Treyten Lapcevich marvels, Dale Jr dazzles in South Carolina 400

There was the winner of the South Carolina 400 and there was the most prominent storyline … and for much of the race, there was considerable overlap.

Treyten Lapcevich and Chad Bryant Racing proved their bonafides at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday night but Dale Earnhardt Jr. proved some things too.

Earnhardt, simply put, was dreadful in qualifying again. It’s a puzzle he can’t quite solve in Late Model Stocks right now as it requires less finesse than what it takes to race them and he doesn’t do it enough to figure it out.

He was 53rd out 56 cars.

But, driving a retro Budweiser No. 8, Earnhardt had a promoter’s choice provisional and started at the rear of the field. Lapcevich had to race his way into the feature from a last chance race, and yet, in the closing laps of the first half they had raced themselves into running 1-2.

They remained that way for the near entirety of the second half until a caution with 30 laps to go when a fuel pump issue brought Earnhardt down pit road. The crowd headed for the exits and Lapcevich was largely unchallenged by Doug Barnes Jr. and Sam Yarbrough over what remained in the race.

The 2023 NASCAR Canada Series champion capped off a debut season stateside with a win in the CARS Tour at North Wilkesboro with the South Carolina 400. Not too bad if two had to be selected.

“This race means a lot to Chad and I’m proud that we could bring it back home to him,” Lapcevich said after the race.

He also wishes he and Earnhardt could have battled it out to the end.

“I feel like he probably was the closest to me for sure,” Lapcevich said. “Well, a 100 percent really. It was going to be a good battle with us heading into the end. We were playing a game of who could save tires the best but also maintaining track position. I’m just grateful to have raced him tonight. He doesn’t have to do this but he does and it brings a lot to this kind of racing.”

For his part, Earnhardt was about ready to hang up the helmet and gloves for good based on the way he qualifies but received a boost from a fellow short tracker, Gary Greenwood, before the last chance races.

“He came over to me, and I was mad at myself, and he was like ‘hey man, you need to keep your head up’ and I was like, ‘alright,” Earnhardt said. “He said, I’m doing this because of you. He said he lost his dad and listening to the podcast has really helped him.

“He said, ‘don’t worry about that qualifying lap’ He’s like, ‘You know, the things you’re doing are good and you’re helping people and helping me and I’m here with a race car because it makes me feel closer to my dad,’ and I really needed to hear that.

“I told him that too and so I went into the race just hoping for a safe race and a result I could be happy about and I got more than that.”

He drove from the back of the field to second, and was poised to challenge for the win until the fuel pump gave out.

“Just never got the chance,” he said.

It was overall his best Late Model start in the three years since he’s become a semi-regular short track racer again.

“I was thinking, ‘Man, if we could just finish in the top 10 …,’ I would have been pretty happy about that,” Earnhardt said. “I was thinking in that first half, I needed to try to find myself in the top 20 or the top 15 to give myself a chance.

“We got to moving around out there and I was driving the car really smart and straight off the corner and trying to be smart, but have some guys getting guys off the bottom, and kept getting cautions at the right time.”

Behind them both, Barnes was the only driver with a car in the same stratosphere but believes the difference was the GM 604 engine, which has a 50 lbs weight break compared to the Ford 347 SR Crate

“I think it was Tryeten’s dad who came over and said he doesn’t know how I drove that engine late in the race, and it was kind of the salt in the wound,” Barnes said. “When you get that late in the run, you don’t have to be as gentle on the throttle as I am but it was still a really really good night. We just needed to be better than one car and I’ll take that.”

The most notable incident occurred on Lap 86. Due to broadcast streaming issues on Saturday night, there were no immediate replays available to piece together what happened.

But the crash did result in a fight between Mason Diaz and Conner Jones, the former at one point slamming the latter down on the hood of his race car.

“I don’t know what happened in front us, but I drove down the middle and Conner just hooked us down the frontstretch as we were slowing down and that’s what put me in the wreck,” Diaz said afterwards.

“I moved him earlier. That was on me. I moved him but let him gather it back up. I didn’t have to but as a signal of respect that I didn’t mean to get into him that hard. I didn’t mean to get him about sideways.

“So I let him gather it up, gave him a couple of laps before passing him clean. The caution comes out and he comes up, three cars behind me, and just into me. Crushed the fender. It goes green, we raced clean until whatever happened on the frontstretch. It is what it is.”

Diaz said he was getting out of the car when Jones walked up to him, cussing him out with his helmet on.

“So that ways everything you need to know about him,” Diaz said.

He picked him up, slammed him, and they were pulled apart off the ground.

“What more does the kid need? I mean, suspended from NASCAR, the list goes on and on and on,” Diaz said. “There’s not a single person – every single person is probably happy he got into a fight with someone today because everyone wants to do it to him.“I hate it for him, I don’t want to see anyone fight, or anyone be talked bad about. I want to see everyone do well. Um, I don’t know. I don’t know what that kid needs to fix it.”

“I mean, obviously I’m good friends with everyone on his crew from Mike Darne Racing and hope they’re not mad at me, but if they are, it is what it is. You have to stand up for your driver but I’m friends with all of them.

“There’s just a couple of screws loose with that kid.”

Results

1. Treyten Lapcevich
2. Doug Barnes Jr.
3. Sam Yarbrough
4. Jacob Heafner
5. Carson Loftin
6. Brent Crews
7. Kade Brown
8. Darren Krantz Jr.
9. Casey Kelley
10. Riley Gentry
11. Brenden Queen
12. Cody Kelley
13. Jared Fryar
14. Leland Honeyman
15. Bryant Barnhill
16. Zack Miracle
17. Caden Kvapil
18. Justin Hicks
19. Chase Burrow
20. Vicente Salas
21. Ryan Millington
22. Landon Huffman
23. Ryley Music
24. Adam Congrove
25. Josh Berry
26. Jake Crum
27. Donovan Strauss
28. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
29. Jamie Weatherford
30. Conner Jones
31. Alex Meggs
32. Matt Cox
33. Ryan Glenski
34. Austin Green
35. Ronnie Bassett Jr.
36. Mason Diaz
37. Jonathan Shafer
38. Landon S. Huffman
39. Matt Gould
40. Truett Miranda
41. Ryan Wilson