Landon Huffman, Kade Brown Split Hickory Twins

Kade Brown and Landon Huffman split a pair of Twin 40s on Saturday night at the Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars.

TWIN 2 RECAP

Kade Brown feels like he should have come away with a clean sweep of the night at Hickory but was pleased to get Matt Piercy Racing at least one victory following an engine sputter from the lead in the first race. Starting sixth, Brown methodically picked apart the field until 10 laps to go when he made the winning move under Doug Barnes.

Brown won a Twin in March 25 but has been subject to a lot of adversity early this season. He was one of the three cars not allowed to compete in the second twin of the second weekend of the season. He led laps in the CARS Tour race last weekend from the outside pole. He had the car to beat in the first twin.

He closed out on the night cap.

“It means so much to win that one,” Brown said. “We were just racing hard. After how the last few races went, it was big for us to get back here to Victory Lane.”

To his point about hard racing, the invert caused a lot of fender bending and close quarters combat, with Annabth Barnes-Crum right in the middle of all of it. She finished third but not before trading paint with early leader Doug Barnes, Brown and Vicente Salas for third coming to the line.

“All I hear is cheers, so I’m going to assume its for me,” Barnes-Crum said in her usually boisterous way. “It was hard racing. They will beat the hell out of you so we got the hell beat out of us for 40 laps. We finished two spots short but I gave it 110 percent. I’m just happy to be out here doing what I love.

“It feels good to be out here doing real racing, up front and not just riding around in the back, learning a lot. And tonight, I learned how to get the shit beat out of you for 40 laps and keep racing.”

Link: Sign up to FloRacing to watch Hickory weekly

The winning pass was made with 10 laps to go but not before Brown and Barnes traded a couple of bumpers themselves.

TWIN 1 RECAP

It’s been a challenging spring but the defending Hickory Motor Speedway Late Model Stock track champion finally returned to victory lane.

It took a series of circumstantial events, but Landon Huffman won for the first time this season when several other contenders all had issues ahead of him, but some good luck after a season of bad was a welcome development to the 27-year-old from Claremont, North Carolina.

“Man, what a start to the season,” Huffman said. “We’ve had so much misfortune and bad luck. And I don’t even know that I believe in it but this was a good turnaround. I’m really proud of this team and our turnaround, especially after last week in the CARS Tour race, more bad luck there.

“This is cool because this is the very first race car I’ve run that we ever totally own. To bring it out here and win is really special. I know I wasn’t the fastest car, but the fastest car doesn’t always win, but that’s part of it.”

Bad luck be gone!

Defending @hickoryspeedway track champ @LandonHuffman picks up the win in the first Twin 40 tonight!

Catch the rest of the program live on @FloRacing. pic.twitter.com/K5f0zWk3b8

— NASCAR Roots (@NASCARRoots) April 30, 2023

Kade Brown led the most laps but stalled off the Lap 24 restart and fell all the way from the lead to eighth. He led the most laps but had little to show for it, spending the rest of the race driving all the way back to third.

“I just lost power,” Brown said. “I thought we were really good. Saving what we needed to, had some really good restarts on the bottom, and I just don’t know what we need to do to have some good luck here. It’s been a rough few weeks. We’re really good and something happens. We led laps in the CARS Tour race and blew up. Just got to get that turned around, but I do want to thank my guys.

“We’ll get it fixed and see if we can fix it for this second race.”

In his return to Hickory since the so-called ‘tire gate incident’ last month, Doug Barnes Jr. showed the fastest speed in time trials and inherited the lead when Brown fell off the pace. Prior to that, while racing for third, Tyler Matthews brought out the caution on Lap 19 when he climbed up the left rear of the Barnes No. 88.

That was after he broke a shock from the lead.

Broke a shock after leading the first 11 laps or so. Then we got monster trucked for 3rd a few laps later. Still held onto the overt spot so we should start up front for race two pic.twitter.com/YnJH05qbDx

— Doug Barnes Jr (@DougBarnesJr88) April 30, 2023

The race was an attrition filled affair with a multi-car crash also occurring on Lap 19 when Charlie Watson spun due to contact from Annabeth Barnes-Crum and collected Jeff Sparks, Clark Houston and Landon S. Huffman as well.

The invert for the second race is an eight, placing Barnes back where he started the first race, on the pole.

https://twitter.com/LandonHuffman/status/1652471298491142144

TWIN 40 NO. 1

1. Landon Huffman
2. Vicente Salas
3. Kade Brown
4.Skyler Chaney
5. Matt Gould
6. Annabeth Barnes Crum
7. Michael Bumgarner
8. Doug Barnes Jr
9. Tyler Matthews
10. Landon S Huffman
11. Jeff Sparks
12. Charlie Watson
13. Clark Houston
14. Samantha Rohrbaugh
15. Jonathan Findley

TWIN 40 NO. 2

1. Kade Brown
2. Doug Barnes
3. Annabeth Barnes-Crum
4. Vicente Salas
5. Michael Bumgarner
6. Landon S. Huffman
7. Landon Huffman
8. Tyler Matthews
9. Matt Gould
10. Jeff Sparks
11. Clark Houston
12. Skyler Cheney
13. Samantha Rohrbaugh
14. Charlie Watson

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