Caden Kvapil Victorious in CPLMS Thriller at Florence

TIMMONSVILLE, SC – Caden Kvapil scored his first career Pro Late Model win in his first start in a phenomenal Carolina Pro Late Model Series race at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Kvapil, 13, from Mooresville, North Carolina, took the lead from Bowman Gray Stadium veteran Tommy Neal on the 61^st lap of the 100 lap race and held off challenges on multiple restarts en route to the victory.  Behind him, a flurry of intense racing shook up the running order.

“Feels amazing,” Kvapil told Short Track Scene in victory lane.  “We literally had no expectations coming into tonight.  We just wanted to finish the race with a halfway decent finish.  Me and [Neal] had a really good battle and I was able to get the lead and pulled it off.”

Kvapil, who is the youngest son of former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil and the younger brother of series champion Carson Kvapil, plans to run the entire Carolina Pro Late Model Series season in 2021.

Tommy Neal had been running in second, trying to fend off a challenge from William Cox.  However, with 11 laps to go, Neal spun off the front bumper of Cox coming out of turn four.  Neal fell to the rear of the field from the incident with Cox joining him after a penalty, ultimately moving Nick Loden up to second.

Behind Loden, an intense battle between the series’ two female racers, Amber Lynn and Toni Breidinger, ensued.  Breidinger, who had been involved in an incident earlier in the race while running inside the top-five, charged back up through the field using a little hustle and a lot of muscle.  She got to the back bumper of Lynn and attempted to rout her out of the way multiple times, but Lynn was ultimately able to survive and finish third.

“Racing at Bowman Gray, you learn to do that,” Lynn said after holding off the intense challenge from Breidinger.  “I won three races like that.  It’s all in car control and in the butt.  You’ve got to be able to feel it in your butt to drive a racecar.  We did really good.  It was tight the entire race.  We didn’t even plan to come here until Wednesday or Thursday so we’re happy with our finish.”

Behind Lynn and Breidinger, Max Gutierrez completed the top-five.

Tommy Neal ended up finishing eighth after leading a race-high 60 laps.

Unofficial Results

1. Caden Kvapil
2. Nick Loden
3. Amber Lynn
4. Toni Breidinger
5. Max Gutierrez
6. TonyCosentino
7. Kevin Folan
8. Tommy Neal
9. William Cox, III
10. Kyle Campbell
11. Tawakwah Grynewicz
12. Ronny Osmer
13. Garrett Smithley
14. Jake Courage
15. Chase Williams
16. Tovia Grynewicz

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