One by one, the anticipated contenders fell by the wayside, but Chase Burrow was ever-present.
That’s the condensed version of how Burrow and the No. 00 came to win their first Late Model Stock race against the CARS Tour at home at Langley Speedway.
Landen Lewis led the most laps but broke
Mini Tyrrell cut a tire racing for the lead
Connor Hall just lost pace as the race went
Jared Fryar had to drive twice through the field
Through it all, Burrow remained in the top-five, taking the lead from Hall with 30 to go, and needed to survive several restarts to get a win that, so far, means the most to the 20-year-old from nearby King William.
“This is definitely the biggest win of our career,” Burrow said. “And to do it as home, this is our home track, is extra special. I wish everyone was here. This is pretty cool.”
It was a dynamic race, with it starting underneath blue skies at 6:00 p.m. but interrupted by rain for half an hour, and then finishing under the lights. The track tightened up considerably at dark and it tripped up several teams on what was also a relatively cool day for a final day of May affair.
“Track position was the key for us,” Burrow said. “We qualified good and saved tire. When it rained and everything cooled off, we could attack harder than we had been, and I got all I could and that was the biggest deal. We charged hard and got some positions on that next restart and settled back into place. I just think track position and saving tires was key for us.”
Hall said the track just didn’t respond the way he anticipated and apologized to his crew for what he said was leading them down the wrong direction over the weekend. Hall was seeking a third straight win at his home track on the tour but with a third different team between Chad Bryant Racing, Nelson Motorsports and now JR Motorsports.
Meanwhile, Jared Fryar also felt tripped up by track conditions. He qualified 14th and made wholesale changes on their first pit stop. Drove through the field and was then lightly collected in a Donovan Strauss spin on Lap 69.
He then drove through the field again and nearly outright won the race had he had another restart to size up Burrow.
“We had a rough day,” Fryar said. “Well, i wouldn’t say rough day, Friday. It just wasn’t as smooth as we had when we won Orange County. We saw some things we had been fighting and tried to adjust for it, got halfway decent, put tires on it and then we were bad again. Just a back and forth day. So we went with what we knew and run good with, put the shocks in and some packer in the front, and it just came to life.
“It was crazy. Had that set back when Donovan spun in front of me because I had to pass all those cars again. I thought our night was over after that. Shoot, to come back and have a chance on the outside to win the race, was super cool.”
Lewis started fighting his issue with the rev limited five laps into the race.
“I just heard a big pop,” he said afterwards. “It started acting up but it was still pretty good. It was unbelievable honestly. I wish we could have sealed the deal.”
He was seeking a third straight win across Ace, North Wilkesboro and then Langley.
“It sucks but I could tell my guy to keep their head up because we were good, you take the eyes and lows, and enjoy the highs when you get them. That’s what we’ll do and look forward to Dominion.”
One of the reasons Burrow needed to keep defending the lead on restarts was a series of conflicts between Justin Scott Carroll and Landon Huffman. The two spun each other out on consecutive restarts and it stemmed for a laps long battle between them before that first caution that involved them with 10 laps to go.
What was that about, Huffman?
“I only know one Justin Carroll and that’s the one that owns my race car,” Huffman said of Justin T Carroll. “The other guy runs in the back about everywhere he goes. It’s just dumb.
“I mean, I run around him there 8-10th, wherever we were, we weren’t good. We struggled really bad in the race. Bad tight, ran seventh to 12th all night. We were racing hard and I was under him for probably, I don’t know, what felt like 25 laps but it was 8-10, side by side. I was being real patient, trying to take my time.
“He kept crowding me on entry and you know, I just got a little more aggressive. I’m talking like, for me, I’m not very aggressive when it comes to passing people like that. I don’t like running into people. I never have, you know.”
But he did get into him.
“As soon as I cleared him, he drove into the fuel cell on me and had me all jacked up down the backstretch and like drove over there to the bar and ran me way up the racetrack.”
So Huffman went right back after him.
“And then trying to get back to him, got into him and him and he checked up,” Huffman said. “I didn’t mean to spin him out. I was just trying to get back to him, trying to cross him back over and give him back what he gave me down here. And he spun out.”
The next restart, Carroll drove into Huffman and sent him around.
“What he did there was ridiculous,” Huffman said. “I mean, trying to drive over his head every lap to take us out and then intentionally wrecked us. Like to me they, CARS Tour should do something about that but it really doesn’t matter because he doesn’t run with us every week.
“He’ll probably DNQ the next Truck Series race.”
For his part, Carroll said he was just tired of the disrespect.
“We had a pretty clean race going and he was trying to pass me on the inside,” Carroll saod. “He couldn’t get by me and it’s hard to pass here on the inside, I know, when someone has you pinned down.
“So he starts washing me up, washing me up, washing me up. Eventually, he gets me in third groove and still can’t pass me. I guess Ronnie Bassett passed him or they got together or something happened and I saw the opportunity and did the same thing to him.
“Just doored him a little bit and then we come off Turn 4 and he hooked me. It’s one thing to lift me up but he never let me go and just turned me around on the straightaway. That’s just really dirty. He’s out here racing for points so he had more to lose than I did. I just felt like what he did was dirty.”
The race also creates another tightening of the championship with Lewis finishing 19th but Connor Hall only managing a seventh and Kade Brown 10th, the three of them are going to be stacked right on top of each other.
It’s just exactly the way Lewis anticipated.
“It seems like it every year, right,” Lewis said. “Someone gets a big lead early and things happen and it’s a two or three driver battle down to the final race. I wish we could have closed this one out and I’m sure a lot of guys feel that way over the course of the season too but we have to go to Dominion and get right back after it.”
CARS Tour Visit Hampton Virginia 125
Langley Speedway
May 31 2025
- #00 Chase Burrow; 125
- #14 Jared Fryar; 125
- #2w Matthew Waltz; 125
- #7 Tristan McKee; 125
- #16 Chad McCumbee; 125
- #04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.; 125
- #88 Connor Hall; 125
- #71 Parker Eatmon; 125
- #11 Buddy Isles Jr.; 125
- #4 Kade Brown; 125
- #44Conner Jones; 125
- #4s Donovan Strauss; 125
- #57 Landon Huffman; 125
- #2 Brandon Pierce; 125
- #28 Dustin Storm; 125
- #91 Justin Carroll; 125
- #22 Carson Loftin; 125
- #88 Doug Barnes Jr.; 120
- #29 Landen Lewis; 86
- #81 Mini Tyrrell; 75
- #47 Ryley Music; 71
- #1 Andrew Grady; 71
- #03 Lanie Buice; 46
