Landen Lewis Rebounds for zMAX CARS Tour Win at Anderson

Landen Lewis bounced back from disappointment at Hickory Motor Speedway to win the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock feature at Anderson Motor Speedway on Saturday night, taking the lead late from Jared Fryar for the victory.

After being swept up in a multi-car incident near the end of the Throwback Classic at Hickory, it has been a long, hard two weeks at Kevin Harvick, Inc. for Lewis and the No. 29 team. That work was rewarded on Saturday with the win in the Bennett Equipment & Supply 225.

With a packed house in attendance to watch Dale Earnhardt, Jr. battle the Late Model Stock stars, Lewis passed Fryar after a hard-fought battle for the top spot to score the win.

"First off, I want to thank all these fans for coming out," said Lewis in victory lane. "It's pretty amazing. Short track racing is still alive. This is freaking awesome. I wouldn't want to win it at any other place with all these fans in the stands.

"Man, it's been a rough two weeks. I canceled a jet ski trip to stay back at the race shop to help these guys fix this race car. Not this one, but the other one. I'll tell you, when I walked in on Tuesday morning, I got pretty emotional. It just sucked. Not the way I wanted [Hickory] to end."

While the loss at Hickory was a devastating one, Lewis went to work to make amends, setting himself up for success at Anderson.

"We fall hard, but we came up with a plan on Monday morning, what we were going to do when we got here," said Lewis. "We did about everything of that. I'm just so happy and thankful for all these KHI guys for busting their butts.

"MMI, Kevin and Delana for giving me this opportunity. Last week, I'm sure he wasn't pumped about it. We never like wrecking race cars and that wasn't how we wanted to do it. This week, we come out, race clean, and pulled off a win."

The battle between Lewis and Fryar thrilled the fans in attendance, as the young star challenged the former series champion for the top spot before pulling away to a 1.4-second victory ahead of Landon Huffman.

"Honestly, that was probably the most fun Late Model Stock race I've ever raced in my life," said Lewis. "Cordele, I was able to rip the top pretty good and drove from dead last to fourth. Orange County, I was able to rip the top pretty good. This top thing is working out for me a little bit.

"Me and Jared, I might want to go down and thank him. I thought we raced really, really clean. We kept throwing back-and-forth crossovers on each other. I'd get the run, he'd run the top and pass me, and it just kept going back and forth. We just had to figure out a way to pass him and not wreck."

After a string of three races with finishes outside the top 10, Huffman got back on track with a fourth-place finish at Hickory. Huffman continued that trend on Saturday, finishing second with sights set on his first win of the year.

"We've been chipping away at it, man," said Huffman. "This Carroll Speedshop 57 group has been working hard, week in and week out. I'm really proud of the speed we've got at these races. I mean, undeniably the best car at the end of these races. Undeniably the best car at the end of these races.

"You've got to put a whole race together. The series is tough, competition is stout. You know, I take pride in working myself through the field and try not to run over people, so just proud of the effort. Thankful we made it home clean again with a good finish."

Fryar battled to a third-place finish, perhaps more surprised than anyone to see how his car fell off pace at the end of the event. After the battle with Lewis, Fryar found himself hanging on to control of his No. 14 to get to the finish.

"I just needed less laps there. I don't know. I didn't feel like I ran too hard, but the tires let me know right away there with 20 to go, that's all they had in them. It's like a light switch went off. I was just kind of hanging on. So frustrating to run third after leading 70 laps and racing with him for the win. It just happens in racing.

"I don't know if there's anything I change, you know. I didn't see any signs that it was going to go away like that. It was kind of odd, but like I said, it happens. It's unfortunate."

Chase Burrow finished fourth, with Connor Hall rounding out the top five.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rebounded from an early spin while battling with Lanie Buice to finish in the 10th position.

Luke Baldwin dominated the Pro Late Model portion of the Bennett Equipment & Supply 225, earning his second win of the season.

Baldwin took the lead just before the halfway mark of the 100-lap feature, and pulled away to win by nearly seven seconds ahead of Isaac Kitzmiller and Seth Christensen.

After missing out on the win in a physical battle with Spencer Davis at Hickory Motor Speedway in the last CARS Tour event, Baldwin came away miffed. However, some time away and the chance to watch video of the finish gave him a better perspective of the closing laps.

Furthermore, winning heals all wounds, and Baldwin left no doubt who would come away with the victory at Anderson.

"I wasn't happy at the time, but I went back and watched it. I can confirm Spencer didn't do anything wrong. I was being a little brat. Congrats to them last week.

"Man, what a race car today. I don't know if I've ever saved tire harder in a Late Model than I was those last 15 laps. Just praying for no yellow.

"Hats off to Troy Smith and the RWR team. They busted tail all weekend. We fought balance issues, fought fremlins. Man, we really didn't know what we had going into it, and kind of had a gift given to us on that one restart. I don't think this race car was being stopped at the end anyways."

"He's been doing this for a long time, and he's been winning races for a really long time. He's really showing his craft this year with this 51 car. Yeah, Carson and Cody are doing a great job themselves, and building on those points leads. Hopefully, we can have a good few more and finish it out."

Isaac Kitzmiller was unquestionably the hard charger of the Pro Late Model feature. After qualifying 16th, Kitzmiller fought his way to the second position.

"In qualifying, I messed up," said Kitzmiller. "I hate it for these guys. We had to work so hard all day. There in the beginning, I tried the high-side and handsome thing, and it just didn't work out. After everybody got jumbled up, I was luckily able to make my way through with minimal damage. We had to work really hard, but we were able to do it. I knew we had a really good long-run car, and it really showed."

Christensen soldiered to a third-place finish despite his No. 54 overheating in the closing laps. There were some tense moments for the Georgia driver, but the car made it to the checkered flag for the podium finish.

"I was terrified. I thought for sure we were blowing up before that. Huge props to Jeremy Upchurch and everybody behind us. This JC Motorsports No. 54 was super fast. We had such a good car. Around 20 to go, started getting hotter and hotter, and the water maxed out at 280. The crew chief said screw it, we're going to run it to the end."

The zMAX CARS Tour will be back in South Carolina in two weeks' time, racing at Florence Motor Speedway on August 29. The Friday night show serves as a prelude to the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out Southern 500 at nearby Darlington Raceway.

-Photo credit: zMAX CARS Tour

Bennett Equipment & Supply 225 Unofficial Results

Late Model Stock Cars

Pro Late Models