Matt Gould, in just his fifth CARS Tour Late Model Stock start, is a winner.
He out dueled Treyten Lapcevich on a late restart to pull off the upset and win the Throwback Classic at Hickory.
As Gould moved way up from his twelfth place starting position, the caution and calamity filled race fell right in his lap, as veterans like Honeycutt, Heim and Pulliam fell by the wayside. Some may call it luck, but luck, as we know, is just where preparation meets opportunity and Gould speed all night long was apparent.
In a Niece Motorsports Late Model Stock, Crew Chiefed by his dad, Phil Gould and prepared at the shop by Connor Hall, Gould felt as though he had all the pieces and was able to capitalize.
“Me and my dad ran our own family program and we found some success,” said Gould “But having this program pop up has really just advanced my career, advanced my learning process and inheriting Connor has been huge. We butt heads a lot but we’re best friends and you can’t take that away. I love to see the emotion from Connor. I know he doesn’t like to see other people win but I’m so proud to be able to make him proud. He’s a great in this Late Model Stock era.
“My dad has worked with many greats. Bill Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Elliott Sadler, Ross Chastian, he’s worked with so many great drivers and being able to be under his wing and know how he was able to give them the best stuff and take their feedback so when I moved up into Late Model’s he knew what I needed to do to be successful. To see him emotional like that, you never see him emotional like that, his blood pressure is probably extremely high but it’s awesome.”
Until the last caution that gave Gould the front row, it looked as though it was all going Kaden Honeycutt’s way again. He battled Corey Heim in the early portions of the race until Heim, in not his proudest moment, as he put on X afterwards, got a bit over aggressive trying to stay even with Honeycutt into Turn 3 and spun underneath him. Honeycutt’s dominance was apparent caution after caution, the urgency for Lee Pulliam, who was now second, built.
With just over 15 laps to go, the second to last caution of the race flew. Pulliam was aggressive to stay with and he would eventually get alongside the No. 17. The two battled for several laps allowing third place Treyten Lapcevich into the fold. Honeycutt, Pulliam and Lapcevich went three wide into Turn 3 for the lead. Pulliam and Lapcevich came together, spinning Pulliam into Honeycutt and ending both of their nights.
“We were just three guys racing hard for the win,” said Pulliam “The No. 77 went bottom of three and when he went bottom of three he hit me in the left rear and as I’m spinning I try to save it and I get into the No. 17 as I’m sideways. Just unfortunate that I took him out. But I’m just so thankful to be able to race and I still got it you know. It’s a lot of fun. I could’ve won just about every race I’ve run in my car since I’ve come back and that’s a lot to be proud of.”
“The No. 5 had been roughing up the No. 17 for a few laps there,” said Lapcevich “I was kind of just hanging out. I had a gap behind me so I didn’t need to push the issue too much. I noticed the No. 5 was gonna get into the No. 17 in one and two there so I went high to get a good drive off, got the rear tires to hook up and got a good run down the backstretch. You gotta take those holes when they open up. Both those guys are really good and the amount of cautions we were getting, who knows how many chances we were going to get to take those positions.”
Honeycutt declined to comment on the incident
Lapcevich finishes second but had damage from the incident hindereding his ability to challenge Gould on the final restart.
“Looks like we lost a right front sway bar on the last restart there. It was a bit of a handful to drive but it’s disappointing for sure. Just needed to hang on for ten more laps.”
Landen Lewis came home third in his final CARS Tour start of the season.
“It’s definitely been a rocky season for sure,” said Lewis “A little more rocky than I want compared to last year but we showed speed but just putting all the pieces together, I felt like we made good adjustments but could never catch a break. Tonight we finally caught a break when nothing fell apart and now they keep building off of this and go on to Anderson.”
CARS Tour Hickory
Late Model Stock
August 9, 2026
1) #4G Matt Gould
2) #77 Treyten Lapcevich
3) #29 Landen Lewis
4) #9 Ryan Millington
5) #1 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
6) #16J Conner Jones
7) #5B Chase Burrow
8) #88 Caden Kvapil
9) #16M Chad McCumbee
10) #81 Mini Tyrrell
11) #51 Michael Bumgarner
12) #37 Landon Huffman
13) #84 Landon S. Huffman
14) #7 Helio Meza
15) #4 Parker Eatmon
16) #95 London McKenzie
17) #28 Kade Brown
18) #44 Dylan Newsome
19) #20 Carson Loftin
20) #17 Kaden Honeycutt
21) #5 Lee Pulliam
22) #15 Jace Hale
23) #6 Brandon Lopez
24) #28R Landon Rapp
25) #22 Corey Heim
26) #71 Jake Bollman
27) #06 Matt Leicht
28) #99 Brandon Dean
29) #37R Chase Robertson
