CARS Tour Leftovers: What you may have missed from Langley Speedway

Round six of the 2026 CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car Series season featured a trip to the legendary Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway for the Visit Hampton 125 in Hampton, VA. The field of 30 took to the 4/10ths mile flat oval in a 125 lap Late Model Stock standalone event that was showcased by a dominant performance by Connor Hall winning with Landen Lewis following close behind in second.

Beyond the battle up front, there was a slew of storylines unfolding. Here are some of the things you may have missed during the race.

Barnes’ First Pole

Doug Barnes Jr. is a very popular face on the CARS Tour. Known as “Air Doug”, and sponsored by his own YouTube channel, Barnes has 26 starts in the series spanning across four seasons dating back to 2015. Last year was Barnes’ first full season, and he has raced in every event thus far in 2026… even overcoming a suspension after an incident with Mini Tyrell at Wake County a few weeks back.

At Langley, Barnes once again showed impressive speeds, claiming the fastest time in qualifying, 15.848 seconds, to secure his first CARS Tour pole.

Even though he knew going into the race that the stiffest competition was coming from Connor Hall, Barnes still led laps on the day.

When asked what’s next after that lap he said with a laugh, “Shoot I don’t know, follow Connor Hall and figure out what he’s gonna do. I’d like to ask but he’s probably not going to tell me the truth right now. He’s got a good idea of how these races go.”

Then Barnes took a serious tone to add, “I’d like to lead every lap. I don’t really now how much confidence I have in my pace to have tires at the end if I take off and lead. I’m going to try as hard as I can to keep the track position, but I’m just going to run my race. I know what it takes to win tire management races.”

Ultimately, Barnes led the opening 30 laps of the race. On a restart at lap 31, he lost the lead to who else… Connor Hall. From there, Barnes had various issues that resulted in a 20th place finish, the last car running on track at the end.

Strauss Highlights KFB Tributes

The tragic loss of Kyle Busch on May 21st continued to stir strong emotions among the garage, and in the first week of racing for the CARS Tour since Busch’s passing, tributes were plentiful and impactful.

Various teams ran the “Rowdy” decal on their name rails. Crew members, members of the media, and fans sported Kyle Busch merchandise proudly. The Carroll Speed Shop teams with drivers Landon Huffman and Connor Jones used the Kyle Busch Motorsports fonts for their car numbers.

Above all the others, the car driven by Donovan Strauss carried the biggest tribute as he raced a number 51 car adorned in the paint scheme Busch used when associated with NOS Energy in the mid-2000’s.

Prior to the start, Strauss paced ahead of the field in honor and remembrance of Busch, who was on track to make a CARS Tour start later this year with JR Motorsports.

After the race, we spoke with Strauss and he shared his thoughts on racing in honor of his hero.

“The gratitude I have to get to do this and to honor Kyle, who’s had such an impact on this sport… to just to do that, and be in front of the field and honor him tonight… (he points to the car with the Busch’s livery)… the 51 might stay. I ran that number up until last year and I think I want to bring that forward,” he said. “It felt really special… it’s just been an emotional couple of days, but I’m glad to end it on a strong note and get out of here in one piece and move forward.”

Strauss finished the race in eighth place.

Midfielder: Connor Jones

This week’s mid-field finisher was Connor Jones, in 15th. Jones ran the first two thirds of the race solidly, working his way through the field and into the top ten.

The complexion of his race changed on lap 78 after contact with teammate Landon Huffman. It appeared that Jones turned into turn three earlier than Huffman, and the resulting contact sent both for a spin.

Jones found trouble again on lap 119 that sent to the back a second time. From there, Jones survived the carnage of a massive incident on lap 121 and after a three lap sprint to end the race, he finished in 15th.

We reached out to Jones after the race, but he declined to comment and was visibly frustrated with the day’s outcome.

Rookie of the Race: Chase Burgeson

Chase Burgeson rolled into Langley Speedway for the first time this weekend racing a Late Model Stock Car in the CARS Tour. He was paired with Lee Pulliam Performance in a continuing effort to get the young California driver more experience in these kinds of cars.

While Burgeson was making his CARS Tour LMSC debut, he is no stranger to the Tour at large, as he is also driving full-time for Bryson-Lopez Racing on the Pro Late Model side. Still, the rookie driver was simply trying to wrap his head around racing on this flat “parking lot” speedway.

In the race, Burgeson worked his way up from deep in the field, broke into the top ten and hovered there.

“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a success from start to finish in our debut race in the stock,” he said, “We made huge gains across the board and had a blast doing so. I started 23rd and found myself in the top 10 towards the very end of the race and kept my nose clean and brought it home in 11th. I felt like we had P7-P10 speed just came one spot shy of where I thought we’d land.”

Caden’s Podium Run

Caden Kvapil came to Langley Speedway fresh off winning his first ever super late model race at Hickory on May 21 with the ASA STARS Tour.

Kvapil took that fresh boost of confidence back to the comfy confines of his late model stock car to race his way into a podium finish.

“It was a little hectic for sure, but this place is always like that,” he said. “I started 15th… a little farther back than I wanted to but I feel like that’s kind of the story of our qualifying efforts this year. I drove up and finished third. I didn’t really have the greatest car, probably a sixth place  car and just stayed out of trouble at the end. I had good restarts and was able to capitalize at the end.”

Kvapil credits the third place as a group effort from his team.

“A lot of effort from my Dad and this JR Motorsports team,” he said. “We changed a lot. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t. That’s just how this place is. It’s a tough place to get a hold of but overall a good night. It’s really hard to be upset with a third when we probably raced in sixth, seventh maybe eighth at the best.”

Kvapil continues to lead the CARS Tour Late Model Stock points standings, 23 points ahead of second place Treyton Lapcevich.

Brown Just Outside of Podium

Another young driver attempting to wrap his head around the super flat Langley Speedway was Carson Brown, who made only his second ever start in Hampton on Saturday.

In that first foray back in 2023, Brown started fifth and finished 25th. In 2026, driving for Lee Pulliam Performance, Brown started fifth and finished fourth in a race where he kept to himself to be in a solid position at the end of the race.

“I felt like we had a really good car in practice,” he said. “We led the last practice and ended up qualifying in fifth. We had a good racecar, but just kind of got really tight in the race. I got my right front knocked in on lap five and just really never had all the turn we needed. I feel like we were a fourth or fifth place car and that’s kind of where we ended up.”