Luke Baldwin earned his first CARS Pro Late Model Tour win at Orange County Speedway.
The second generation driver, son of legendary Tommy Baldwin Jr., won the SMART Modified Tour championship last year and is making select starts in a Pro Late Model this year. Baldwin started on Pole and led the last 45 laps to score the win.
“I just drove the wheels off the thing,” Baldwin said in victory lane. “There wasn’t much time where I was riding there. It was pretty free all the way throughout the race, but we can be that sideways and still be that fast. The race with Tyler [Reif] was awesome. That was some of the most fun racing I’ve ever had in my life. We got a little roughed up at the start, but that’s racing. We bounced back and man, I can’t believe it.”
This was just his ninth CARS Pro Late Model Tour start. He had one top five and three top tens before the race today. Baldwin also made a start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway earlier this year and had good pace, showing that the youngster is also good in fendered cars.
“I’ve had some decent runs in a full-fendered race car. I always managed to mess it up somehow. I tried to knock the fence down off of four one time when I had a 15-car-length lead. I tried to give it up and the racecar was too strong, too good.”
Jade Avedisian finished second, just behind Baldwin. She won the season opener at Coastal Plains, becoming the first ever female winner in CARS Tour history. She is running a part-time schedule so this was just her second CARS Tour start of the year.
“I feel like I just needed to maintain and work on my first 20 laps,” Avedisian said after the race. “I got next to them, but I never really had a run. I feel like maybe I burned my right rear off just a tiny bit for the end. I’ve just got to go back and watch, see what I can do better.”
The race started off well, with Baldwin firing from pole, but Keelan Harvick took the lead in turn three to lead lap one. Tyler Reif took the lead on lap two. The first yellow came out on lap 24 when Taylor Hull spun in turn four.
The leaders held position on the restart and got two laps in the books before the second caution fell when Rodney Dowless spun in turn one after contact with Ben Maier. The field stacked up again and everyone got away clean.
Reif held onto the lead until 45 laps to go when Baldwin passed him. The caution came out the next lap, solidifying the running order. The restart got hectic right after, however.
Baldwin got away quickly, but Reif, Avedisian, and Harvick were in a dog fight for three laps for the second spot. It culminated in Reif hitting the outside wall on the backstretch head on, as contact with Jade sent him up the track and into Harvick while they were three wide in turn two, taking Reif out of the race and leaving Harvick too damaged to compete for the win.
The rest of the race was smooth sailing as Baldwin jumped out to the lead again on the restart and Avedisian held second. Evan McKnight restarted in third, but Isaac Kitzmiller got past to claim the final spot on the podium. McKnight held onto fourth and Jarrett Butcher rounded out the top five.
The full finishing order can be viewed below
zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour
Orange County Speedway
April 26, 2025
1. 51-Luke Baldwin
2. 24-Jade Avedisian
3. 25-Isaac Kitzmiller
4. 61-Evan McKnight
5. 54B-Jarrett Butcher
6. 62-Keelan Harvick
7. 6M-Ben Maier
8. 54-Brody Monahan
9. 15D-Rodney Dowless
10. 97-Dylan Garner
11. 6L-Brandon Lopez
12. 82-Taylor Hull
13. 31-Kaden Honeycutt
14. 28D-TJ Duke
15. (DNF) 47-Tyler Reif
