Bobby McCarty Makes a Statement With CARS Tour Win at New River

Three-time zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion Bobby McCarty returned to victory lane on Saturday night, winning the National Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram 250 at New River All American Speedway.

There's little questioning McCarty's track record in the touring series. Saturday's win marks McCarty's 12th career victory in the series, breaking a tie for second all-time in the series.

However, McCarty had just one win in the last two seasons to show for his effort, coming at Dominion Raceway in 2023. In that sense, Saturday's win does wonders for McCarty's confidence heading into the rest of the season.

“I’ve been struggling and I’ve been questioning," said McCarty in victory lane. "To have the car and finally pay off, man, I don’t know what to say.

“We had the car. That was the biggest thing for me. We just brought a badass car. We unloaded it this weekend, made really good changes. We’re back, man. Let’s go.”

Like many long-distance Late Model Stock races at New River, this one came down to tire management. McCarty qualified fourth but faded back to eighth in the first half, saving for a late-race surge.

McCarty took the lead from Brenden Queen with 35 laps to go and finished ahead of Mini Tyrell and Connor Hall for the win.

“At a place like this, you’re still going to save a lot of tire," said McCarty. "It’s inevitable. I don’t care what kind of tire you build, you’re still going to have to save here. Not as much as before, but it’s cooler, so the track has more overall grip, so we don’t know the whole deal.”

Tyrrell briefly led near the halfway mark of the race before losing the top spot in a physical battle with Queen. Queen faded following contact with Tyrell in turn three before eventually slowing with a flat left-rear tire and finishing 11th.

Tyrrell soldiered on for the runner-up finish. He was equal parts excited with the podium run, disappointed in missing out on his first CARS Tour win, and apologetic for the contact with Queen.

“It definitely stings a little bit," said Tyrrell. "I thought we had a really good car. I was able to get to Bobby a little bit earlier.

"Me and Brenden got together getting into three. I’ve got to watch it back, I don’t know if I did something wrong or if it was just racing hard up there. I apologize if I did, and that ended their night. I feel bad, those are good guys who work really hard.

“It sucks to come up that one bit short. At the end of the day, I can’t knock my guys and that performance. It’s super cool. We’re going to get us one here shortly. We’ve just got to keep battling.”

Connor Hall finished third, followed by Treyten Lapcevich and Carson Kvapil.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. made his first CARS Tour start of the 2024 season at New River, finishing 14th in the race. He was involved in an incident along with Landon Huffman on lap 80.

The zMAX CARS Tour will be back in action next Saturday, April 20, at Orange County Speedway. Both the Late Model Stock Cars and Pro Late Models will be part of that event.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS - CARS TOUR AT NEW RIVER ALL AMERICAN SPEEDWAY