CARS Tour championship shaping up nicely early

It’s early yet but CARS Tour is shaping up to have an interesting championship battle throughout the summer months.

Carson Kvapil, chasing a third consecutive championship, effectively gave his closest pursuers a handicap in winning the season opener at Southern National last month but then missing the next race at Hickory to make his Xfinity Series debut at Martinsville.

He has ground to make up.

Meanwhile, Connor Hall in his first season at Nelson Motorsports, is still chasing his first win with the team but is leading the standings with finishes of second, fourth and third thus far. He has a five-point lead over Mini Tyrell and six over three-time champion Bobby McCarty, who won last week at New River.

Championship runner-up from last year, Brenden Queen has suffered some early misfortune and is sixth in the standings and 20 points out while Kvapil is P8 and 29 points out.

So there are a lot of moving parts with 14 races to go.

1. Connor Hall
2. Mini Tyrrell -5
3. Bobby McCarty -6
4. Treyten Lapcevich -15
5. Brent Crews -20
6. Brenden Queen -20
7. Chad McCumbee -22
8. Carson Kvapil -29
9. Ryan Millington -29
10. Kade Brown -35
11. Buddy Isles Jr. -40
12. Jacob Heafner -40
13. Deac McCaskill -41
14. Brandon Pierce -41

So, it’s not apples-to-apples but Kvapil has been here before, winning the 2022 championship when also missing a race (due to a suspension) but this is also an increasingly stiffer roster of teams and drivers with a increasingly thinner margin of error.

“We’ve done it before so we know that we can,” Kvapil said. “It’s tougher every year but we have the team that can do it. That was an opportunity that I had to jump at because that’s where I want to be someday, racing in NASCAR.”

That Tyrrell is second in the standings is the real early surprise of the season, not because he wasn’t perceived as being capable, but because his history on the tour lacked consistency. He has qualified well, raced up front, but it’s been a coin flip whether or not Tyrell would get the results to match the pace.

“Definitely carrying the momentum,” Tyrrell said. “We’ve fired off really good to start the year and just really proud of my guys. They have worked their tails off. I think our whole program as a whole has gotten better as we have grown together. I’ve learned a lot and matured a ton.

“Thinking about it more, I think I’ve learned these new tires pretty well. I’ve adapted well.”

Tyrrell said during media day that his goal was a top-10 every race. He knew consistency was the most important to step to have taken this year.

How about seventh, fifth and second to start the season, while taking the fight to JR Motorsports, R&S Race Cars, Lee Pulliam Performance and Nelson Motorsports.

“I have a lot of respect for everyone at those teams, phenomenal racers, and I look at them as the benchmark we need to compare ourselves too,” he said. “Racing them is how we get better. They’re bringing fast race cars and they challenge us to be faster every week.”

Meanwhile, Bobby McCarty looks every bit like the guy that won the championship with Nelson Motorsports in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

“This is what we used to do a couple of years ago,” McCarty said. “I’m pumped up man. Like, our worst races are still top-5s. We get involved in a crash at Kenly and thrash on it and get a top-10. We win tonight. Those top-10s are ow you win the championship and that’s all the things we were doing in the Nelson car.”

He said it plainly after winning at New River.

“I’m back.”

It’s such a remarkable story because McCarty didn’t even have a full season’s worth of funding as early as January before Black Acid Racing Apparel and Axcel came in to get him back in the mix.

Meanwhile, car owner Marcus Richmond says his guy is as good as he’s ever looked.

“Everyone is working hard at R&S and so is he, but really, we’ve just started to really understand why he needs as a driver,” Richmond said. “We’re hitting on all eight cylinders along with him hitting on all eight cylinders.

“We got really good engines. Everything is clicking right now and so when you give Bobby that car, he can … look, he’s just better than anybody. So when, when he gets his car right, I’ll put my money on him any day.”

“I’ve been racing long enough to know the highs and the lows and the lows just make you appreciate the highs even more, you know,” he said. “I look at it this way, I could be sitting in the stands wishing I was racing.

“And instead, I’m driving a Lee Pulliam racing car and that’s an honor.”

Queen says he’s a lucky break or two away from rolling off multiple wins like last year.

“There is a lot of positivity here and this is a new week. As soon as what happened with Mini happened, we were already ready to move on to the next one and our day is bound to happen. We’re just going to keep knocking on the door in general.”

And for Queen, like everyone else, there is a lot of time to make moves towards a championship summer too.