Caden Kvapil won the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 and the Virginia Triple Crown, while Corey Heim and Treyten Lapcevich brawled for second, on-track then off.
Kvapil and Heim battled for the last half of the race for the win. The two traded bumper shots until Kvapil was able to clear and pull away in the last 20 laps. However, a caution with four laps to go sent the race into overtime. Kvapil did not waiver and got a massive lead on the restart with two to go, leaving Heim and Lapcevich to battle for runner-up. After a physical two laps, Heim edged out Lapcevich at the line while Kvapil pulled away and took the biggest win of his career.
“I don’t know if it will [set in] until probably when I wake up tomorrow,” Kvapil said after the win. “I don’t think I’ll even get to go through all my messages and stuff. I’m getting there now, but yeah, it’s just kind of unbelievable. I didn’t really ever think I was going to be in this position when I started Late Model Stock racing two years ago or Late Model racing in general about five years ago. I just never really could have dreamed of this. And coming here, I didn’t really have any expectations. Obviously, I thought I was going to be better than I was last year just as a driver. And just having the speed that we did all weekend, I really felt like from the first run that we had a chance at it. And everything just had to go our way, and we were fortunate enough that it did. So, to be able to win the clock and have one like my brother now, it’s super awesome.
“We were just a little too tight, I felt like, in the first half. And when we have halfway breaks like that where you can work on the car, I feel like we normally make our car a lot better. And we just always hit the adjustment just right. And here, we were a little too tight. We loosened it up a little for the second half, and we fired off really well. I almost got the lead, then Corey got by me and just never could get fully back by him until really late with about 25 to go or whatever. But yeah, our car was just really good the second half and just needed the clean air. And once we got the clean air, we were able to set sail and just kind of set our own pace.”
While Kvapil was coasting after the checkered, Heim and Lapcevich were far from done. Going into turn one, Heim and Lapcevich came together, sending Heim over top of Lapcevich. Heim drove back to the pits while Lapcevich was left destroyed in turn two.
Heim was one of the fastest cars all night, but gives Caden credit and says they just got beat in the end.
“I think [Kvapil] did a really good job. He could have, you know, lifted me up or spun me out whenever he wanted to, and he didn’t. So, once I got behind him, he sort of drug the brakes, so I couldn’t lift him up. But that’s just smart racing on his part, so I can’t really be mad at him. I’m frustrated because he was able to do that to me, but I’m not, like, mad at him for doing it, you know. So, they did a great job. They were super fast, so hats off to those guys.”
Lapcevich once again came up just short of a grandfather clock.
“I feel like I did everything that I needed to do,” Lapcevich said. “I nailed the restart. I was side by side with Caden going into one. Got a heck of a run off of two and was clear of Corey. Got to Kaden’s left rear and, you know, gave him a little bit of a nudge there, like I’m sure any of us would have done when there’s a clock right there in front of you. And we’re side by side down the front stretch, and Corey just absolutely tanks me into one. And, you know, I know Corey. Like, he’s a good enough race car driver that, you know, he knew that neither of us had a chance to win that. So, I don’t know. Like I said, it’s disappointing for sure, but nothing we can do about it now.”
Despite the ending and the bitterness of missing out on a win again, Lapcevich holds his head high.
“I mean, the track’s just so fun. And the Chad Bryant Racing guys brought a great piece. So, it was really fun when we got the long runs and the rubber started building up in the corners there because it made it really greasy. So, you had to be really precise on where you’re placing your car to really maximize your exit and get a good drive off the corner. So, it’s a lot of fun for sure. And, you know, we’ll be back next year and a lot of clocks to chase in the future.”
This wasn’t the only case of tempers flaring either. The caution with four laps to go was caused by Matt Cox spinning off the front bumper of Tristan McKee off of turn four. While under caution, Cox got his car spun back around, and when McKee came back around towards turn one, Cox turned right and crashed McKee.
McKee felt like he hadn’t raced Cox too aggressively and was surprised he wrecked him under caution.
“I don’t really know why he was upset,” McKee said. “I mean, he drove into me about five laps in a row, and I gave him room. And he kind of cleared himself off of four. He was barely clear, and then he just got loose and snapped. And, you know, there’s nothing I can really do about that. I can’t just stop and get the whole field behind me wrecked. So, I don’t know if he was being greedy there trying to get up in front of me and just snapped loose. And he crashed me under caution, which, I don’t know why he was that mad. But, you know, you’ll have that. So, first time getting crashed under caution. But hopefully that won’t happen again.”
Cox felt like McKee had been too aggressive and took matters into his own hands after he was spun.
“I mean, I don’t really know,” Cox said. “I mean, we’re racing for 18th. I’ve got a beat-up race car. I mean, he’s struggling, too. And, he gets bottled up. I feel like I passed him clean. I mean, I might have barely touched his left rear; didn’t even wrinkle his quarter panel in three and four. Got under him. We raced door-to-door for a couple laps. And after I got into his quarter panel, the whole way down the front straightaway, he sticks his hand out the window and flips me off all the way down the front straightaway. Obviously, he’s pissed for some reason. He’s probably a little spoiled brat. And then we run door-to-door for two laps. I finally clear him. And then when the spotter called ‘outside, right rear quarter,’ I gave him plenty of room. He turns down and picks me up and turns me to the inside wall down the front straightaway.
“So, I mean, you know, I don’t really know. I mean, a quarter of the garage comes and pats you on the back for something you do and tells you about the time someone does it and that’s what they deserve, you know, that just kind of describes his character. And I hate it ended that way for us tonight. We had a decent race car, I felt like. Got in a wreck there in the first 100 laps and had to mess the nose up. But, you know, it wasn’t a bad weekend with us. I just don’t know why he’s got to race like that. But, you know, obviously that’s something he’s not- he’s got to get a grasp on it.”
Surprisingly, most of the first half of the race was fairly straight forward. Trevor Ward and Lee Pulliam battled for the lead early with Kvapil and Heim right behind them. The biggest moment of the first half was when Carson Kvapil suffered a mechanical failure on lap 60, ending his run.
“We had, honestly, a pretty decent car,” Carson said. “We probably weren’t the winning car, but we were running around tenth there, and honestly, I thought our stuff was starting to pick up some speed and started having a volt problem, started losing volts, and I don’t have a volt gauge or anything, but you could tell. The gauges were starting to flash, like it was getting low on battery. Caught that yellow there, luckily. We were probably going to pull it in before long, but caught that yellow. Honestly, took the helmet off and called it a day, and Chad Bryant ran over, and I guess he had a fix.
“So we pulled the starter power wire off and pushed it off by hand, and I was good to go. I was a couple laps down. We were probably going to just ride it out for the rest of the day anyways, but got it to run again, and we were rolling along there. I guess once we had a yellow or stuff got hot on the hood, the zip tie holding the main power wire, I guess melted or broke, and then it grounded out on the chassis. So, started having some smoke and some wiring issues there.”
After the halfway break, Caden and Heim became the class of the field and battled nearly 70 laps under green until the scheduled caution with 25 laps to go. Caden got a great restart and held a half straightaway lead, while Lapcevich ran down Heim and passed him for second before the caution for Cox came out sending the race into overtime.
Once again, Caden got a great restart, driving away easily to win while Heim and Lapcevich brawled for second on-track, then the brawl continued in the pits. Caden won the Virginia Triple Crown as a result of his win, leaving him with everything to be happy about, but everyone else appeared to leave upset at something or someone, all while Caden wore his crown in victory lane, smiling.
The full finishing results can be viewed below.
ValleyStar Credit Union 300
Martinsville Speedway
September 26, 2026
- Caden Kvapil
- Corey Heim
- Treyten Lapcevich
- Lee Pulliam
- Jared Fryar
- Conner Jones
- Landon Pembelton
- Doug Barnes, Jr.
- Carson Loftin
- Conner Weddell
- Brandon Lopez
- Deac McCaskill
- Ryan Millington
- Dylan Fetcho
- Trevor Ward
- Bobby McCarty
- Donovan Strauss
- Ryan Matthews
- Trey Crews
- Landon Huffman
- Andrew Grady
- Chase Robertson
- Tate Fogleman
- Chase Murphy
- Tyler Matthews
- Chase Burgeson
- Jace Hale
- Tristan McKee
- Woody Howard
- Matt Cox
- Ryan Wilson
- Dillon Harville
- Clay Jones
- Peyton Sellers
- Dylan Newsome
- Casey Kelley
- Jacob Borst
- Carson Kvapil
- Michael Bumgarner
- Chase Ratliff
Short Track Scene’s Chase Folsom, Corey Latham and Andy Marquis contributed to this report.
