Friday’s zMAX CARS Tour AcceleratedGFX.com 285 at Ace Speedway saw competitors race themselves, the track and the weather.
With rain gradually surrounding the facility, CARS LMSC Tour drivers could not waste any time and spent every lap frantically battling for track position. The anticipated shower never arrived, resulting in a thrilling finish that created plenty of hurt feelings and left spectators amazed.
Several late race incidents eliminated many of the top contenders either due to crash damage or from being under penalty. When the dust settled, Brent Crews would be the one on top of the scoring pylon, earning his third victory of 2024 and keeping his LMSC Tour championship hopes alive.
The 100-lap Pro Late Model feature was almost equally as intense. Several drivers took turns out in the front of the field, but it would be Caden Kvapil overcoming early adversity to complete a clean sweep of the season at Ace for the PLM Tour.
Brent Crews takes advantage of late-race chaos
Brent Crews was prepared to settle for a solid outing at Ace Speedway with ten laps remaining in the CARS LMSC Tour feature.
When the checkered flag waved, Crews was in Victory Lane.
Potential winners in Brenden Queen, Ryan Millington, Connor Hall, Conner Jones and others all fell by the wayside during a chaotic sprint to the finish. Crews utilized the circumstances presented to him by fending off Mini Tyrrell through two late restarts to continue a stellar rookie LMSC Tour campaign.
“It means everything to win,” Crews said. “Everybody races to win and if you’re not, then what are you doing? I have to thank the Lord above for getting us here, but I wouldn’t want to do this with any other group. We’ve spent so many hours working on my craft and getting into different cars so I could better myself, not just in this series but for my career.”
A versatile competitor with success on both dirt tracks and road courses, Crews has seamlessly adapted to the grueling, competitive LMSC Tour environment. Two victories in 11 starts had Crews within reach of the championship lead heading into Ace.
Finishing 15th at the end of his first trip to Ace back in May left Crews and Kevin Harvick Inc. with plenty of work in front of them if they hoped to be competitive on Friday evening. Crews admitted his No. 29 Toyota Camry likely would not have prevailed without the onslaught of cautions, but was more than satisfied to have luck favor him in the closing stages.
Queen and Hall rebounding from separate on-track issues for top five finishes prevented Crews from erasing a significant portion of his points deficit. Making a championship push will require tremendous effort from Crews over the final five races, but he takes comfort in knowing he will have race-winning speed every week.
“I’m thankful to have everybody around me,” Crews said. “[That includes] everybody at Toyota Racing and Mobil 1. I put a lot of my success into their hands. Shannon [Rusch] and all those guys at KHI have done a great job. You can’t win races without a great race car, so I’m super fortunate to put this fast Toyota Mobil 1 Camry into Victory Lane.”
Mini Tyrrell continues rebound with second consecutive runner-up finish
A chaotic sequence of events to close out the Late Model Stock portion of the AcceleratedGFX.com 285 at Ace Speedway saw Mini Tyrrell back up a strong performance at North Wilkesboro Speedway with another second-place run.
The journey to the front was an arduous one for Tyrrell, who maintained composure through the chaos that unfolded at the end of the CARS LMSC Tour feature. While he wished his night could have gone smoother, Tyrrell was happy to see the hard work of his organization rewarded once again.
“I’m really proud of my guys’ effort and how they fought all night,” Tyrrell said. “We didn’t have the best car at the start of the race and got into some trouble early. I came down pit road and we made some good adjustments. I rode around, stayed on the lead lap and made our charge to the front restart by restart.”
Following a disappointing from April to June that only saw him record a single top five, Tyrrell has been working diligently to re-establish the speed he possessed at the beginning of 2024.
North Wilkesboro was a step in the right direction, but Tyrrell wanted to see how his car would measure up at Ace following a ninth place run there in May. The evening proved to be a more unorthodox night for Tyrrell compared to North Wilkesboro, who had to use luck and skill to salvage an efficient points night.
Despite the satisfaction of recording two straight runner-up showings, Tyrrell also expressed frustration over how drivers conducted themselves during the final 10 laps. Tyrrell wants to see his competition exercise more patience during their next race at Wake County, which he believes can end with his first LMSC Tour victory in nearly three years.
“A lot of people just threw respect out the window in this one,” Tyrrell said. “They were just running over each other and I hope I didn’t do that to anybody tonight. Everyone was kind of hitting everyone and I was just dodging the bullets that were flying constantly. I can’t tell you how many times I thought we were in it.”
Caden Kvapil continues family dominance at Ace
With his brother Carson Kvapil at Michigan International Speedway for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, his younger brother Caden Kvapil took it upon himself to ensure his family would enjoy another celebration at Ace Speedway.
A brake issue nearly prevented Caden from even contending for the CARS PLM Tour victory. Once his crew rectified the problem, Caden went to work carving his way through the field before chasing down and passing Kaden Honeycutt for the victory with only eight laps remaining.
Placing third in his CARS LMSC Tour debut right afterwards capped off a perfect evening for Caden.
“We had a really good night in both cars,” Caden said. “In the Pro race, I was riding and the [brake] pedal went to the floor randomly. We got it fixed and found out on the back end of the run we weren’t getting another [competition yellow]. We were really fast at the end and once we got by [Honeycutt] we could just set sail from there.”
Caden entered the 2024 season confident he could defend his PLM Tour championship while driving for his family team, but doing so has proven to be a challenge.
Three finishes outside the top 10 through the first five races put Caden in a deficit to Honeycutt and Spencer Davis in the PLM Tour standings. Caden has done everything possible to make up the lost ground over the summer, with his worst showing since July being a seventh at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The spirited drive to the front paid dividends for Caden ahead of his maiden Late Model Stock appearance with JR Motorsports. Just like in the PLM Tour feature, Caden had to overcome adversity following an early spin and an alternator issue, yet still found himself with a chance to pull off a victory in his debut race.
Caden had plenty of notes to study for Ace with Carson having won three consecutive LMSC Tour events at the facility. That knowledge, along with some good fortune, provided Caden a crucial jolt at Ace that he hopes translates into another PLM Tour championship.
“[The Late Model Stock] was a little bit different,” Caden said. “We missed it in qualifying, but we just avoided all the wrecks. It got really hectic at the end with a lot of people wrecking each other. It was just a really cool night.”
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A wild evening of action at Ace Speedway is likely to carry over into the next zMAX CARS Tour event, which takes place on Saturday evening at the quarter-mile bullring of Wake County Speedway, the smallest track on the schedule. FloRacing will have live flag-to-flag coverage of the Drive for Puryear 125.
For more information on the zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour, visit www.carsracingtour.com. Be sure to stay active and social with the tour by liking “CARS Tour” on Facebook, following @CARSTour on X (formerly known as Twitter) and scrolling through photos on Instagram cars_tour.
Additional series information can be obtained by calling the CARS Tour series office, located in Mooresville, NC, at 704-662-9212.
Unofficial LMSC Results:
- 29 Brent Crews
- 81 Mini Tyrrell
- 8K Caden Kvapil
- 03 Brenden Queen
- 22 Connor Hall
- 16 Chad McCumbee
- 11 Buddy Isles Jr.
- 55 Isabella Robusto
- 77 Treyten Lapcevich
- 44 Conner Jones
- 62 Landen Lewis
- 23 Kade Brown – OUT
- 2 Brandon Pierce – OUT
- 15 Ryan Millington – OUT
- 33 Dillon Harville – OUT
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr. – OUT
- 15C Blake Stallings – OUT
- 6 Bobby McCarty – OUT
- 59 Heath Causey – OUT
- 12W Dean Ward – OUT
- 7 Dylan Ward – OUT
Unofficial PLM Results:
- 35 Caden Kvapil
- 47 Kaden Honeycutt
- 24 Jake Bollman
- 29D Spencer Davis
- 00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr.
- 88 Max Reaves
- 96 T.J. DeCaire
- 6B Brandon Lopez
- 51 Travis Braden
- 77J Logan Jones -2
- 43H Joshua Horniman -2
- 6M Tristan McKee – OUT
- 19 Jessica Cann – OUT
- 15 Luke Baldwin – OUT
