CARS Tour Leftovers: What you may have missed from Ace Speedway

The latest trip to Ace Speedway produced a bit of history for the CARS Tour as Kaden Honeycutt swept both the Late Model Stock and Pro Late Model features on the same day, a first for the tour. Honeycutt’s historical run aside, there were plenty of stories throughout the field. From points implicating contact to a brotherly rivalry, here are some things you may have missed from Ace.

Points Leaders Clash

While the fight for the lead raged on between Kaden Honeycutt and Tryeton Lapcevich, further back in the Pro Late Model race was a contentious battle between points leader Mason Walters and second place Brody Monahan. The pair traded blows for several laps before heavy contact on lap 73 coming off turn two. Walters was sent hard into the outside wall by Monahan, who was then turned by the wrecking Walters even harder into the wall.

The result was race ending damage for Monahan and a 21st place finish.

“We’re nearing the end of the race and every position counts at this point,” said Monahan on the FloRacing broadcast. “It was back and forth and getting a little brutal. I think the 62 [Keelan Harvick] got into the 6 [Walters] and the 6 went way up the track. If I fell into line I would have lost a lot of spots so I tired to get in there three wide in the middle. It’s definitely unfortunate; we had such a fast car and we were making some headway there at the end of the race. Pretty upsetting, but it’s been a good weekend overall but an unfortunate way to go out.”

Walters sustained less damage and was able to rally to a seventh place finish, extending his points lead. 

Jake Johnson’s impressive podium performance 

In only his second tour start, and first of 2026, Jake Johnson showed tremendous patience and skill to take home a podium finish in the Pro Late Model portion of the night. Officially, Connor Jones was this race’s Hard Charger, but Johnson was the hardest charging car in the final 25 laps, methodically working his way into the runner up spot behind winner Honeycutt.

“I guess it’s just the Modified [driver] in me to keep the tires under it and let it rip [at the end],” Johnson said. “That’s exactly what we did today. We kept the fenders on it and at the last 25 [laps], we pulled the pin to see if we had anything. We couldn’t keep up with [Honeycutt], so congrats to him, he did a great job.”

For the effort, Johnson received the “Rookie of the Race” award for this race.

The Cayden Connection

In a story that spans both the late model races you find Cayden Lapcevich. Older brother to Tryeton, Cayden found himself in an interesting scenario, as spotter for Kaden Honeycutt in both races.

When asked how it felt spotting against his brother, Cayden said it was tough.

“It was tough to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know really how to describe it. The CARS Tour field is so deep and for them to be one-two in both races I think speaks for how good of racecar drivers they are.”

At the end of the day, the first person Cayden found in victory lane was brother Tryeton, who was already there congratulating Kaden on his second win of the night. 

“Yeah, it was just nice to see them put on two good shows and it goes unnoticed sometimes.”

Heim’s time at Ace

Corey Heim made his first appearance in the CARS Tour driving a Late Model Stock for Nelson Motorsports at Ace and raced to a solid fifth place finish. The NASCAR Truck Champion said that track position was the key on this night.

“It was an overall good night for us,” Heim told Short Track Scene. “I never could quite get that cutting edge speed that the top three or four guys had but a couple of restarts helped me out and I was able to get some track position. This seems to be one of the hardest kind of places to pass… I don’t know if we were a fifth place car by any means but we were able to get that track position and sort of hold them off. Regardless, I had a good time; it’s fun racing Late Model Stocks. It’s an underrated challenge for sure to come back and do this. They drive a lot different but the competition is very very good.”

Heim was pleased with environment, working with Nelson Motorsports for the first time.

“It took a little bit for us to get fully oriented,” he said “We had a Wednesday practice and I feel like by the race start we kind of knew what we were looking for with each other. It’s cool just to be able to give feedback and those guys listen to me and try things and it works. It’s fun when it’s rewarding and you just keep getting better.”

Heim will take the notes and experience from Ace on to a few more starts throughtout the summer leading up to a bid for a grandfather clock at Martinsville with Nelson Motorsports in September.

Fetcho is Darne good

When the CARS Tour visited Nashville, Dylan Fetcho jumped at the chance to get some time in a Late Model Stock car. Behind the wheel of the number 89 Mike Darne Racing machine, Fetcho quickly impressed by putting the car in pole position for his first ever tour start.

Fetcho continued to impress with a top ten finish in the “Music City” then backed up that performance at the next event at Caraway with a top five. There, he fought a spirited battle against Landon S. Huffman in the waining laps, coming out on top in 5th place.

With yet another top ten at Ace Speedway after a strong consistent run, many are now asking if Dylan Fetcho is a Late Model Stock driver now.

“I’m trying to be,” Fetcho said after the race. “I’ve had a lot of fun for sure. Ended up seventh from starting 16th is not too bad. I definitely like these cars. They race a lot better than a Pro and Super if you ask me, but these are new tracks to me. I definitely had a lot of fun and still was learning towards the end there.”

When asked how he got to here, racing at Ace, Fetcho said it kind of just happened.

“We didn’t plan on running anymore [races] after Nashville,” he said. “It just went good and Mike [Darne] didn’t have anybody [to drive] so we’re just trying to make everybody look good and ended up making it happen.”

As far as the next start…

“Nothing as of now, but that’s how it was after Caraway too, so hopefully I’ll be at the next one, just not sure yet.”

The CARS Tour nexts takes to the track on May 30th at Langley Speedway with the Late Model Stock Series.