Connor Hall is looking to do what no driver has accomplished in Late Model Stock Car racing as the zMAX CARS Tour heads to Tri County Speedway for the penultimate race of the 2024 season – but a familiar face could stand between him and history.
Hall, who clinched the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship for the second consecutive year earlier this month, leads the CARS Tour points standings by just one point over fellow Tidewater driver Brenden “Butterbean” Queen. Additionally, the two remaining tracks on the tour, which are both in the western regions of North Carolina, are both venues Queen has won at.
Despite that, Hall is confident he can close it out.
“I feel good,” Hall said. “We had a good third or fourth place last time [at Tri County] and that was really early in the year. I think we’ve only gotten better since. [Queen], I would consider it one of their best tracks so it’s going to be hard to beat them, but if we do what we need to do, I think we’ll have a good shot at it.”
Queen, who drives for Lee Pulliam Performance in the CARS Tour, is also radiating confidence heading to Tri County and North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he won in 2023.
“I always feel confident in Lee Pulliam Performance,” Queen said. “They always bring fast cars. Tri County’s been a really good track for us, but you’ve got to make sure you get the right tires, you gotta have a lot of luck, and you’ve got to be good. If you’re just a little bit off in this series, you’re not going to win. You’ve got to be perfect. If we’re good, but not perfect, we’re not gonna win. I feel really confident about it but I know how tough this series is.”
Connor Hall’s 18 wins across five different tracks in NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series put him in a club with elite company. Hall is only the fourth driver to win back-to-back national titles, joining Larry Phillips, Philip Morris, and Lee Pulliam.
“Back-to-back is definitely cool,” Hall stated. “I think I’m one of five people since the beginning of the weekly series to accomplish it so joining guys like Philip and Lee is a big accomplishment.”
Much of Hall’s success in 2024 came at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway, where he picked up seven of his 18 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series wins, as well as his lone victory in the 2024 CARS Tour season. Hall won the track championship at the flat, 0.396-mile Hampton, Virginia oval in 2022.
Langley Speedway is also where Queen cut his teeth.
“I would say it’s a testament to the competition and upbringing of being around the racetrack here,” Hall stated, talking about the CARS Tour title coming down to two Langley Speedway alumni. “I’ve always thought Langley had a good late model field for the weekly stuff. If you can run well consistently in the weekly stuff there, you have a good shot to perform elsewhere.”
Queen, who is a three-time Langley Speedway track champion, echoed those sentiments while talking about how much he learned from six-time Langley Speedway champion Greg Edwards.
“It just shows how tough racing against people like Greg Edwards was and how much it taught us,” Queen explained. “Greg Edwards taught me how to win races, having to follow him and chase him every week. The competition is always tough, the track’s flat, and I feel like, when we go to these higher grip tracks, they’re easier than Langley because you don’t have the variable of the low grip and flatness so it just makes us better drivers all around.”
Queen is also a multi-time winner of the Hampton Heat 200, the summer highlight held each July at the Hampton facility.
While both drivers have won track championships and picked up wins in headline races, winning the championship in the zMAX CARS Tour would be a career highlight, especially for Hall who could clinch the two biggest Late Model Stock Car championships in the same season.
“It’s not been done so it would obviously be amazing,” Hall commented. “It’s a really hard feat. We’ve had a couple bad races lately that have opened the door for the points battle to be closer, so we need to just execute and have good luck these last two races.”
Hall has struggled with consistency at times during the season and has been involved in on-track incidents which have relegated him from podium finishes to outside the top five.
However, Queen has also had to overcome adversity after struggling early in the season at the two Eastern North Carolina tracks, Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama and New River All American Speedway in Jacksonville. Both were races Queen was considered a heavy favorite to win, especially New River, which had been Queen’s best track.
“Winning the CARS Tour championship would be the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” Queen remarked. “I keep going back to the saying of last year when we came up a couple points short. It was like being in the Super Bowl and the other team’s confetti is spraying while you’re walking off the field. I don’t want to do that two years in a row.”
Now, the two drivers who raced each other often at Langley Speedway will clash for the championship in the biggest stage in Late Model Stock Car racing in back-to-back Saturday nights.
