A long, grueling season for the zMAX CARS Tour will conclude with two champions being crowned at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday evening.
Both the CARS Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model Tour points battles remain tight heading into the season finale. Last weekend at Tri-County Motor Speedway saw Brenden Queen take over the LMSC Tour points lead from Connor Hall, while Kaden Honeycutt’s victory enabled him to make up crucial ground on Spencer Davis in the PLM Tour standings.
North Wilkesboro is the perfect location for two drivers to make their mark on both CARS Tour and short track history. Enriched with tradition since it first opened to the public back in 1947, North Wilkesboro’s schedule now regularly features the CARS Tour, which expanded its presence at the facility this year with a second event.
The next chapter in North Wilkesboro’s story coincides with the last one of the CARS Tour’s 2024 campaign. No matter the outcome, there will be two new drivers joining an elite group of CARS Tour champions that consists of Josh Berry, Bobby McCarty, Carson Kvapil, Deac McCaskill and Luke Fenhaus, among others.
Track Facts:
Track: North Wilkesboro Speedway
Location: North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Length: .625 mile
Laps: 125 (LMSC) / 100 (PLM)
CARS LMSC Tour races: 3
CARS PLM Tour races: 2
North Wilkesboro LMSC winners: Carson Kvapil (1), Brenden Queen (1), Treyten Lapcevich (1)
North Wilkesboro PLM winners: Augie Grill (1), Tristan McKee (1)
LMSC Entry List (25 cars): #00 Chase Burrow, #03 Brenden Queen, #04 Ronnie Bassett Jr., #1 Andrew Grady, #2 Brandon Pierce, #2W Ryan Wilson, #4 Dylon Wilson, #8 Carson Kvapil, #11v Buddy Isles Jr., #15 Ryan Millington, #17 Kaden Honeycutt, #22 Connor Hall, #26 Peyton Sellers, #28 Landon S. Huffman, #28G Ryan Glenski, #29 Brent Crews, #44 Conner Jones, #45 Parker Eatmon, #55 Isabella Robusto, #70 Travis Baity, #71 Aaron Donnelly, #71P Casey Pierce, #77 Treyten Lapcevich, #81 Mini Tyrrell, #82 Connor Mosack
PLM Entry List (22 cars): #00 Jimmy Renfrew Jr., #6 Tristan McKee, #6B Brandon Lopez, #8 Tate Fogleman, #8C Terri Crider, #15 T.J. DeCaire, #17 Hudson Bulger, #22G Dusty Garus, #24 Jake Bollman, #24B Lanie Buice, #28 Nathan Gregg, #29 Spencer Davis, #33 Daniel Webster, #35 Caden Kvapil, #43 Nick Loden, #43H Joshua Horniman, #44 Logan Jones, #47 Kaden Honeycutt, #51 Travis Braden, #67 Cameron Bolin, #97 Dylan Garner, #99 Edward Cheslak
Brenden Queen looks to parlay second half momentum into LMSC Tour title
It took Brenden Queen nearly the entire summer, but he finally overtook Connor Hall in the CARS LMSC Tour standings following a setback sustained from a crash at Caraway Speedway.
Although he now holds the points lead over Hall, Queen knows he cannot grow complacent ahead of North Wilkesboro Speedway. Only a small margin of error exists between him and Hall, which is why Queen plans to adhere to the same mindset that has garnered him and Lee Pulliam Performance so much consistency over the second half of the year.
“We don’t want to overthink it and we want to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Queen said. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I know we’re going to give all the effort we can put in and try to not take ourselves out of contention.”
Queen used the accident at Caraway as a reset point for his 2024 campaign. Since that evening in July, Queen has recorded seven consecutive top five finishes, all of which helped him gradually chip away at Hall’s championship lead.
One bad race at Tri-County Motor Speedway in 2023, in which he ran out of fuel in the closing laps, prevented Queen from mounting a challenge against Carson Kvapil for the LMSC Tour title. The sting from narrowly missing out on a championship has stuck with Queen, but it has also served as motivation during his top five streak.
With Queen having previously won at North Wilkesboro in 2023, he feels confident about delivering one more strong performance on Saturday evening. Flawless execution is something Queen knows will be imperative if he wishes to secure the first CARS Tour championship for himself and Pulliam’s Late Model Stock operation.
“A CARS Tour championship would be the biggest thing I’ve accomplished,” Queen said. “I’ve won track championships and all that, but to win on the tour would be something. I don’t know how many more opportunities I have to be on the tour, so this could be it. I’d definitely like to go out with a bang.”
Connor Hall anticipates tough challenge in re-taking LMSC points lead
After holding the CARS LMSC Tour points lead for most of the 2024 season, Connor Hall now finds himself second to Brenden Queen heading into Saturday’s season-finale.
A multi-car crash at the midway point of last weekend’s race at Tri-County Motor Speedway collected Hall and forced him to limp home with a 13th place performance. The setback came at an inopportune time for Hall, but he is staying optimistic as he looks to re-take control of the points lead and earn his first LMSC Tour title.
“We have a good chance, but I’d be lying if I said beating [Queen] was going to be easy,” Hall said. “There is no shortage of trying right now, but it’s one thing to lose and another thing to lose when you truly give it your all. Hopefully that’s not the case, but we’re going to go down swinging.”
There were a lot of unknowns for Hall at the start of 2024 when he joined Nelson Motorsports, but the cohesion has been apparent from their first race. Aside from his lone LMSC Tour victory at his home track of Langley Speedway, Hall also earned a Virginia Triple Crown victory with Nelson in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway.
With Hall set to move on to JR Motorsports’ Late Model Stock team in 2025, he wants to deliver Nelson’s team another LMSC Tour title before departing the program. Nelson has more LMSC Tour championships than any other owner by amassing three with Bobby McCarty, but the organization has not obtained one since the 2021 season.
The season ending at a high-grip track like North Wilkesboro Speedway will put more emphasis on Hall and Nelson finding more raw speed to match Queen’s pace. Outdueling Queen on Saturday would be a fitting end to a stellar 2024 for Hall that saw him obtain his second consecutive NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series championship.
“The reason why I want to win it so bad is because I’d love to win the national [title] and CARS Tour [title] in the same year,” Hall said. “I don’t think anybody has done that, so it’d give me one notch on the belt that isn’t similar to other people. There’s two things I want to accomplish in Late Model Stocks before I leave; a CARS Tour championship and a Martinsville clock.”
Spencer Davis on cusp of championship in rookie PLM Tour season
One of the more versatile drivers entered across the two CARS Tour divisions in 2024 is Spencer Davis, who has starts in Modifieds, Super Late Models and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on his resume.
Davis is one race away from locking up the CARS PLM Tour championship in his debut season, but he only holds a small advantage over Kaden Honeycutt in the point standings. Fending off Honeycutt will not be easy for Davis, who emphasized the importance of keeping his car out of trouble at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday.
“It’s the same thing we do every weekend, we’re coming out here trying to win,” Davis said. “If not, you got to be smart and try to get the best finish you can. Don’t put yourself in a sticky situation, but you also have to hope for the best.”
Consistency followed Davis from the first green flag of the year at Southern National Motorsports Park. The Throwback 276 at Hickory Motor Speedway was Davis’ only finish outside the top 10 this year, as he boasts an average finish of 4.0 with two victories at Florence Motor Speedway and South Boston Speedway.
Davis is thankful for the opportunity to compete in straight-rail cars again and commended the hard work of his crew towards providing always providing great cars. Efficiency was the expectation when Davis committed to the PLM Tour, but the young group of competitors like Honeycutt successfully kept him honest each week.
Having previously worked with Honeycutt as his spotter in the ARCA Menards Series West, Davis knows how challenging it will be to maintain the PLM Tour points lead. Davis is ready for a frantic battle up until the last lap on Saturday evening but would love nothing more than to celebrate his first major racing title.
“A championship would mean a lot,” Davis said. “I haven’t run for a championship since I raced go-karts. I kind of ran for one in [the ARCA Menards Series East] way back in the day, but never had a good [chance] at it. It’d mean a lot to have a championship [trophy] sitting on my office desk the Monday after North Wilkesboro.”
Fresh off Tri-County win, Kaden Honeycutt ready for one last run at PLM title
Entering Tri-County Motor Speedway with an 11-point deficit, Kaden Honeycutt needed a big evening to have a feasible chance at chasing down Spencer Davis for the CARS PLM Tour championship.
Everything went according to plan for Honeycutt, who inherited the victory after Tristan McKee was penalized for an infraction on the final restart. Despite erasing a good portion of his deficit, Honeycutt still heads into North Wilkesboro Speedway trailing Davis and needing to maximize points so he can usurp him on Saturday night.
“Spencer has been really good this year with being consistent,” Honeycutt said. “It’s going to come down to winning the race and leading laps. A pole would definitely help out too [in regards] to bonus points.”
The journey towards this point in Honeycutt’s season has been an unorthodox one. After starting 2024 driving the No. 51 for Mavrick Page Motorsports, Honeycutt moved over to Bryson Lopez Racing starting at the second Ace Speedway race and has not finished outside the top five once since then.
Displaying speed from his opening outing with Bryson Lopez eased some of Honeycutt’s nerves about continuing his pursuit of a PLM Tour title with a different team. The Tri-County triumph only validated Honeycutt’s confidence in Lopez’s operation and firmly believes he can bring them a PLM Tour title in their first season with the series.
Although he is now with Bryson Lopez, Honeycutt also credited Mavrick Page Motorsports for helping lay the foundation towards a potential championship run. With everything Honeycutt has experienced to reach this point in the year between two teams, the last thing he wants is for his effort to be rewarded with a runner-up showing in the PLM Tour standings.
“I ran second to Bobby [McCarty] a couple of years ago in a [Late Model] Stock a few years ago and I was running second the next year, but I didn’t finish out the year,” Honeycutt said. “I was probably going to finish second again. I don’t want to finish second again. I want to try and win this for sure.”
A big weekend at North Wilkesboro Speedway will see the zMAX CARS Tour share the track with the SMART Modified Tour. The CARS PLM Tour championship race kicks off the festivities on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. ET, with the CARS LMSC Tour wrapping up the night after the SMART Modified Tour at approximately 9 p.m. ET.
FloRacing will provide live flag-to-flag coverage of the CARS Tour season finale at North Wilkesboro.
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, located in Mooresville, NC, at 704-662-9212.
-CARS Tour Press Release
-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America
