T.J. DeCaire earned his first career CARS Pro Late Model Tour win at Tri-County.
DeCaire was running second to his teammate Brandon Lopez on a restart with 29 laps to go. Lopez dominated most of the race and needed to win to close the gap in the championship fight with points leader Aiden King. Unfortunately for Lopez, he jumped the restart and was sent to the tail of the field, giving DeCaire the lead.
DeCaire held off a charging Bayley Currey for the final 29 laps of the race to score his first win.
“I can’t race every week so I try to help the team every day I can,” DeCaire said in victory lane to FloRacing. “I care so much for the people in the pits. I can’t thank all these guys enough. They’ve done a phenomenal job all weekend and now we’re here.
“I wasn’t really liking the yellows. I knew [Currey] would race me clean and he did. He had a big slide job in Turns 1 and 2 and I crossed him over. That was great racing in my eyes. My goal was to keep it clean. I knew there would be a few wrecks, [there were more] than I thought there would be, but we kept the car clean and we had a great finish.”
Currey was in the No. 44 for Conner Jones racing this weekend, and nearly scored the win in his debut.
“I needed to hold the brake a little more and not let him cross me over,” Currey said after the race on FloRacing. “I really didn’t think I was going to clear him when I threw that slider. A huge thank you to everyone at Conner Jones Racing and Niece Motorsports. They brought me a great car.
“I haven’t run a straight rail car in eight years. To come back this competitive and race for a win feels really good.”
With three laps to go, Luke Bladwin and Vito Cancilla were battling for the third spot with Maier. Baldwin made it three wide on the inside going into Turn 1 and made contact with Cancilla, sending them both up the track. Cancilla got back to Bladwin’s rear bumper in Turn 4 and spun him out.
Lopez had to move to the right to dodge his spinning teammate and hit the outside wall in the process, ending his race. Isaac Kitzmiller got past Maier on the restart, but a fourth place finish is more than enough to put Maier in a position to easily win the points championship at North Wilkesboro in two weeks.
“We were really good in the beginning when we hadn’t had any falloff,” Maier said. “Once we got six laps in it got really loose on me. I got passed because of that a few times. I adapted to it and went to the bottom. [I] tried the top some more and made some spots up, but there was also some wrecks that got me some sports back up as well.”
While it is not a guarantee yet, Maier heads into North Wilkesboro just needing to avoid a major disaster to win the championship.
“It feels good,” Maier said. “Just one more clean race. We can win if we figure out our long run speed. I think it will be pretty good. I’ve been going [for] it the whole [season]. The championship is just something that I wasn’t focused on at the beginning of the season. I wanted to get as many wins as I could and have a good season, but the championship is a plus.”
The full finishing results can be viewed below.
zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour
Tri-County Speedway
October 4, 2025
1. #47 T.J. DeCaire
2. #44 Bayley Currey
3. #25 Isaac Kitzmiller
4. #6 Ben Maier
5. #28 T.J. Duke
6. #82 Taylor Hull
7. #61 Mason Walters
8. #40 Mia Lovell
9. #97 Dylan Garner
10. #4 Trey Burke
11. #51 Carson Ware
12. #27 Vito Cancilla
13. #7NY Luke Baldwin
14. #6L Brandon Lopez
15. #62 Rodney Dowless
16. #1X Tyler Church
17. #9 Ashton Higgins
18. #15 Case James
19. #17G Matt Gould
