The day at Newport Speedway didn’t start off the way Carson Brown and the Anthony Campi Racing crew are used to. Down on the charts in practice, and a 14th place effort in qualifying are unfamiliar territory for the No. 81 crew in 2026.
The end results, however, were the same. A fourth win on the season for the ASA STARS National Tour points leader, dominating the second half of the 325-lapper and overcoming a late yellow and last-ditch effort from Matt Craig.
Despite the effort on the final restart, Craig crossed the line second with Kasey Kleyn in tow for his career best finish on the STARS Tour. George Phillips and Dylan Bates completed the top five. Casey Roderick, Kyle Steckly, Derek Thorn, Colby Howard and Keelan Harvick made up the rest of the top 10.
Carson Brown had to work for this one, especially on that final restart, but its win number 4 for the ASA STARS points leader.
He also gave his thoughts on the Matt Craig jumped restart, and the accusation that he “baited” the 54 into jumping. pic.twitter.com/ErW7up5xE1
“It was a tough race in general,” Brown told Short Track Scene postrace. “Qualified 14th, not where we wanted to qualify at all. Honestly, it felt like we had 100lbs strapped to our back and just couldn’t go anywhere, … in the first 50-laps we were questioning life decisions there, after we just weren’t able to go anywhere.
“Then we got to probably the 50-lap mark and at that point it was just time to go, the car just caught on fire and it was hauling the mail, … by the end of it I think we tamed the beast pretty good.”
Brown had to hold off Craig, who roughed him up a bit for the lead in turn one, on the final restart. Craig briefly took the lead away from Brown, who quickly retook the top spot and led the final two laps for the victory.
“The last restarts were very, very tough,” Brown said. “I knew that Craig was going to bomb it off in there, he did in the previous few and ended up getting called for jumping that one. He worked his way all the way back up there and it was a hard race. I knew he’d bomb it off in there so I bombed it off with him just so he didn’t get any leverage.”
While Brown started deep in the field, it was Craig who set fast time earlier in the afternoon and started on pole for the 325-lap feature event, joined on the front row by Keelan Harvick in his ASA STARS debut. Craig led from the jump, and despite an early caution for Derek Kraus, led the entirety of the first 100-lap stage. Kraus, the defending race winner, was the only driver in the 16-car field that failed to make it to the end of stage one, falling out of the race due to a brake failure on lap 85.
Early in stage two it was more of the same, with Craig dominant out front and a series of rotating challengers behind. The first major incident of the race occurred on lap 121, when Jade Avedisian took a hard hit into the outside wall in turn one, destroying the right side of the No. 24 machine. Avedisian seemed frustrated with Wilson Motorsports teammate Kyle Steckly after climbing from the car.
ASA STARS: Hard hit for Jade Avedisian in turn one. Her night is done on lap 122.
Avedisian gave an unfriendly gesture towards what appeared to be the 22 of Kyle Steckly. pic.twitter.com/4CXD2pwjwT
Craig led most of the second stage, relinquishing the lead for the first time on lap 187 when Brown took over the top spot. Brown went on to win the second stage in what was a three car battle between himself, Craig and Thorn.
At the beginning of the 125-lap final stage, Craig was called for a restart violation, a race defining moment as the No. 54 machine was sent straight to the rear for the incident. With Craig out of the picture, Brown set sail, dominating the final portion of the race, seemingly on his way to a healthy win before spin by Thorn with four laps to go reset the field for one final restart.
Brown elected the outside, with Craig, who had charged all the way to second on the bottom. Craig gave Brown a shoulder in to turn one, grabbing the lead briefly before Brown worked his way back past. The Anthony Campi driver scored the victory by 0.31 seconds in the end, leading 137 of 325 laps on the night.
The restart gave Craig one last shot at the win, albeit following a hectic charge through the field in which he burned a good bit of his equipment up in the process.
Newport pole sitter Matt Craig comes home p2 after a restart violation early in stage 3.
He feels like Carson Brown baited him on said restart and that something needs to change on that front. pic.twitter.com/eSCcF1yrGu
“I wanted to race hard,” Craig told Short Track Scene. “But I didn’t want to race dirty and wreck him or anything. Tried to give him some door getting into one and two on the initial green flag, I kinda got clear and then I was just a little too tight to stay in front of him, … I think it was a really good battle to the finish there. It was clean, it was hard.
The Kannapolis, North Carolina native felt he was baited into the jumped restart, a ruling he feels could use a change in the future.
“It was close,” Craig said. “I’m just listening out my right ear because I’m on the inside listening for him to crack the throttle. As soon as he cracks the throttle, I hammer down and go. He kind of cracked the throttle and then let off, and by that time I was already going. It looks like a really big jump, they penalize me and send me to the back.
“We’ve got to figure out a better way. If you can bait people in to going and then they get a penalty, that’s not right. I don’t know what to do against the baiting, all I can do is lay back some more, so I don’t know. I had to drive 110% for 120 laps to get back to second. I feel like if I was out front, riding around in second or the lead, I would’ve had a lot more tire.”
Despite Criag’s claim, Brown didn’t seem to agree, stating he felt he never tried to bait Craig into the jump and was rather just “power braking” preparing for the restart.
“He just said my RPMs changed in the box,” Brown said. “I don’t know if they changed or not, I don’t think they did. I mean I was power braking, which I feel like you typically do, so RPMs are going to change pitch, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your car is going anywhere. I felt good from my drivers seat, I’m not the one that got penalized and I was a car back at the flag stand, which obviously can’t really happen when you’re the leader.”
The Newport win for Brown extends his lead atop the ASA STARS National Tour standings and gives him four wins in six races this season, the other three coming at New Smyrna Speedway, Five Flags Speedway and Slinger Super Speedway.
