It defies conventional wisdom but Caden Kvapil felt like he had been in something akin to a slump prior to winning the CARS Late Model Stock Tour race on Friday night at Florence Motor Speedway.
Since his last series win, Kvapil has the following finishes, and this doesn’t even include his win in the NASCAR Virginia Triple Crown race at Langley Speedway. Advance warning: This isn’t really a slump
3 3 3 6 12 8 5
Nevertheless, Tryeten Lapcevich had closed within 21 points and Conner Jones within 38, making this a very real championship battle with four races left to go. By winning on Friday, Kvapil took a commanding lead got back to his winning ways.
That’s four marquee Late Model Stock victories this year and Kvapil is doing exactly what older brother Carson did before him.
It hasn't really been a slump per se but Caden Kavpil hadn't won a CARS Tour race since Nashville Fairgrounds and the points had started to tighten
So this Florence victory was big for the JR Motorsports 88 for several reasons pic.twitter.com/RXWlLGqNSJ
“I feel like I’m really putting a lot of pressure on myself to win the championship and obviously winning races is going to win the championship,” Kvapil told Short Track Scene after the race. “I’ve kind of been running a little worse than I would like to and just kind of been giving up some points recently and just kind of been off the last couple months.
“But I feel like winning races obviously is really good for me and this JR Motorsports team. But I feel like just as a driver myself, watching my brother win however many races he did in this car and back-to-back championships, I feel like I’ve just put a ton of pressure on myself to try to have the same success as him. And I feel like if I don’t do that, then I’m not going to get that next opportunity like he got.”
So far, so good — and he certainly looked on par with Carson Kvapil on Friday in the Pee Dee.
Kvapil took the lead from Carson Brown, who had led every lap to that point, and then went on to lead the rest of the way from minimal pressure from Brown.
For his part, Brown really wants to win a race with Lee Pulliam Performance before moving onto the NASCAR O’Reilly Series next year with Richard Childress Racing but settled for a runner-up instead.
“Just a little more rear grip,” Brown said. “I felt like we were really good there in the first half, obviously qualified well, and felt like we were doing everything we needed to do,” Brown said. “And in practice, we did have a little lingering right rear grip issue.
“As the tires got hotter, the car got hotter, it just built free and needed a little bit more there at the end. I feel like the 88 was just good at carrying momentum and just carrying speed around there, whereas we’d just break sideways or just lose the right rear a little bit.
“As that progressed, we just got worse and worse.”
Now, as a result, Kvapil is on the cusp of adding a Late Model Stock championship to his CARS Tour Pro Late Model title in his family owned car — both coming with dad Travis on the pit box.
“I always go to every CARS Tour race really nervous and stressed out,” Kvapil said. “And I hate that, but when we have nights like this, that really pay off, it makes me feel really good.
“We have worked hard all year and kind of led the standings all season, and with just a couple of races to go, you don’t want to give it away.
“So getting back in Victory Lane is really cool and I just can’t thank everyone enough on my JR Motorsports team. My dad and everyone worked hard this weekend. And we only got a couple of practice sessions so we didn’t get to practice Friday. But to have this good of a car that we didn’t really have to drive it super hard and qualify good for once, that was really cool for me.”
The only notable incident in the race was this crash for fifth in which Conner Jones and Matt Gould traded paint and eventually went to the rear for it.
Matt Gould and Conner Jones on their late tussle for fifth
CARS Tour Cookout 125 Florence Motor Speedway September 4 2026
88 Caden Kvapil 5 Carson Brown 13 Cody Kelley 7 Tyler Reif 03 Brenden Queen 8 Connor Zilisch 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr. 88B Doug Barnes Jr. 16K Casey Kelley 5B Chase Burrow 62 Keelan Harvick 28 Ryan Glenski 51V Shane van Gisbergen 44 Conner Jones 77 Treyten Lapcevich 37 Chase Robertson 16 Chad McCumbee 20 Carson Loftin -1 14 Owen Zacharias -1 51 Matt Cox – OUT 4G Matt Gould – OUT 77H Landon S. Huffman – OUT 71 Jake Bollman – OUT 57 Landon Huffman – OUT 4 Parker Eatmon – OUT 95 London McKenzie – OUT 23 Kade Brown – OUT 15 Jace Hale – OUT 99 Brandon Dean – OUT
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
