There likely wasn’t a single car in the Delta Heating and Cooling 175 that didn’t suffer either significant damage, ran out of fuel or some other technical issue.
In the end, once everyone had cycled through their respective issues during the race, Conner Jones picked up his fourth career CARS Late Model Stock Tour victory on Saturday night at Wake County Speedway.
Objectively, this race was a definition mess of epic proportions.
There was a tremendous amount of carnage — and therefore caution laps in an event where they do not count — in a race that saw the length increased by 50 laps from the previous two years to 175 laps … so drivers started running out of fuel.
Thus, when Jones ran out of fuel with nine laps to go, only to come back and win the race because of some more shenanigans, it felt like an emotional rollercoaster.
“It was happy, mad, sad and heartbroken, everything,” Jones told Short Track Scene after the race. “I’m glad we were able to pull it off. It really speaks wonders for these Carroll Speed Shop guys.”
Jones first inherited the lead due to a significant on-track disagreement for the lead between Mini Tyrell and Doug Barnes Jr. that culminated in a crash on Lap 104. Barnes had used the bumper earlier to take the lead from the defending winner.
Tyrrell returned the favor and Barnes returned the favor again over the course of a lap and a half. Tyrrell then ran over the left rear into the window net of the Barnes No. 88. This left the Barnes decklid dangling from behind the car.
When Barnes slowed, Tyrrell completed the pass into Turn 1 and Barnes drove into the back of the Timmy Tyrrell Racing No. 81. The combined damage ended the night for Tyrrell and Barnes was able to salvage a 15th even after driving back to the top-5 and then running out of fuel too.
Barnes said the animosity dates back to last year.
“I mean, I got Mini Tyrrell’d again,” Barnes told STS. “I mean, I got into him good but I owed him a few or 10 and so when he got back to me, I was expecting a shot. I took it and then, at that point, he gives me another, I would call it square. He took a shot, didn’t get it and ran me down.
“He hit me in the left rear tire and I about wrecked in Turn 3 with no spoiler the next lap. What I meant to do was clobber him and make him lose 10 spots. I didn’t mean to spin him but I’m not sorry for spinning him out. And if I had known that was going to happen, I would have done it to the point he actually got damage from it.”
He apologized to his team and no one else.
“But the way I look at it is I took a lot of shit last year,” Barnes said. “I didn’t give anything back. I let him run me over twice. I let him apologize once and then he got back into me at Tri-County and ruined our night there. At the end of the day, I want to win a CARS Tour championship. I do this for fun. I don’t have a future. I’m not going to the Truck Series unless I pay for it out of pocket. No one pays me anything.”
Barnes said Tyrrell could have lived to fight another day but that ‘it played out how it played out.’ For his part, Tyrrell said Barnes lacked class.
“I guess he’s still upset from last year,” Tyrrell said. “You go back and watch all these videos and he makes me out to be this horrible guy and terrible driver and I never wrecked him last year so I don’t know what he’s upset about.”
He was told that Barnes referenced Tri-County and Tyrrell said that was just an instance of getting loose on the bottom and just slipping up the track.
“He makes me out to be this hack and I do this and that, so I don’t know,” he continued. “I got back to him after he shipped me to the fourth groove and we were just so much better, so much faster, we had such a good car thanks to Brandon Butler having this thing hooked up. I gave it back to him pretty good and then he decided to cross me over and try to right rear me and got back to my inside.”
Tyrrell said he didn’t intend to climb over the left rear. ‘It just happened’ and then says Barnes ‘just wrecked me’ afterwards.
“This sucks, but it is what it is, and I just need to hang my head higher and realize that I’m at a level higher than he is and this is where he’ll be his whole life, doing this, being this hot head. It just sucks. I just try to have more respect and class than this but it sucks.”
That’s where Jones first took the lead but there was no shortage of shenanigans left to play out in this race. Jones ran out of fuel with nine laps to go. Caden Kvapil took the lead and immediately broke a left rear axle.
Landon Huffman took the lead alongside of Treyten Lapcevich with five laps to go and then then they both ran out of gas. Clay Jones inherited the lead ahead of Landen Lewis but then Clay Jones was penalized for damage that needed to be fixed before he could return to the track.
Conner Jones pulled away from Landen Lewis on the restart and won the race. There were no shortage of people who wanted to talk to veteran race director Danny Willard after the race.
Clay Jones did not understand why, in a field full of damaged cars, he was singled out from the front row.
“I mean, every car out here has got mess falling off of it, you know,” said Clay Jones. “There’s not a car out here that don’t have fenders and stuff falling off it. So, I don’t see why I was the culprit to get black flag. That’s the question I have.
“And the only thing I got in response was that’s the call that they came up with. So, it’s like I told them while ago, I guess if it a KHI or JR Motorsports car, it probably would’ve been a little different story but this just sucks man.”
That, of course, is a reference to CARS Tour co-owners Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Huffman, meanwhile, was incredulous to the fact that there wasn’t a caution at some point to refuel cars once contenders started dropping off the pace.
“I remember three months ago we had a meeting, a group meeting and one of the topics was if we run long and it feels like fuel is going to be a problem, then they’ll make an executive decision to bring everyone down.
“When the first car ran out of fuel, in my opinion, that’s when you say ‘okay we are probably going to have an issue and maybe we should bring everyone down.’ So yeah, I ran out leading the race but it wouldn’t have mattered if I ran out running fifth.
“If we’re going to run these longer races, which I am an advocate for, they have to have a backbone to make a decision to bring us down for fuel. They can blame it on the competitors and say we shouldn’t have caused all these cautions but I didn’t cause a single one all night. So I think it’s stupid that they’re going to say ‘well, we’re just not going to run these longer races,’ when the solution is just just bring everyone down pit road.”
CARS Tour continues on April 11 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
CARS Tour Delta 175
Wake County Speedway
March 28 2025
- Conner Jones
- Chase Burrow
- Landen Lewis
- Brandon Pierce
- Landon Huffman
- Caden Kvpail
- Tate Fogleman
- Clay Jones
- Aiden King
- Sam Butler
- Treyten Lapcevich
- Mason Diaz
- Carson Brown
- Parker Eatmon
- Doug Barnes Jr.
- Brandon Lopez
- Jake Bollman
- Carson Loftin
- Ronnie Bassett Jr.
- Jared Fryar
- Mini Tyrrell
- Chad McCumbee
- Carson Haislip
- Jace Hale
- Carter Langley
- Daniel Vuncannon
