Carson Kvapil reminded the Late Model Stock discipline that CARS Tour races he enters still runs through the JR Motorsports No. 8 while the season long championship battle was virtually tied-up with two races left.
Unofficially, Connor Hall leads Brenden Queen by one point with just Tri-County and North Wilkesboro to go next month after they finished seventh and fifth respectively. That’s been toughly contested all season but the race for the win on Saturday night at South Boston Speedway was too.
Ryan Millington led the first 100 laps from the pole as the likes of Layne Riggs and Treyten Lapcevich battled furiously to take it from him. All the meanwhile, Kvapil methodically charged from sixth to the front by 25 to go.
A reflection of CARS Tour parity and a relatively new South Boston pavement, passes were hard to come by but also teams were still re-acclimating to the Hoosier F45s.
Kvapil had a tough practice day on Friday.
“We changed a lot of stuff,” Kvapil said. “I was honestly nervous that we were going to end up in left field during the race. Me and Bryan (Shaffer, crew chief) chalked it up to this is what it was going to take this weekend.
“We fired off sixth, fell back to ninth and didn’t have the pace on new tires, and got killed off the corners. I was worried we were going to burn our stuff up getting back through there trying to keep up with everybody.
“But we started to pick guys off here and there, on the restart, and was in a really good spot on that last restart.”
Ultimately , Millington simply didn’t have enough to ultimately fend off Kvapil and Lapcevich but was more than pleased with a podium.
“We had a real good car but just missed it a little bit; got a little bit too tight at the end,” Millington said. “If we could have kept the lead on that last restart, the clean air would have helped me some. As soon as I got behind Carson, I started searching and tried to find some turn and just couldn’t find what I wanted.
“But this was a good night. CARS Tour podiums are hard to come by these days.”
Lapcevich wishes he had been able to get Millington sooner than the restart where Kvapil got them both.
“I couldn’t get the position I needed to on him to throw the little slider I pulled on (Riggs) at the end,” Lapcevich said. “I was good on the bottom in 1 and 2 but in 3 and 4, I couldn’t get the position and he was way better on the top. I had a lot of fun. I wish I had taken the bottom on the last restart but you never know.
“It didn’t work for me the restarts prior to that. We went back and forth and thought the outside was going to be our safest option.”
In finishing fifth, Queen cut two more points off the championship lead and is stoked that two of his best tracks, and stylistic advantages, await him next month.
What more did he need to maybe go outright win the race?
“I don’t know, it’s hard to say,” Queen said. “I was really good at the start and I was able to make gains on the bottom and thought we were going to be in really good shape. We got to fourth and stalled out because the top3 were so equal and good. I was as good as (Riggs) at the end but I was trapped on the bottom because if I gave I up the bottom, (Mini Tyrrell) and (Hall) might have got me so we had to lay in our bed there.”
Hall, who won the South Boston 200 NASCAR sanctioned race in July, qualified 15th and really needed to grind away just get to seventh, simultaneously a disappointment but a reflection of their championship resolve.
“I don’t know how I got there because one minute, we’re in 15th and then I’m fighting for sixth and I just kind of took advantage of restarts and race situations, were really methodical once we figured out we didn’t have the fire off speed we had hoped,” Hall said.
“It was definitely a grind. I thought we were going to be really really good based on practice. This tire just reacted so much different than the ST2 did (from the 200) and honestly, everything I thought was going to happen in the race didn’t, and we kind of misjudged the entire weekend.”
So now, it’s down to two races and one point.
“We just have to go to Tri County and do what we’ve done there the last couple of years and I know Lee Pulliam will bring us a fast car and I feel like we have to go try to get the pole and try to win and we’re more than capable of that,” Queen said. “But it’s also important to not put any pressure on ourselves and just be true to ourselves.”
Hall says his Nelson Motorsports team needs to gain on the Pulliam team at these next two tracks.
“I’ve said for awhile now that these high grip tracks are their best tracks,” Hall said. “We have to do some speed searching. And we will. I told these guys when I joined up with them this year that I don’t have any give up in me and I’ve learned they don’t either.”
CARS Tour Autos by Nelson 125
South Boston Speedway
September 14 2024
8 Carson Kvapil
77 Treyten Lapcevich
15 Ryan Millington
00R Layne Riggs
03 Brenden Queen
81 Mini Tyrrell
22 Connor Hall
26 Peyton Sellers
11V Buddy Isles Jr.
6 Bobby McCarty
28 Landon S. Huffman
23 Kade Brown
71 Aaron Donnelly
1 Andrew Grady
29 Brent Crews
62L Landen Lewis
08H Carson Haislip
2 Brandon Pierce
44 Conner Jones
04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
45 Parker Eatmon
28R Landon Rapp -2
55 Isabella Robusto – OUT
24 Cody Dempster – OUT
00B Chase Burrow – OUT
