Conner Jones Survives Chaotic CARS Tour Tilt at Wake County

With eight laps to go on Saturday night at Wake County Speedway, Conner Jones was sitting on pit road as his No. 44 car was being refueled, seeing a potential win slip through his grasp.

Despite that, Jones still went to victory lane, overcoming the late adversity on an evening full of twists and turns in the zMAX CARS Tour Delta Heating, Cooling and Plumbing 175.

As several leaders fell by the wayside, whether by collision or attrition, Jones got back on track, darted through the field, and passed Landen Lewis on the final restart of the evening to secure his first CARS Tour win since the 2024 finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

"I thought it was kind of done for there," said Jones recounting his late trip to pit road. "I honestly thought we lost a lap, but I guess we didn't. Hats off to my crew. They did a hell of a job all weekend.

"We had a really good car all weekend. We didn't really practice as much as a lot of people did. I think a lot of it is luck. We ran out of gas, I guess, at the right time."

After Jones ran out of fuel, Caden Kvapil experienced a mechanical issue. Then, Treyten Lapcevich and Landon Huffman both lost power while battling for the lead. That sequence turned the lead over to track champion Clay Jones, who was summoned to the pits with a black flag due to damage on the right-front fender on his entry.

This set up the final restart, with Jones rocketing past Lewis for the victory. Chase Burrow also surpassed Lewis in the late-race scramble to finish second.

"I knew we had a good race car," said Burrow. "We showed speed all day. We just needed to get to the race.

"We just stayed out of trouble, and look where it got us. It was a good night, for sure."

Lewis salvaged a third-place finish to stay on the podium amidst the late drama.

"Just fought adversity all night long," said Lewis. "Just so proud of these guys. It's not how I wanted to see it coming back on Tour, but I'm just thankful to have guys around me that want to fight just like I do and never give up.

"Got caught up in a wreck that I didn't really think was needed, and it just hurt our race car. Just fought adversity, proud to be a part of this group."

Before the likes of Kvapil, Jones and others battled for the win, it appeared the battle for the top spot would be between Mini Tyrrell and Doug Barnes, Jr. However, the two clashed while battling for the lead just past the lap-100 mark, ending with both cars suffering significant damage.

Barnes and Tyrrell shared differing viewpoints of the incident during their interviews on the FloRacing broadcast.

"Mini Tyrrell racing like Mini Tyrrell," said Barnes. "I got into him a little bit harder than I meant when I took the lead, but when he got back to me, dude. I need to see a replay, but all I saw was a right-front tire in my window, in Mini fashion."

"I guess he's just still bound up from last year," said Tyrrell. "I got into him here last race and tried to apologize to him, he wouldn't take it. I didn't ruin his race, I just doored him. Then I got into him at Tri-County, barely, and I told him it was my bad, but he just couldn't get over that.

"Jacked me up the last couple of Late Model races. He's just upset because every time I come back into a Late Model, I'm always faster than him and always beating him. It's okay. When you've got people to race with like that, that's what happens, they wreck you. If they can't beat you, they wreck you."

Brandon Pierce finished fourth, with Landon Huffman rounding out the top five.

The next stop for the zMAX CARS Tour takes the series to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for the Tootsie’s Music City Showdown on April 11.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour

zMAX CARS Tour Unofficial Results at Wake County