Kaden Honeycutt, Caden Kvapil Victorious in CARS Tour at Florence

Kaden Honeycutt scored a victory ahead of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the latter’s zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model debut on Friday night at Florence Motor Speedway.

Honeycutt took the lead just past the halfway mark of the 100-lap feature, pacing the field the rest of the way for his ninth career CARS Tour Pro Late Model win, and his 15th career win across both CARS Tour divisions.

Honeycutt was uncertain if he’d be able to compete for the win in Friday’s Pro Late Model race, but solid adjustments leading up to the race gave him a race car capable of winning.

“I really didn’t think we were that good,” said Honeycutt in victory lane. “I never have any doubt that Alex Roberts, he’s so damn smart, man. He just does what is needed. We really struggled all weekend, not really finding the feel I wanted. He threw something at it before qualifying. I thought qualifying went really well, especially after the mocks we had today. I can’t thank them enough.”

Honeycutt acknowledged in front of a packed crowd at Florence Motor Speedway, a short drive from Darlington Raceway, the site of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500, likely hoped he had finished second to Earnhardt, Jr. rather than the other way around.

“I know I’m probably not the most popular guy after beating Dale, but I hope you guys enjoyed that race. It was definitely a hot one, for sure.”

For his part, however, Earnhardt, Jr. was pleased to finish second in his Pro Late Model debut, coming together quickly with the aid of GMS Race Cars.

“Tony [Eury], Jr., thank you to all the guys at GMS that put this car together in two weeks. LaJoie, Corey for putting this seat together, all those guys for working hard, we worked on the car all the way until we loaded it.”

The race was undoubtedly a learning experience for Earnhardt, whose body of short track experience has largely come in Late Model Stock Cars.

“Just a fast car. I probably rode it a little too hard in the first 30 and kept heating the right-rear and getting the stagger up. I don’t race with stagger in my Late Model Stock Cars. I might have needed to work the right-rear a little harder in the first 40 laps to keep the tightness out of the car in the back-end of the race.

“Kaden Honeycutt’s good. He’s going to win a lot of races when he shows up to these. I was thankful to be competitive. Thank you to everybody showing up. Florence is a very special place to me, been racing here since the 90s.”

Treyten Lapcevich, a former winner of the South Carolina 400 at Florence, rounded out the podium.

“A lot of fun here tonight, racing with Kaden and Dale, both did great. I just needed to lean on that right-rear a bit more. I just needed to be able to have a little more drive off. It is what it is. I always love coming here to Florence.”

After Earnhardt, Jr.’s runner-up finish, he watched as his JR Motorsports team won the Late Model Stock Car feature with Caden Kvapil behind the wheel.

Kvapil started third and took the lead from Carson Brown on lap 55, then led the rest of the way in a race where tire management was crucial on the seasoned Florence racing surface.

“Honestly, I was starting to get annoyed for a little bit. It was about every lap, I was getting told. I was already saving. This place just wears tires really bad. This hot out, it’s hard to keep tires underneath you.

“Luckily, we had good track position from the start and we were able to ride and save our tires until the end. It really paid off by the end. We just set our own pace there and were able to drive away with it.”

At one time, Kvapil struggled at Florence. However, he won last year’s South Carolina 400 and now has a CARS Tour win there.

“I don’t really know. I didn’t think I was that good here for a while. The last two races here, I’ve won. I’ve qualified well here, and that’s been my weakness this year. Being able to put it up front helped a lot tonight.

“I feel like we’ve been in a dry spell in the last couple of weeks on the CARS Tour, we haven’t ran that good. To be able to put it back in victory lane, that’s really good for us and it gives us some momentum for the rest of the year.”

Brown finished second after leading the first 55 laps of the race.

“It was a really good night,” said Brown. “We just needed more rear grip. A big thank you to all of my guys at Lee Pulliam Performance and Teddy Musgrave’s. We’ll move on to the next one and carry all the momentum.”

Local favorite Cody Kelley finished third, improving on his best career finish of fourth with the CARS Tour.

“It means a lot,” Kelley said. “I think last year, I finished fourth, so I got one spot better this year. I’m known to qualify pretty good and then put out anchor and go to the back. The past two years, we’ve focused on race-run speed, and it showed tonight. We had a rocket ship.”

The zMAX CARS Tour returns to action next Saturday, September 12, at Tri-County Speedway.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour

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