United States and I've been itching to try these cars for a while.".

ASCAR is a stock car oval series based on the NASCAR series in America. It races at two oval tracks, Rockingham in Corby and the Eurospeedway in Germany. To learn more about ASCAR visit the official website at ASCAR.co.uk