Carson Brown Holds Off Matt Craig for ASA STARS Newport Win

Fittingly, the ASA STARS National Tour HICKORYHILLTN.com 325 at Newport Speedway came down to a late-race battle between Carson Brown and Matt Craig. Brown took the victory, prevailing in a late-race restart battle between the young gun and the veteran.

The two drivers combined to lead all 325 laps of the second ASA STARS National Tour event at Newport since the track reopened. Craig started on the pole and led the first 186 laps, while Brown raced his way up from the 14th starting spot to take the lead on lap 187.

The duel between the two drivers dissipated when Craig was penalized for a restart violation to start the final stage of the race. However, Craig worked his way back towards the front of the field, able to line up alongside Brown for a final restart after Derek Thorn spun in the closing laps.

The two combatants swapped the lead on the late restart, but ultimately Brown prevailed for his fourth win in the first six races of the ASA STARS National Tour season.

"Honestly, all my guys here at ACR, everyone, my whole RCR family, Chevrolet-wise, everybody that gets me here," said Brown in victory lane. "Man, that was tough. I knew it was gonna be. This place is really, really tight. The groove was moving around, I was trying to move around."

With the restart violation earlier in the race for Craig, Brown knew it would be an intense battle from a motivated competitor on the final restart.

"I knew it was gonna happen. He jumped the restart before and was mad at me. I just shipped it off in there as hard as I could. Big thank you to Scott Speed and Josh Wise for helping me on that stuff."

Craig was able to laugh about his frustration with the penalty that sent him to the rear of the field but was pleased to race his way back into contention for the win.

"I just wanted to go to the back and try to make it exciting," joked Craig. "We had a really good car. It was a good car, really fast. I could make passes, and it's a hard place to make passes. The restart, when we went to the back, I think it was a little game. He kind of rolled to the throttle and then rolled out of the throttle. I hear him roll to the throttle initially, like, okay, we're going. I go and then he lets off and it looks like I jumped really bad.

"His car was just a little too much better than mine. He just had a little bit more drive, a little bit more center turn. I was just kind of tight and slick off, so I just did all I could. I tried to race really hard but keep it clean and not wreck him or anything. We did that, and it was a good finish."

The 2026 ASA STARS National Tour season has been a challenging one for Kasey Kleyn. The former Northwest Super Late Model Series champion finished third at Newport, improving on his best finish of 12th at Slinger Speedway this season.

"It's huge for my confidence," Kleyn said. "We've had a really rough stretch of races this year. Just a horrible start to the year. It's just nice to get momentum back going, and I'm super grateful that Wilson had me back after those first two. It's just so fun to be with them.

"It's really cool to come back out here after those first two and prove we have the ability to run in these cars. Get this third-place finish and just build the momentum for the rest of the year."

George Phillips finished fourth, with Dylan Bates rounding out the top five.

The next stop for the ASA STARS National Tour is Owosso Speedway on Wednesday, August 26 for the Michigan 300.

-Photo credit: Chase Folsom Photography

HICKORYHILLTN.com 325 Unofficial Results