Harvick sweeps ASA STARS practice in Tri-County

Practice day for the ASA STARS Ebb Logistics Carolina 250 at Tri-County Speedway in Granite Falls, North Carolina is in the books. Young gun Keelan Harvick posted the fastest times in both 60 minutes sessions on the day. Derek Thorn (round one) and Casey Roderick (round two) paced just behind Harvick with the second best times in their respective sessions, while points leader Carson Brown was third in both rounds.

Harvick enters the week’s race having won the last stop on the ASA STARS Tour, the Michigan 300, in Owosso, becoming the youngest winner in ASA history. At Tri-County, even from the top spot, the learning continues.

“Michael (House) brought me a really fast car this week, and all the Rackley guys,” said Harvick. “Just trying to figure out our options of what we needed to get better. But yeah, really, really fun track. Just trying to not be loose. Just trying to be as tight as possible all the way around. And that’s what helped us the most today.”

When asked if he’s having fun this week, he simply said with a large smile, “I am.”

For points leader Brown, the comfort is there in race trim, and even though he was third in both sessions, he and his Anthony Campi Racing team are still looking for more short run speed.

“Race trim-wise I think the track slowly worked away from us,” he said. “Then it came back a little bit at the very end. This place has been taking a lot of rubber, and seems like you can move all over the place. I’m having fun so far. But yeah, feel like we have a really good race trim car, but we’ll see if we can get true speed out of it.”

When asked if the track surface had a lot of grip, Brown gave a surprising answer.

“Not as much as what you would think, honestly,” said Brown. “I haven’t ran this place in probably five years before they repaved it and everything. I’d say it feels pretty good. Hopefully we can put on a good show for the fans tomorrow though.”

NASCAR star Christopher Bell joined the field in Tuesday’s practice behind the wheel of an entry from Wilson Motorsports. While he’s not getting the same kind of cold start that he did earlier this year at New Smyrna, having had no practice, here at Tri-County he had a solid 60 minutes today, with more coming on Wednesday prior to race time.

“It was a lot more fun than what I did at New Smyrna, going out there cold turkey,” he said. “So I’m thankful that I got a practice session and I’ll get some more practice tomorrow. So, yeah, just really getting me up to speed. I know Wilson Motorsports has really good cars, and yeah, it’s going to be up to me to go out there and drive it.”

Bell received a bit of help as Kaden Honeycutt tested the car on Monday and in the first round of practice today. And while that time in the car helped set the baseline and ensure the car was stable, Bell learned the he and Honeycutt don’t share the same style in their setups.

“Yeah, his driving style’s a lot different than mine,” said Bell. “So he was really fast in the car. Just trying to pick his brain on what he’s doing inside the car for me to get that feel. What he was saying about the car and how I felt about the car were two completely different things. So, the car’s fast. I just got to drive it good.”

Honeycutt was excited about the seat time, as he is racing in the CARS Tour Pro Late Model 100 lapper, also at Tri-County, on Saturday for JC Motorsports.

“Yeah, it was really fun,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to run a Super around here. It’s pretty fast. Tires get really, really hot just because all the speed they’re carrying. It was awesome. I thought it was really fun. It makes me wish I was really racing it now. But hopefully I did a good enough job for Christopher. You know, he hadn’t been in this in a long time, and we were just discussing things and things are vastly different between me and him. So, um, yeah, I think that’s pretty different.”

Honeycutt also jump behind the wheel of fellow Wilson Motorsports driver George Philips’ machine for a few laps.

“Got in George’s car,” said Honeycutt. “Helped him out a little bit, and figured out some stuff on the race track that he needed to work on, and something I was trying to work on myself to get more perfected. So yeah, I have plenty of laps for this weekend’s race for the CARS Tour. So looking forward to that, but it’s going to be a really good race tomorrow in these Supers.”

When it comes to paralleling his ASA seat time to what he expects for the CARS Tour race on Saturday, Honeycutt said that the biggest difference comes from the throttle pedal.

“I think it’s just more so just getting back to throttle,” he said. “These Supers are really tidy when it comes to throttle control, which is why I love it a lot more. I think for the Pro Late Model car, I think I’ve done 150 or 200 laps since yesterday and today, so, I don’t know, I don’t think it’ll be too different. I think the Pro’s more so just get back to throttle, making sure the thing rotates late entry, so you can hammer the throttle down for 100 laps straight. The Super’s vastly different. I think the tire fall-off will be a little bit different as well. I don’t think the Pros will heat up the tires as much as supers. I think it’ll be a good race for us. We had a good run at Wilkesboro, and I think Tri-County and Wilkesboro had some similarities. We’ll be taking our other car here and see if we can repeat what we’ve done this year.”

Former Southern Super Series, now NASCAR Truck Series regular, Gio Ruggiero was behind the wheel of the second entry from C3 Race Division, in place of Brent Crews who was at a NASCAR test today. Ruggiero enjoyed his time in the car.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It was cool to get back in a Hamke car on a short track. It’s been a while since I raced a Super Late Model, so it was cool to practice the car today for Brent.”

Ruggiero felt good in the car over the course of the day adding that getting back into the swing of this type of car was like “riding a bike.”

“It was good,” he said. “I think we started off on old tires and needed to work on it a little bit, and kept working on the race pace. So, I feel like the race pace is there, but need a little bit of short run speed to be a little bit better for qualifying tomorrow. It was just like riding a bike. I had that first run out, a couple laps to get used to it, and then right back up to speed. So, it was a lot of fun, and hopefully I can do some more of this in the near future.”

ASA STARS Tuesday Practice Results, combined best times:

62 – Keelan Harvick, 15.043
30 – Casey Roderick, 15.067
81 – Carson Brown, 15.142
96 – Derek Thorn, 15.177
44 – Cole Butcher, 15.194
20 – Christopher Bell, 15.195
27 – Vito Cancilla, 15.203
6 – Brandon Lopez, 15.244
89 – Dylan Fetcho, 15.251
3 – Kasey Kleyn, 15.253
36 – Ty Fredrickson, 15.253
20 – Jett Noland, 15.254
5 – Tristan McKee, 15.267
9 – Derek Kraus, 15.268
14 – Chase Pinsonneault, 15.270
24 – Jade Avedisian, 15.280
22 – Kyle Steckly, 15.287
54 – Matthew Craig, 15.303
44 – Connor Jones, 15.304
7 – Isaac Kitzmiller, 15.448
22 – George Phillips, 15.454
33 – Brent Crews, 15.454