The zMAX CARS Tour’s second trip to Tri-County Motor Speedway on Saturday evening proved to be special for Conner Jones in more ways than one.
With Tri-County operators Shad and Shane Higgins actively busy helping with relief efforts in the Appalachian Mountains stemming from Hurricane Helene, Jones and his family wanted to give back to the Higgins family. They did this by having Ashton Higgins pilot their No. 44 Pro Late Model while Jones elected to focus solely on his Late Model Stock.
Jones’ generous act came back to him for Saturday’s CARS Tour 225 pres. by GeoCut. With several top contenders being eliminated in the closing stages due to various reasons, Jones utilized a strong car to fend off Brenden Queen and earn his first CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour victory in over two years.
An expedited schedule due to an 11 p.m. ET curfew meant Jones had to wait and celebrate with his crew until after the CARS Pro Late Model Tour feature, which was won by Kaden Honeycutt following a controversial final restart.
Conner Jones emotional, ecstatic over snapping winless drought
Saturday’s CARS Tour 225 pres. by GeoCut bore many similarities to Conner Jones’ maiden Late Model Stock victory on the platform.
On both occasions, late race chaos played into Jones hands as he capitalized on his competition’s misfortune to cycle towards the front of the field. The catharsis Jones experienced from taking the checkered flag was overwhelming, as he was relieved to have both luck and raw speed on his side.
“We’ve had a rough, really bad year,” Jones said. “We should have had Ace [Speedway] won, but we didn’t do that. I knew coming into this weekend we had to win, because [Tri-County] is one of my best racetracks and I know it like the back of my hand. The car we unloaded was absolutely phenomenal.”
Another element that made Jones’ triumph so significant were the blue and pink colors on his white, No. 44 Jones Utilities Construction Chevrolet. The blue and pink represented Lung Cancer Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month respectively, the former of which Jones’ grandmother passed away from earlier this year.
Jones has done everything possible to try and win a race in his grandmother’s honor, but everything lined up perfectly at Tri-County for him to finally accomplish that goal. After making progress on the high line during the early stages, Jones then shifted into a conservative mindset as he successfully saved enough fuel across several late-race restarts.
The journey towards another CARS LMSC Tour victory was a frustrating one for Jones, who always knew he was capable of excelling in the series despite only amassing three top fives since his first triumph. Saturday’s triumph served as validation for Jones, who is eager to carry the momentum over from Tri-County into the season finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
“Everything played our way,” Jones said. “We finally got the monkey off our back [at Tri-County], so we can go into [North] Wilkesboro and have some more confidence in our ability to win. It’s so hard to win with these cars being so even, especially at these big tracks, [so] this win means a lot.”
Brenden Queen emerges as LMSC Tour points leader with third-place run
After diligently erasing his points deficit to Connor Hall during the summer, Brenden Queen departed Tri-County Motor Speedway as the leader in the CARS LMSC Tour standings.
Doing so required Queen to be methodical and cautious during the final laps of the CARS Tour 225 pres. by GeoCut with many drivers around him running out of fuel. Queen would have preferred to provide Conner Jones a stalwart challenge for the win, but securing a third place performance amidst the chaos provided him some satisfaction.
“This is not how we wanted to perform, but at the end of the day, we just had to be smart and try to get the best finish we could,” Queen said. “Any other time, I could have tried to do something on the front row, but at that point, I was just trying to get it home. I hate points racing, but that’s what we got to do.”
Expectations were high for Queen entering the weekend at Tri-County. During the LMSC Tour’s two most recent visits to the facility, Queen led each event wire-to-wire from the pole.
Unlike those two outings, Queen failed to lead a single lap in the 125-lap feature. The balance of the car, particularly when it came to the right-front tire, encumbered Queen all evening, but he maintained solid track position to come away with a performance he considered to be a slight overachievement.
Hall being collected in a crash shortly after halfway only helped Queen bolster his points lead, but he does not find himself content with the current situation. A myriad of factors could easily sway momentum back in Hall’s favor, which is why Queen intends to stick with the mindset that enabled him to climb his way back into contention for the title.
“We can’t overthink it,” Queen said. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing. At the end of the day, I feel like we’ll have a fast car. Lee Pulliam and everybody at the shop are going to work hard this week. Lee has never won a CARS Tour championship, so we really want that to go back to Alton, [Virginia] this year.”
Kaden Honeycutt declared PLM winner after Tristan McKee’s restart penalty
For approximately ten minutes after the end of the CARS Tour 225 pres. by GeoCut’s Pro Late Model feature, nobody was sure on who the winner was.
Tristan McKee initially parked his car in Cook Out Victory Lane after obtaining a huge jump during the final restart on Kaden Honeycutt, who was the control car. Race control determined after the checkered flag that McKee had committed a restart violation, which gave Honeycutt his second CARS PLM Tour victory of 2024.
“It was pretty easy to decide [on that restart],” Honeycutt said. “I’m a little biased, but they made the right call. I never even thought about firing because I knew what [McKee] was going to try and do. I was pretty surprised they didn’t throw the yellow, but I’m just glad they made the right call.”
Honeycutt’s two wins on the year have come with two different programs. He took Mavrick Page Motorsports to Cook Out Victory Lane at Orange County Speedway in April before departing the organization to close out 2024 with Bryson Lopez Racing.
The results have been almost immediate for Honeycutt under the Bryson Lopez Racing banner, as they have yet to finish a race outside the top five together. Consistency was a goal Honeycutt wanted to establish with Bryson Lopez Racing, as such a quality would be imperative to erase an 11-point deficit to Spencer Davis in the PLM Tour standings.
With Davis finishing fifth and Honeycutt collecting a bonus point for leading a lap, the gap between the two is now much closer heading into the final race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Honeycutt emphasized the importance of outright winning North Wilkesboro, which he believes is more than feasible with how strong his car is.
“If tonight went well, we were going to take that same car [to North Wilkesboro],” Honeycutt said. “We were planning to run the new FURY car from South Boston, but this thing is just too good not to bring to Wilkesboro. We’re going to have to get it [right] off the bat and just give ourselves a chance to win it.”
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Only one event remains before the 2024 zMAX CARS Tour season officially goes into the record books. Two champions will be crowned at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the ECMD 125 on Saturday evening, with FloRacing providing live coverage of all the on-track action.
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:
- 44 Conner Jones
- 14 Jared Fryar
- 03 Brenden Queen
- 28 Landon S. Huffman
- 00 Chase Burrow
- 8 Carson Kvapil
- 2W Ryan Wilson
- 9 Charlie Watson
- 1 Andrew Grady
- 18 Max Reaves
- 24 Cody Dempster
- 77 Treyten Lapcevich
- 22 Connor Hall
- 11 Buddy Isles Jr.
- 81 Mini Tyrrell
- 15 Ryan Millington
- 71 Aaron Donnelly – OUT
- 55 Corey Heim – OUT
- 2 Brandon Pierce – OUT
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr. – OUT
- 62 William Sawalich – OUT
- 17 Brody Monahan – OUT
- 15C Kaden Honeycutt – OUT
- 08 Deac McCaskill – OUT
- 29 Brent Crews – OUT
- 7H Blayne Harrison – OUT
- 45 Parker Eatmon – OUT
- 7W Dylan Ward – OUT
- 23 Kade Brown – OUT
- 31 Andrew Patterson – OUT
Unofficial PLM Results:
- 47 Kaden Honeycutt
- 6 Tristan McKee
- 44 Ashton Higgins
- 35 Caden Kvapil
- 29 Spencer Davis
- 00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr.
- 15 T.J. DeCaire
- 1X Kyle Campbell
- 67 Cameron Bolin
- 97 Dylan Garner
- 51 Travis Braden
- 6B Brandon Lopez
- 88 Max Reaves
- 7J Justin Crider
- 43 Joshua Horniman
- 7C Tyler Church
- 18 Cameron Clifford – OUT
- 7D Jaydn Daniels – OUT
- 24 Dusty Garus – OUT
- 24B Lanie Buice – OUT
