
The CARS Late Model Stock Tour championship was most likely decided last weekend at Tri-County Motor Speedway but if we have learned anything this season, anything can happen, and there is one more series of dominoes left to fall on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Brenden Queen took the championship lead for the first time this entire season, and in the penultimate race, when Connor Hall qualified poorly and ended up junked in an early crash. Queen finished third and turned a one-point deficit into a nine-point advantage in advance of the ECMD 125.
“I think I heard Joey Logano say something recently about it being a privilege to have pressure,” Queen said on Friday prior to qualifying at Wilkesboro. “That means you have a shot and you have been doing it right. Looking back on it, these will be the moments you really appreciate once you get holder, because it goes by quick, and next week, win or lose, it will be over.
“We are either going to win or we don’t but this week of just having a shot, it’s something I want to enjoy and the stress is just part of it. If you didn’t have stress, it means you weren’t in the hunt.”
Hall says he doesn’t ‘stress over points racing much’ and certainly isn’t this weekend after what happened at Tri-County.
“I always took the mindset that if you go out and win half the schedule of races, the points will take care of itself. I’d rather win eight races than win the championship. The championship is cool and I know we all want it but we should have won more races this year. We should have won the second Ace, Hickory, Caraway and I think more about those wins that got away than the championship, but one is a byproduct of the other is how I see it.”

The relationship between Queen and Hall is a fascinating one.
There is tremendous respect between the two, as they have raced each other for a decade between Langley Speedway in their personal cars, and now in the CARS Tour with Lee Pulliam Performance and Nelson Motorsports respectively.
They have raced each other really hard between the CARS Tour race at Langley, the NASCAR sanctioned Hampton Heat 200 and the series race at Ace all come to mind. The Hampton Heat was especially memorable with a series of bump-and-runs between them.
As a result, there has been tension between them as well.
“I tell everybody, you know, that this is the type of rivalry or battle or whatever you want to call it, that I will look back on 20 years from now and want to redo it,” Queen said. “I think we are both very competitive and I tell everyone that we push each other very hard.
“And that’s the thing, I think he wants to beat me the same way that I want to beat him, and we go the extra mile to be even better on the race track, and we’re both better because of it. But I don’t know that I can be the judge of whether that’s a rivalry or whatever anyone would call it.”
One of the biggest points of disappointment for Hall is that he feels like he just hasn’t raced Queen that much this season, even though the championship is coming down between them. He says his best races have come on nights where misfortune struck Queen and vice vera.
“It’s been a hard year for everyone, with crashes and not finishing races, but they had a lot of bad luck at the front end of the season and we had a lot of it near the back end, and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles,” Hall said. “But we haven’t raced each other a lot this year.”
Hall is moving to JR Motorsports next season and Queen doesn’t yet know what opportunities will be available to him.
“I’ve been telling everybody right now, I could be on the couch eating potato chips next year,” Queen said.
If nothing else, beyond the championship, Hall and Queen both want to race for one more win, and if they have to race each other for it, that’s all the better too.
“I just want to race because last time we came here, I qualified 21st and got in that big wreck on Lap 3,” Hall said. “I didn’t get to race. It was just a night of survival. I want to show up, have a good car, and race for a win.”
And for Queen, it could be a swan song at Pulliam too.
“I’m proud that I can call Lee any day of the week, and no matter what happens, he is still going to be one of my best buds,” Queen said. “This year has been special. I’m going to miss going to battle with these guys if I’m not here, but I’m thankful that I’ve had the chance to do it.”
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.


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