RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 2, 2026--
Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP), a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider in North America that serves both professional installers and do-it-yourself customers, today launched Advance Rewards – a new, modernized loyalty program designed to deliver greater value and features that matter to its heavy and light DIY customers. The new program replaces the former Speed Perks program and rolls out today at all Advance locations and online.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260202993976/en/
"Advance Rewards delivers the value that our customers are asking for in a loyalty program,” said Bruce Starnes, executive vice president, chief merchant at Advance Auto Parts. "At the same time, it gives us more tools to engage with them, in part through personalized experiences. We put the customer first in everything we do at Advance, which is why we've added exciting new features that recognize customer engagement while maintaining familiarity embedded in the core structure of the program.”
New Advance Rewards features also include exclusive vendor partnerships that offer members-only deals, bonus points promotions on popular products and sweepstakes opportunities. Members can gain visibility into their rewards and can combine coupons directly in the Advance mobile app and through POS integration in Advance stores.
Reward tiers include:
Loyalty members represent a large portion of Advance Auto Parts' heavy and light DIY business, and by modernizing the program, the company is providing greater value and flexibility to members.
Customers can join Advance Rewards for free at all Advance Auto Parts locations and online at AdvanceAutoParts.com.
Visit www.AdvanceAutoParts.com/AdvanceRewards for more information.
About Advance Auto Parts
Advance Auto Parts, Inc. is a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider that serves both professional installers and do-it-yourself customers. As of October 4, 2025, Advance operated 4,297 stores primarily within the United States, with additional locations in Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Company also served 814 independently owned Carquest branded stores across these locations in addition to Mexico and various Caribbean islands. Additional information about Advance, including employment opportunities, customer services and online shopping for parts, accessories and other offerings can be found at www.AdvanceAutoParts.com.
Advance Rewards maintains a familiar, tiered structure while introducing meaningful improvements and value that make it easier to earn and redeem rewards and provide customers with more ways to save. The loyalty program’s revised three-tier system – 1st Gear, 2nd Gear, and Top Gear – rewards more frequent shoppers with higher rewards rates and provides greater coupon flexibility, including the ability to combine coupons for up to $100 in savings.
LACANAU, France (AP) — Europe’s wildfire crisis split into three stark fronts Sunday: gale-force winds drove flames deeper into the Athens region and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris, and Spain’s major fires stopped advancing.
The most immediate danger was in Greece. Flames spread through western Attica, the region around Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara as violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. The danger carried grim resonance in a region where the 2018 Mati wildfire killed 104 people, Europe’s deadliest blaze this century.
Farther west, containment brought no end to the emergency. France’s largest wildfire remained held within its perimeter after forcing 224,000 people to flee in what may have been the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
Hot spots still burned within a 420-square-kilometer (162-square-mile) scar, thousands remained unable to return home, and nearly 3,000 firefighters were deployed against the Gironde megafire and a second, still-uncontained blaze in Provence.
Together, fires in France and Spain have driven roughly a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites, emptied communities at the height of the European summer and stretched emergency services across simultaneous disasters.
The mass evacuations in France and Spain are the latest measure of a wildfire threat growing across Europe.
The continent entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) burned in 2025. Over the past four decades, wildfires have been linked to nearly 800 deaths across much of Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. It has warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Human-caused climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind this year’s French blazes at least twice as likely, scientists at World Weather Attribution found in a rapid analysis conducted while the fires were still burning.
Nearly 500 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed, but gale-force winds drove flames through dry forest and crippled the response, preventing some aircraft from reaching the sea to collect water.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli as smoke rose over the mountains. Crews were particularly concerned about Porto Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was briefed on the operation.
The fire began Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. Firefighters evacuated 254 people by sea Friday and another 12 Saturday — often the last escape route when fire and smoke cut the few roads from coastal communities.
Wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros estimated the blaze had affected 40 to 50 square kilometers (15 to 19 square miles), though authorities had issued no official figure.
Elsewhere in Greece, flames threatened homes on Kefalonia, forcing evacuations from inland communities as aircraft made water drops over the Ionian island. Firefighters battled another blaze near Nea Tenedos in Halkidiki.
Earlier this week, two firefighters died fighting a fire on Crete, while a third was killed in the Peloponnese.
“A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire,” local farmer Minas Tzortzanis said Saturday. “There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”
In southwestern France, the Gironde megafire remained held within its perimeter Sunday but continued to burn after scorching 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of forest in 10 days.
“The fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde prefecture said, using the French firefighting term for a blaze whose advance has been stopped.
The region remained under France’s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions, soaring temperatures around Bordeaux and afternoon winds threatened to rekindle the flames.
In Le Porge, local officials said about 150 homes were destroyed. Mechanic Matthieu Plessis returned Saturday to the ruins of a house that had been in his family for seven generations.
“There are places I don’t even recognize anymore,” he said. “You don’t even know what was here anymore, or who lived where.”
Firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.
In southeastern France, nearly 1,500 firefighters battled a separate blaze in the Var department that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles) in little more than a day.
The Gros Bessillon fire was stabilized Sunday after its perimeter held overnight, but it remained uncontained. Some 2,500 people were evacuated as flames threatened nearby communities.
It was the fourth major fire to strike central Var since July 19. A smaller blaze near Brignoles earlier in the week forced actor George Clooney and his family, along with about 700 other residents, to evacuate before it was brought under control.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France’s fires were generally under control but warned that conditions remained volatile. He appointed a national coordinator to oversee reconstruction in fire-ravaged areas.
More than 1,170 square kilometers (452 square miles) have burned across France this year.
Spain’s major fires — part of a season that has killed at least 13 people, produced the country’s largest recorded wildfire and prompted a national emergency — were no longer advancing Sunday.
In Zamora province near the Portuguese border, more than 20 ground and aerial units guarded the perimeter of the Fermoselle fire against flare-ups in the rugged Arribes del Duero landscape. Most evacuees had returned home, according to local media.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to confront wildfires, warning that climate change is making them increasingly destructive.
Adamson reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Michael Varaklas in Megara, Greece, and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report
A firefighting helicopter drops water over a smoke-filled forest during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
A firefighting helicopter drops water over a smoke-filled forest during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
An Airbus helicopter lets a Bambi Bucket full of water go over a firezone, near Blagon, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
A firefighting helicopter releases water over a wildfire near Correns, southeastern France, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (Clement Mahoudeau/Pool Photo via AP)
The light flows through a charred forest near Ares, during wildfires in southwestern France, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An aerial view of a homes burned by wildfires in Le Porge, southwestern France, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
A firefighter walks through a charred forest near Blagon, during wildfires, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
