THORNBURG, Va. — Although Mini Tyrrell has always considered Dominion Raceway to be his home track, the venue’s zMAX CARS Tour date has grown very sentimental to him.
Since 2023, Tyrrell’s charity, Mini’s Mission, has been actively involved with the pre-race festivities at Dominion. Tyrrell started Mini’s Mission to support his childhood friend Ella’s family while she battled childhood cancer, an initiative that has since raised over $800,000 to bring more awareness to the disease.
Another successful campaign for Mini’s Mission at Dominion was capped off with a stalwart performance from Tyrrell on track. No one in the field could match the torrid pace established by Tyrrell, who secured a dominant but emotional victory in front of his home crowd and the families he welcomed for the race.
Special weekend for Mini Tyrrell ends with trip to Dominion’s victory lane
Although he approaches each Dominion Raceway trip like every other event, racing has never been the top priority for Mini Tyrrell there since first bringing Mini’s Mission to the facility.
Tyrrell’s focus for this race is ensuring he and the rest of his CARS LMSC Tour competitors are providing a weekend of entertainment to children affected by pediatric cancer. Being able to win on an evening highlighted by the charitable efforts of Mini’s Mission carried plenty of emotion for Tyrrell as he celebrated in Cook Out Victory Lane.
“I’m speechless,” Tyrrell said. “This whole weekend has been nothing but amazing for Mini’s Mission. I’m so blessed to be here. God’s got a plan and his plan was for me to set this race up, invite all these kids, give them the experience of a lifetime and go win this thing, which is what we did.”
Over 30 families from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Children’s National Hospital and the Make-A-Wish Foundation were welcomed by Tyrrell and the CARS Tour to Dominion. The festivities included a dinner gala explaining Mini’s Mission, along with each family getting paired up with an LMSC Tour driver.
With so much emphasis being placed on Mini’s Mission, Tyrrell still focused on curating a setup that could finally enable him to claim a checkered flag at his home track. Tyrrell set a commanding benchmark with his pole run, but maintaining a lead proved to be challenging with drivers like Conner Jones and Chad McCumbee applying relentless pressure.
By effectively managing the race, Tyrrell secured his third career LMSC Tour victory, one that carried more gravity compared to the other two. Tyrrell is proud of everything he, the CARS Tour and Mini’s Mission accomplished throughout a weekend that showcased the short track community’s ability to come together for a great cause.
“I don’t know the words for it,” Tyrrell said. “I’ve raced at Dominion five years in the CARS Tour and I’ve finished second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. For three of those years, it’s been the Mini’s Mission 125. What we’re doing this weekend is bigger than racing. Everybody here won this race [on Saturday] by making these kids smile.”
Connor Hall regains momentum with runner-up finish
Four consecutive finishes outside the top five for Connor Hall erased his CARS LMSC Tour points advantage and brought Landen Lewis into the championship fight.
Hall’s performance on Saturday was reminiscent of his stellar stretch to open 2025 that saw him win two of the first three races. Although he was determined to snap his streak of bad luck with a victory, Hall found solace in being able to end a trouble-free night a Dominion Raceway by finishing in second.
“As a competitor, I wanted one more spot,” Hall said. “Given the last four weeks we’ve had at the race track, I think this was a step in the right direction. We fought pretty tight tonight, which made it hard to race for positions. That penalized us a little bit.”
A 10th place starting position meant Hall would need to be methodical to gain track position around Dominion’s fast layout. It took time for Hall to make progress with a tight race car, but several late cautions created opportunities that allowed him to pick off his competition one by one.
Hall’s spirited drive translated into a stellar points night in multiple regards. Lewis was forced to make an early pit stop after the first competition caution, but his charge back towards the front was stymied when damage from late contact with Conner Jones relegated him to 10th in the running order.
Now set to depart Dominion as the LMSC Tour points leader once again, Hall is ready to tackle the second half of the 2025 schedule. Hall knows he is more than capable of becoming an LMSC Tour champion with JR Motorsports but said more runs like the one at Dominion are imperative towards accomplishing that goal.
“Overall, I thought we had a really fast No. 88 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet,” Hall said. “This is a real testament to all my guys for giving me a really good race car. I’m getting to live the dream even though we were one spot short. I feel really good heading into the next one and hopefully we can build on this.”
Chad McCumbee grabs second consecutive top five
The two-race stint inside the Commonwealth of Virginia for the CARS LMSC Tour have yielded Chad McCumbee’s two best results of the 2025 season.
After placing fifth at Langley Speedway, McCumbee backed up that solid outing by coming home in third following a hard-fought battle with winner Mini Tyrrell. McCumbee was determined to earn his first LMSC Tour victory since 2022 but was more than appreciative of the way Tyrrell raced him in the closing laps.
“This is a special race,” McCumbee said. “I certainly wanted to win it for my group, but I’m super happy for Mini [Tyrrell]. That last restart was so much fun. We were side-by-side, it was super clean, and we never touched not one time. He just had a little bit better car than we did [on Saturday].”
Prior to Saturday’s race, Dominion had yielded mixed results for McCumbee in Late Model Stock competition. In four previous LMSC Tour events at the track, McCumbee only recorded one top 10, which occurred in 2022.
McCumbee capitalized on his fourth-place starting spot by staying inside the top five all evening, ultimately working his way to second. Using the outside line on the front row during two late restarts, McCumbee did everything possible to stall Tyrrell’s momentum on the bottom but could not get the launch needed to take the lead.
Despite coming up short of a victory, McCumbee said his third place showing at Dominion highlighted the improvements he and Robert Elliott continue to make with their program. If they can replicate their speed from the two Virginia races, McCumbee believes it is only a matter of time before he becomes an LMSC Tour winner again.
“I’m super proud of this effort,” McCumbee said. “This is the second race with this car. We’ve got a little positive momentum now and momentum is everything in this sport, especially in a series this difficult.”
——-
The next race up for both the CARS Late Model Stock and Pro Late Model Tour will be a mid-week showdown at Caraway Speedway. FloRacing will carry live flag-to-flag coverage of both CARS Tour events on Wednesday, July 2.
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.
LMSC Results:
- 81 Mini Tyrrell
- 88 Connor Hall
- 16 Chad McCumbee
- 7 Tristan McKee
- 03 Lanie Buice
- 88B Doug Barnes Jr.
- 15S Daniel Silvestri
- 31 Aaron Donnelly
- 00 Chase Burrow
- 29 Landen Lewis
- 4F Jonathan Findley
- 44 Conner Jones
- 71 Parker Eatmon
- 5 Kaden Honeycutt
- 4 Kade Brown -1
- 2 Brandon Pierce -3
- 57 Landon Huffman – -4
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr. -7
- 4S Donovan Strauss – OUT
- 8W Conner Wedell – OUT
- 05 Mason Bailey – OUT
- 11 Buddy Isles Jr. -33
- 32 Caden Kvapil – OUT
- 22 Carson Loftin – OUT
- 28 Dustin Storm – OUT
- 8 Tate Fogleman – OUT
- 0 Landon Pembelton – OUT
