Keelan Harvick picked up yet another CARS Pro Late Model Tour win this year at South Boston.
This marks his third win in nine starts in the series, the most out of any driver this year. Keelan started second and battled pole sitter Ben Maier throughout most of the race. He was able to pull away near the end, giving him smooth sailing en route to his win.
“Rackley W.A.R. always brings me a fast car,” Keelan said on FloRacing in victory lane. “It’s really cool when I get to bring a trophy back to the shop. I can’t thank them enough.”
With 10 laps to go, his team told him to push hard to try to get away from Maier.
“Robert Arch (spotter) [told me] to go as fast as I could, but I didn’t want to spin out because that would be embarrassing. I just pushed it to the limit as hard as I could. It’s [hard] because the tires are worn out a lot and it’s a lot to get used to, especially as the race goes on, but it’s definitely a fun challenge.”
Keelan’s dad Kevin Harvick has been proud of how Keelan has done this year. He hasn’t been able to set many expectations because Keelan is running several different cars in different series.
“It’s always been hard to [set expectations] as you go through these phases of learning and getting used to the car, or go karts, or Legends cars,” Kevin said. “You have to go with whatever the progression is.
“That was the reason we decided to start letting him venture into the Super [Late Model] next month at Kern [Raceway] and see how that goes, [and] Pensacola [for the Snowflake 100]. It’ll be fun to see his progression at a new race track. [He’ll] be able to get in the Late Model Stock a few times throughout the end of the year. You never know how it’s going to go but they’ve done a great job.”
Despite how good Keelan has been this year, Kevin doesn’t plan to have Keelan chase a championship next year.
“I don’t think [he will run full-time],” Kevin said. “There’s so much going on out west and everything we have here. He’s going to be 14 [years old] in the middle of next year so I’d venture to say that there will be more Super races and Late Model Stock races.”
Maier came up just short of his first career win after starting on pole. Even though he is disappointed, he gained even more points on Brandon Lopez, putting him in a good spot to win the championship.
“We were struggling all weekend just trying to get fast[er],” Maier said on FloRacing after the race. “I think we made a strong swing at it for qualifying.
“I think in the race we just weren’t quite as good as what Keelan was. We battled with Harrison [Burton] for a while on the top and I think that burned our tires up a little bit. I think [Keelan] was a little bit better than us, so we’ve got to go back to the shop and try to find that last little bit.”
Lopez rounded out the podium after battling Harrison Burton at the end of the race. Even though he lost some ground in the points, he feels good heading into the last two races of the season at Tri-County and North Wilkesboro.
“[I] just really needed track position early,” Lopez said after the race. “I was really able to fire off [well] for the first five laps. It was hard to fire off on the bottom just because the momentum you carry up top.
“[It was] a great battle with [Burton]. [He] raced me clean. [It] was just a good race overall. I tink we had maybe a place or two better car but track position said otherwise. We took what we could get tonight. Didn’t finish in front of the people we needed to, but there’s two more races so we’re still in the hunt.”
The full finishing results can be viewed below.
zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour
South Boston Speedway
September 13, 2025
1. #62 Keelan Harvick
2. #6 Ben Maier
3. #6L Brandon Lopez
4. #51 Harrison Burton
5. #25 Isaac Kitzmiller
6. #44 Conner Jones
7. #7 Tristan McKee
8. #97 Dylan Garner
9. #15 T.J. DeCaire
10. #61 Mason Walters
11. #40 Mia Lovell
12. #4 Trey Burke
13. #17 Brody Gunter
14. #2NY Colton Ingerkick
15. #47 Tyler Reif
16. #62D Rodney Dowless
