Brent Crews Escapes Wild CARS Tour LMSC Race at Ace, Caden Kvapil Charges to PLM Win

After another evening full of twists and turns on the zMAX CARS Tour, Brent Crews stood in victory lane as the winner of the Late Model Stock feature in the AcceleratedGFX.com 285 at Ace Speedway.

Crews and his No. 29 Kevin Harvick, Inc. entry did not even find the lead until seven laps remained in the 125-lap Late Model Stock race. However, that was all the time he needed out front, finishing ahead of Mini Tyrrell and Caden Kvapil for the victory.

What was already an intense race ramped up starting at lap 87, when the caution flew for a dramatic incident involving Robbie Bassett, Jr. and Blake Stallings. Stallings' car climbed the frontstretch wall before returning to the track on all four wheels, where Stallings safely drove the car back to the pits.

With that caution and the potential of rain approaching from the west, the stage was set for an intense battle for the win. At first, the combatants were Ryan Millington and Brenden Queen. However, as their battle escalated, both Connor Hall and Conner Jones were able to get by both drivers.

With 10 laps to go, the duel reached a boiling point and the two drivers made contact entering turn one, sending Millington spinning and relegating Queen to the rear of the field. Jones took the lead on the following restart, while the caution flew again two laps later as Treyten Lapcevich spun following contact with Hall.

Jones' shot at the win was dashed on the ensuing restart, as he spun after contact from Chad McCumbee entering turn three while Dillon Harville crashed exiting turn two. This, along with McCumbee going to the rear of the field, turned the top spot over to Brent Crews, who had been running sixth just two laps prior.

From there, Crews safely escaped Mini Tyrrell's grasp to score his third win of the season with the CARS Tour.

"I want to thank everybody at Toyota Racing for what they do for me," said Crews. "This whole KHI group, Shannon, golly, I don't even know what to say.

"There are so many people I can thank, I can't thank my guys enough. We probably didn't have the car to win, but I feel like when you've got the right people on the box talking to you, you make good decisions, it happens.

"You saw everybody just wrecking each other, honestly," Crews added. "I don't believe that's how we should race, right? I think moving people is fair, but I feel like CARS Tour did the right thing penalizing the people. Hopefully, that will fix it up a little bit. I'm guilty of it myself."

Tyrrell echoed Crews' sentiments regarding the rough nature of the race after avoiding the carnage for a runner-up finish.

"It was just wreck after wreck out front," said Tyrrell. "We had some bad luck early on. Got drove into the fence. Almost turned down in one and two. I guess they just didn't know I was on the inside.

"I told them on the radio I was just going to hang out back and take care of our stuff, try to be there at the end. That's what we did. Somehow we almost got lapped, came back up here, stayed out of the mess. It was a couple of close calls, I was almost toast on those."

It may not have been a surprise to see a Kvapil finishing on the podium in the No. 8 JR Motorsports entry, but it was a slightly different look this time around. With Carson Kvapil at Michigan International Speedway with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, younger brother Caden Kvapil made his Late Model Stock debut just moments after winning the Pro Late Model feature.

Kvapil rebounded from an early issue to score a third-place effort in the debut.

"Towards the end, it was getting out of control," said Kvapil. "Everybody was just getting into each other. We got a bunch of spots just from avoiding wrecks. We had a pretty good car. For a while, we were pretty quick, one of the fastest cars out there. It just got really hard to pass."

Queen and Hall recovered from their late-race incidents to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.

Caden Kvapil put together the drive of a lifetime in the Pro Late Model portion of the AcceleratedGFX.com 285, charging from the rear of the field to win the 100-lap feature without the benefit of a caution.

Kvapil contended for the win early in the race, but started fading around the lap 40 mark with a brake issue. When the caution flew on lap 47, Kvapil pitted to get the issue resolved.

“We had a loose brake line," said Kvapil. "I was wondering what happened because we were just riding, and all of a sudden, the pedal went straight to the floor. It was really concerning. I couldn’t even touch the brakes, it just went all the way down."

With the brake line issue rectified, Kvapil rejoined the field ... but not before they were already taking the green flag as he exited the pits. From there, Kvapil charged ahead, trying to pass as many cars as possible.

Without the benefit of another caution, Kvapil passed all those cars, finishing more than two seconds ahead of Kaden Honeycutt for the win.

“We didn’t even get out with the field, they were taking the green when we came out of the pits. Going green-to-checkered from there was hard, but obviously we had a really good car, a couple of tenths a lap better than anyone.”

“This one’s probably one of the coolest ones I’ve gotten for sure," continued Kvapil. "When they were going green and I was in the pit lane, that’s definitely pretty hard. You didn’t think you’re going to get there, for sure. I thought I’d get maybe to the top five. We had the best car out here. Once I started getting by them and got into the top three, I came around to the idea we could actually win it.”

Honeycutt finished second in his first start in the No. 47 for Bryson Lopez Racing. While it wasn't a win, it gives Honeycutt plenty of reason for excitement over the remainder of the 2024 season.

“It makes me more excited about the rest of the year," said Honeycutt. "I lost brakes when I got past Tristan there. It started to really, really get bad. A few times I absolutely blew the corners because I couldn’t stop. I just had to do what I could to run for points and keep them behind me.”

“I just want to thank Bryson Lopez Racing for taking a chance on me to run the rest of this year. It makes me more excited about the rest of the year, for sure.”

Jake Bollman finished third in the Wilson Motorsports No. 24, his best finish on the zMAX CARS Tour since a win at Tri-County Speedway on Memorial Day weekend.

“I want to thank all the Wilson guys. We’ve had a struggle kind of year, but we’re getting back to it. We won at Tri-County and struggled a little bit at North Wilkesboro. Hopefully, when we go back there, we’ll be a lot better.”

The zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Cars hit the track next Saturday, August 24 at Wake County Speedway. Both divisions will also be in action on August 30 at Florence Motor Speedway.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour

AcceleratedGFX.com 285 Unofficial Results

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