Jared Fryar, Brandon Lopez Score zMAX CARS Tour Wins at Caraway

Jared Fryar picked up his second zMAX CARS Tour presented by SoundGear victory of 2025, winning the Late Model Stock Car portion of the Firecracker 265 at Caraway Speedway on Wednesday night.

Fryar moved to the front of the field after a late-race incident between Mini Tyrrell and Landen Lewis and held off Kaden Honeycutt for his sixth career CARS Late Model Stock victory, and his third at Caraway.

"It just went in and out of cycles on the tires," said Fryar. "I fired off, felt like where I needed to, and then it didn't fire off that next restart and I struggled with it. Finally, there at the end, I found a little something and got it to fire off right. It fired off the best when I needed it the most, and that's what it takes to win these races, man."

This is the first time Fryar, a champion in both the Late Model Stock Car and the former Super Late Model divisions, has won two CARS Tour events in the same year. The effort it takes to win each and every time on the tour makes this accomplishment a special one for the veteran.

"It's awesome to win two in a year. That's a first for me. We've won them and lost a lot of them. To win two in one year is awesome. Things are clicking so good right now for me and my team.

"It takes a team effort to get here and do this. I'm just super lucky to be able to drive and have opportunities at wins like this. They get more special every time. It's so cool to keep winning these races and like I said, I'm just so lucky."

Honeycutt finished second piloting the Tom Usry Racing No. 17, taking advantage of the mid-week race to return to the Late Model battles. He came up one spot short of the win, but added to the team's notebook with eyes set on the Hickory Throwback Classic on August 2.

"Man, this is my family," said Honeycutt. "I love Kenneth, I love Sandy, I love everybody that gives me the chance to come out and do this.

"We just want to win races, so definitely disappointed being second but, you know, it's been since March since we've run together as a group, so I'm very happy with that, and I'll stop finishing second one of these days. I've finished second so many times the past couple of years, so we're just fighting to get as best as we possibly can going into Hickory to try and win that $50k."

Tristan McKee bounced back from a poor qualifying effort and involvement in an early accident to finish third.

"We just kept our heads down and stayed in it the entire race. It was a struggle all day. We weren't great yesterday, we had some issues with brakes yesterday and stuff. Didn't really get much practice today, either, because of the rain, didn't get to mock up or anything like that.

"So, you know, we qualified almost dead last, I think it was third-to-last or so, and got in a wreck on lap 10 or so. Came to pit road, fixed it, and just kept our heads down and worked the whole entire race and made good decisions. Didn't make any mistakes, chose good lines on the restarts, and made our way forward."

Ronnie Bassett, Jr. finished fourth, with Doug Barnes, Jr. rounding out the top five.

Brandon Lopez Scores First CARS Tour Win

After an extended, physical battle for the lead, Tyler Reif moved into the top spot with three laps to go. Entering turn one, however, Walters tagged Reif entering turn one, sending Reif spinning and Walters to the rear of the field.

Lopez inherited the lead as a result ahead of a restart with three laps to go. On the ensuing restart, Isaac Kitzmiller jumped to the lead, but the restart was waved off and Kitzmiller went to the rear of the field for jumping the restart. On the second attempt, Cody Ware spun after contact with Seth Christensen entering turn one after replacing Kitzmiller on the outside of the front row.

Lopez finally got the chance to pull away on the final restart, taking the victory ahead of Brody Gunter and Reif. With that, the Brandon Lopez Racing team returned to CARS Tour victory lane, making the first trip there with the team's co-owner behind the wheel.

"I just can't thank them enough for sticking behind me," said Lopez. "It's been a long two years. I never really knew anything about car racing before I got into it. My step-brother convinced me to get into it. I didn't think my first win would come in the CARS Tour, but we're winners."

The series of late restarts were undoubtedly stressful, but Lopez has come to expect that after a few years in the Pro Late Model ranks.

"Well, if anybody watches Pro Late racing around the country, there's a lot of restarts. We're all pretty used to it by now. It was just another restart there. We had some clear track in front of us. We knew we had a good car. I hate to see the 47 [of Reif] got spun there with three to go, but it looks like he came back for a good finish, too, so a good night for BLR.

Gunter took a runner-up finish in his zMAX CARS Tour debut, and just his second Pro Late Model race. It may not have been a win, but it felt that way to the Late Model newcomer.

"Just what an amazing experience," said Gunter. "I never thought I'd be in a series like this five, four years ago. I thought Legends Cars was gonna be the peak, but to be able to do this, a huge event with Fab Specialties and Matt Drake and come home with a P2 in my second ever Late Model race, only fourth time being behind the wheel of the car. I'm at a loss for words, both from being exhausted from driving, and just from the excitement and craziness of it all."

Reif rebounded for a third-place finish, but couldn't help but wonder what might have been if not for the late race accident.

"It definitely sucks," said Reif. "This team brought a great car. I don't think we were the best car by any means, but we did everything we could to try to park it like my teammate did tonight.

"I thought we drove the 6 clean, but that's just racing. We were both fighting hard for the win. It's both our CARS Tour win, we've had a handful of races on the CARS Tour, and both want it really bad. So I know that's racing, but it's definitely disappointing. I'm happy to get both BLR cars here in the top three."

Walters finished fourth, with Ware rounding out the top five.

-Photo credit: Joshua White, CARS Tour

Firecracker 265 Unofficial Results

Late Model Stock Cars

Pro Late Models