Landon Huffman and Justin Carroll mutually split, and chose to preserve a friendship rather than a partnership.

After nearly two full seasons of Late Model Stock competition together, Landon Huffman, Justin Carroll and Carroll Speedshop parted ways ahead of this weekends ValleyStar 300 at Martinsville Speedway. After a strong season in the CARS Tour in 2025, including a top five finish in points and several near misses with victory lane, the pairing seemed to be a shell of their former selves in 2026.

So, what went wrong, how long has this been boiling, and why did the two ultimately decide to split ahead of the biggest race of the season?

For both Carroll and Huffman, it was a matter of preserving a friendship at the expense of a working relationship. The results weren’t there, and it was time for a change.

The split between Landon Huffman and Justin Carroll was about both business, and friendship, and preserving one at the expense of the other.

Huffman shares his thoughts on the split, and his expectations in the Taylor Satterfield 40 this weekend. pic.twitter.com/9QwzCN1lcE

— Short Track Scene (@ST_Scene) September 25, 2026

“Probably more of a preventative measure so the relationship doesn’t get tainted,” Huffman told Short Track Scene. “John and Justin Carroll are like family to me, John is like a second dad, … obviously we haven’t had the season that we wanted, especially after the success we had last year.

“This year, circumstances kind of led us to where we weren’t seeing the success we were used to, I was struggling at the track each week trying to dig us out of a hole. We had one car that’s finding a lot of success and I just wasn’t able to replicate that and because of that, unfortunately, I know how this racing deal goes, … For my relationship with the Carroll’s, yes there was some business involved, we had business goals to get them where they needed to be, get me where I needed to be, but it was much more than a business relationship.

So, to no jeopardize the other things outside of racing, both of us felt like we weren’t really accomplishing what we were going for and they’re gonna be just fine without me, … it was more of that, it wasn’t any ill-will or anything bad. It sucks it ended that way because they’re people I hold very high in life, so it’s unfortunate, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

To add insult to injury for Huffman, while he and the No. 57 team had struggled to this point, scoring just one CARS Tour top-10 on the season, his former Carroll Speedshop teammate Conner Jones sits second in the standings with two wins and five top-fives. All the while, Huffman is having his own successful season on the weekly side, scoring double digit wins between time at Tri-County Speedway and Wake County Speedway. After the group struggled mightily in the CARS Tour event at Tri-County, one of Huffman’s home tracks, it was clear that things just weren’t working to mesh the two together.

“That’s always a factor,” Huffman said. “Justin [Carroll] is very smart at what he does, this year he’s been strictly on the No. 44 [Jones], we work together at the shop. We had a small group at the shop, it was me John and Justin, so a lot of times the cars left very similar and at the track a lot of times I was having to make decisions that affected my race car. To be honest, I think there’s times I’m great at that, I think at the CARS Tour level I might not have been as good as good at that as I thought I was.

“You get in a situation where we maybe don’t have that many people working at the track on my car, or both cars, or working collectively as we did last year, it’s more of a separate operation at the racetrack. It’s not as easy to find results.”

On the other hand, Carroll moves forward with Jones and Diego Mendeztorres in his two cars at Martinsville, business as usual. Carroll maintained the same sentiment as Huffman that the results weren’t there, it was a business decision and the personal side of things remains in tact.

Justin Carroll shared his side of the story, and why the results the pairing had a year ago couldn’t be replicated this season. pic.twitter.com/hSjfuh1cUq

— Short Track Scene (@ST_Scene) September 25, 2026

“I mean, it’s really not too much of a story,” Carroll told Short Track Scene. “The results don’t lie, unfortunately, and we haven’t had the best results. Me and Landon, before we even started working together business-wise, were really good friends and throughout working together, our friendship has grown even more, so that’s going to continue on. Unfortunately, just with the financial side of things of what we were able to put together, it just didn’t allow us to be able to hire more help.

“The level of competition that this series is, whether it’s here at Martinsville or the CARS Tour, it’s tough and you’ve got to have those people to help. We weren’t quite able to put all that together and like I said, the results weren’t lying so I think it was best for us both to go separate ways before it did start affecting the friendship side of things, because ultimately we don’t want that.

“Like I said, before anything of him driving my race cars, we were friends, so we want to continue that and moving forward, that’s the plan. Him and I have talked multiple times since split up and we’ve laughed, joked, and called each other about football games and it’s just been as business as usual.”

After such a successful season to build off of in 2025, what was the difference this season? Carroll contributed part of the change to the absence of Huffman’s father Robert at the track at times this season, but wasn’t quite sure of the ultimate answer. Despite Huffman’s feeling of a more split operation than in years past, Carroll feels as though this is something he’s managed before and shouldn’t have been such an extreme factor.

“Yeah, that’s a really good question,” Carroll said. “I wish I had that answer. Things aren’t too terribly different than what we were last year, I think his dad was able to come to a lot of the races and be a helping hand, and kind of a comfort level for him because him and his dad worked together every weekend on his own car. So we haven’t been able to have Rob as much this year because he’s got stuff that he’s got to attend to for his own business and I think that could be some of the issue, but it’s a really good question. I wish I had those answers too.”

“I mean, I did those type of things last year. So to that side of it, no. I still work on all the cars in the shop, whether that was his [Huffman], whether that was Connor’s, whether it was Diego’s or the other car that we have at the shop, … the level of competition is only getting stronger each year. So I think all those things kind of snowball into what led to where we’re at.”

Regardless, one of the most well-known partnerships in the CARS Tour will be no more going forward, and while Carroll will continue chasing a championship with Jones and running the development program at Carroll Speedshop, Huffman will focus in on his ride with Taylor Satterfield at Martinsville this weekend, and what the future holds for he and the Huffman Racing crew.