In all likelihood, this was a glimpse of things to come next year.
Newly-crowned champion Caden Kvapil led most of the first half of the CARS Tour finale at South Boston Speedway before a 10-lap duel in when he was outdueled by new JR Motorsports teammate Treyten Lapcevich.
It was a potential ‘glimpse of things to come’ because Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to drive that No. 8 car a handful of times next season but still intends to field it full-time for the purpose of owner’s points. It just needed a capable driver.
Enter Lapcevich, who finished second in the standings this year, but just parted ways with Chad Bryant Racing and has been trying for years to put together a pathway to a NASCAR national touring career. He won the 2023 NASCAR Pinty’s Series championship, now has two CARS Tour wins, a South Carolina 400 victory, and a series runner-up.
Sharing a CARS Tour ride with Dale Earnhardt Jr. would certainly go a long way to building his stock, not that he took the bait after the win when directly asked about it.
“Winning definitely doesn’t hurt,” Lapcevich said coyly.
Kvapil will be back in the No. 88 to defend his championship, barring any unexpected national touring opportunities, and had no problem being defeated from within the same building.
“We were a little free early and after I got the lead and got away a little bit, we were pretty good, I thought,” Kvapil said. “And then the competition caution, we sat for a while with that long red flag. And I don’t know, we fired back off and I was okay, but I started building really tight and I was doing everything I could to hold him off. I knew he was better, but just couldn’t hold him off. And once he got out front, he obviously drove away with it, but I’m not really upset about it.
“Obviously running second sucks, but when it’s your teammate and Treyton, he’s really cool. I’ve had a lot of fun working with him so far and he’s an awesome kid. So I’m glad I could lose to him at least. And I mean, it was still a good night.”
For his part, Lapcevich really appreciated to professional duel too.
“It’s pretty special,” Lapcevich said. “Just so thankful for this opportunity. Big thanks to Dale, everyone at JR Motorsports and FilterTime. It was a lot of fun and congrats to Caden on a great season. That was a lot of fun battling with him there.
“I wanted to keep it as clean as I possibly could and tried to get him on the bottom there. Ended up having to get him a little bit of a shove there to Turn 1 and throw the slider there, but I just had a great car and I didn’t want to waste that.”
- 8 Treyten Lapcevich
- 88 Caden Kvapil
- 4H Connor Hall
- 44 Conner Jones
- 17 Kaden Honeycutt
- 77 Landon S. Huffman
- 12 Jared Fryar
- 4 Parker Eatmon
- 5B Carson Brown
- 62 Keelan Harvick
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
- 7 Ty Frederickson
- 26 Peyton Sellers
- 75 Landon Huffman
- 22 Conner Weddell
- 95 London McKenzie
- 20 Carson Loftin
- 5 Chase Burrow
- 15 Jace Hale -1
- 16 Chad McCumbee -1
- 6 Brandon Lopez -1
- 05 Mason Bailey -1
- 77K Cody Kelley -1
- 37 Chase Robertson -1
- 8F Tate Fogleman – OUT
- 88B Doug Barnes Jr. – OUT
- 22B Chase Burgeson – OUT
- 57 Rodney Dowless Jr. – OUT
