CARS Tour Makes Highly Anticipated Return to Orange County

A week after the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car division finished off a rousing return to New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, N.C., both the LMSC and Pro Late Model divisions will travel to Orange County Speedway in North Carolina for the Orange Blossom 250, the second dual-series weekend of the year. It will be the first time the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Cars will attack the tough .400-mile track in Rougemont, N.C. since April 25, 2021, when Josh Berry earned the $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals winner’s check. Berry led 154 of the 200 laps that day on the way to the big payday. This weekend marks the 12^th appearance at OCS for the Late Model Stock Car division, while the Pro Late Model class will make its debut.

Event Notes:

Track: Orange County Speedway
Location: Rougemont, North Carolina
Length: .400 mile
Laps: 125
CARS LMSC Tour races: 11

LMSC Orange County winners: Josh Berry (3), Deac McCaskill (2), Bobby McCarty, Lee Pulliam, Layne Riggs, Tommy Lemons Jr., Tmothy Peters, Brayton Haws.

LMSC Entry List: #00 Chase Burrow, #01 Camden Gullie, #03 Brenden Queen, #04 Ronnie Bassett Jr., #06 Terry Dease, #08 Deac McCaskill, #1Andrew Grady, #1J Clay Jones, #2 Brandon Pierce, #6 Bobby McCarty, #8 Carson Kvapil, #11 Buddy Isles Jr., #15C Logan Clark, #16 Chad McCumbee, #17 Kaden Honeycutt, #22 Connor Hall, #23 Kade Brown, #24 Cody Dempster, #28 Connor Zilisch, #29 Brent Crews, #37 Landon Huffman, #44 Conner Jones, #45 Bryce Applegate, #51 Timothy Peters, #55 Isabella Robusto, #62 Layne Riggs, #71 Katie Hettinger, #74 Ronald Hill, #77 Treyten Lapcevich, #81 Mini Tyrrell, #95 Jacob Heafner

PRO Late Model Entry List: #03 Kyle Campbell, #00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr., #6 Tristan McKee, #6b Brandon Lopez, #7 Justin Crider, #9 Ashton Higgins, #15 Aiden King, #19 Jessica Cann, #24 Jake Bollman, #29 Spencer Davis, #35 Caden Kvapil, #43 Nick Loden, #43H Joshua Horniman, #44 Conner Jones, #49 Jeff Batten, #51 Kaden Honeycutt, #65 Tyler Tanner, #71 Katie Hettinger, #77 Logan Jones, #88 Max Reeves, #96 TJ DeCaire, #97 Dylan Garner

Orange County Return Favors Experience

In the three seasons since the zMAX CARS Tour last raced at historic Orange County Speedway, there’s been a lot of turnover in the driver ranks. Josh Berry has gone on to the NASCAR Cup Series, Lee Pulliam is now a team owner and several other Tour mainstays have moved up the ladder or stepped away from competition. Just two drivers that have OCS victories will compete this weekend: last week’s New River All-American Speedway winner Bobby McCarty and Deac McCaskill. McCarty, who held off Mini Tyrrell last week at New River, won in 2019, and McCaskill, one of the CARS Tour originals, took the races in 2017 and 2018.

Campbell Seeks Three-Peat in Pro Late Models

The story this season in the Pro Late Model ranks has been Kyle Campbell. The 19-year-old driver has won both the PLM races so far this season, taking the top spot at Southern National in March and at Hickory Motor Speedway on April 6. The young driver’s first win came in just his 12^th start, and his family-owned team, consisting of himself and his father, bought a new car in the offseason and spent the winter getting it ready. How ready? The Conover, N.C. native has led 131 of the 200 laps the PLM series has completed so far this season.

Lapcevich Hitting His Stride in Rookie LMSC Campaign

Young Treyten Lapcevich, who turned 20 years old on race day (April 6) at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway, has made quite an impression on the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car field so far this season. The Grimsby, Ontario native won the NASCAR PInty’s Series championship in 2023 and made the move to the zMAX CARS Tour LMSC division for 2024. In his three starts so far this season, Lapcevich has impressed, finishing ninth at Southern National, 10^th at Hickory and fourth at New River, earning Rookie of the Race honors. His speed has been evident from the beginning, as he qualified fifth at SNMP last month, turning heads with his progress in just three events with one of the most competitive Late Model sanctioning bodies in the country.

Honeycutt Does Double-Duty at OCS

Kaden Honeycutt is a busy man. The 20-year-old Texas native will do double duty this weekend at Orange County in the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock Car classes. This comes on the heels of a March 30 victory in the Orange Krush 200, holding off veteran Deac McCaskill for the $15,000 winner’s check. The extra laps add to Honeycutt’s already crowded racing schedule, as he also competes in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for JR Motorsports in addition to stints in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. Honeycutt impressed in his lone start so far this season at Southern National Motorsports Park, starting fourth and finishing fifth in the LMSC feature. He has three career victories in the CARS Tour, taking the top spot at Ace Speedway, Florence (S.C.) Motor Speedway and Langley Speedway in Virginia.

The green flag for the Orange Blossom 250 zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour race is set to wave over the Pro Late Model field at 7 p.m. ET, with FloRacing providing coverage of LMSC qualifying beginning at 4 p.m. The racing program also includes 25 laps of racing for the Virginia Mini Cup cars in between the100-lap Pro Late Model and 125-lap zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Car features. All feature races will be televised by FloRacing.

Online advanced tickets for the Orange Blossom 250 are available with the Ticket Hoss mobile app and will be available at the gate as well. For more information on the zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour, visit www.carsracingtour.com. Be sure to stay active and social with the tour by liking “CARS Tour” on Facebook, following @CARSTour on X (formerly known as Twitter) and scrolling through photos on Instagram cars_tour.

Additional series information can be obtained by calling the CARS Tour series office at (704) 696-3570.

-CARS Tour Release
-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America