T.J. DeCaire, in a Mike Garvey throwback, puts on a clinic to win a wild CARS Tour Pro Late Model race at Hickory.
DeCaire’s wire to wire victory at Hickory comes in just his second start with the Low Country Motorsports team. In just two races together they’ve managed a second place finish at North Wilkesboro and a win from the pole.
“Hickory is a special place to everybody,” DeCaire told FloRacing “The Low Country Motorsports team prepared a great race car and for our second race together, it’s pretty impressive. Like I said in my interview at Wilkesboro it’s a little bit easier with good people. Sitting on the pole and leading every lap is about as good as it gets.”
DeCaire was driving a throwback to Mike Garvey’s 2001 ASA car. He shares how special it is to bring this scheme to victory lane.
“It’s really special to me,” DeCaire told FloRacing “Mike Garvey is my Super Late Model crew chief and he does a great job week end and week out and you know, being from Florida we’ve worked together on the Super Late Model side and it’s really special to me to be able to bring Mike out here and park it in victory lane.”
DeCaire started from pole and had the dominant car of the race but didn’t get ample opportunity to flex his muscle as the race was littered with cautions making an hour and fifty minute enduro out of a 100 lap race.
On the initial start Brody Monohan missed a shift from the outside of Row 2, stacking up the field and causing an eight car pile up in Turn 1. This set the tone for the evening that already started off late because of weather and to make matters worse, Monohan would miss another shift just past the halfway point, this time triggering a seven car pile up. The race struggled to get into a rhythm as the pace car rivaled DeCaire’s laps out front. Conner Jones, who was second to DeCarie most of the evening could never capitalize on the restarts settling for a runner up finish just ahead of Treyten Lapcevich.
CARS Tour Hickory
Pro Late Model
August 8, 2026
1) #1 T.J. DeCaire
2) #44 Conner Jones
3) #30 Treyten Lapcevich
4) #54 Kaden Honeycutt
5) #20 Evan McKnight
6) #31 Brody Monahan
7) #75 Keelan Harvick
8) #5 James Seeright
9) #83 Bayley Currey
10) #97 Dylan Garner
11) #49 Jeff Batten
12) #13 Ben Mack
13) #33 Jack Baldwin
13) Data unavailable
14) #6 Mason Walters
15) #25 Rodney Dowless Jr.
16) #01 Brody Gunter
17) #6C Vito Cancilla
18) #12 Colton Hale
19) #55 Palmer Haag
20) #7 Jacob Bradley
21) #47 Luke Baldwin
22) #15 Case James
23) #43 Nick Loden
24) #50 Tristan Pena
