Landen Lewis Continues Momentum With CARS Tour LMSC North Wilkesboro Pole

After winning the most recent zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock race at Ace Speedway on May 3, Landen Lewis was back to building upon the momentum on Thursday afternoon at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The 19-year-old racer sniped the pole position from Lanie Buice late in the qualifying session ahead of Friday night's Window World 100 Late Model Stock event at the iconic 0.625-mile short track.

Lewis set the CARS Tour LMSC track record with a 17.769-second lap time in the qualifying session.

"They say momentum is a real thing, and it's true right now," Lewis said after capturing the pole for Friday night's race.

The driver, who comes into Friday's race just four points behind Connor Hall, scored two championship points with the pole win. Meanwhile, Hall will start from the 17th position.

Lewis credited his hard-working No. 29 Kevin Harvick Inc. team for getting a brand new car turned around for this race.

"Really thankful for all of my guys. We've busted our butts the last couple of weeks getting this car ready to go," Lewis explained. "It's a brand new race car. We had built it from the ground up, and we had done everything to make it right this weekend."

Lewis' late-session charge to the pole stifled what would have been a first-career zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock pole position for Lanie Buice. Still, a runner-up start for Buice, who has really impressed this season, is another sign that she is nearing her first career win.

If she can win on Friday night, Buice would become the first female race winner in CARS Tour Late Model Stock history.

Kaden Honeycutt, who secured the pole position for Thursday night's CARS Tour Pro Late Model event, will start from the third position in Friday night's race. Honeycutt cranked out the third-fastest lap time on his first qualifying lap, but on his final qualifying lap, he nearly crashed into the Turn 4 wall. Fortunately, Honeycutt was able to wrangle his No. 5 machine.

Jake Bollman, Carson Loftin, Carson Kvapil, Caden Kvapil, Tristan McKee, Mini Tyrrell, and Andrew Grady rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in Friday's qualifying session.

With 37 cars on the entry list, one driver will fail to make the show. A determination on which drivers received provisionals for Friday's race has yet to be announced.

CARS Tour Late Model Stock Qualifying Results

Photo Credit: Matt Marrie