Three-Wide Photo Finish Decides CARS Tour Event at Langley Speedway

In a three-wide finish that will go down as one of the most memorable in the history of the zMAX CARS Tour, Connor Hall scored a win on home turf at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway.

Hall crossed the finish line first after 125 laps, locked in a side-by-side-by-side battle with Brent Crews and Carson Kvapil. According to timing and scoring, Hall beat Crews to the line by seven-thousandths of a second, with Kvapil finishing third.

Crews had dominated the first 100 laps of the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car event, but a caution with 25 laps to go reset the field and brought new challengers to the forefront.

Hall was one of those challengers, taking the lead on lap 111 and holding on for the win through a physical 15-lap fight to the finish.

“That finish got pretty interesting,” said Hall. “It got pretty rough there, but after having it nearly taken away from me twice, I had my mind up I wasn’t going to lose this one.”

Hall was already on the outside of Kvapil on the final lap when Crews muscled his way to the inside to make it a three-way battle. From there, Hall truly had only one choice: Put the pedal to the floor and hope for the best.

“My spotter was just like, ‘Stay in it, stay in it, stay in it.’ I just put it wide open. I knew I was either gonna be in the concrete or not. The 29 was super close. It was a really good finish. I’m sure it was a great race for the fans.”

Hall won the 2023 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Championship in part because of a dominant season at his home track, winning 14 races en route to Langley’s track championship.

Hall also won the CARS Tour event at Langley one year ago, becoming the first two-time winner at the track with the series on Saturday.

“I love Langley Speedway,” said Hall. “Langley Speedway’s done a lot for me. I started my career out here, me and Brenden [Queen] both. I think Langley builds great race car drivers.”

Brent Crews left pleased with a runner-up finish in his Kevin Harvick, Inc. entry. Crews had been shuffled back to third on the lap 100 restart, but the last lap maneuver allowed him to get back to second and nearly win.

“That was a crazy race,” said Crews. ”I had a great KHI Mobil 1 No. 29 Toyota Camry all night. Led a lot of laps and have a lot to be proud of. I’m happy to be here.”

“I get it, it’s hard racing,” added Crews about the late restart. “When it’s 15 to go, you’ve got to go. It’s just hard racing, but if I had stayed out front there and not got shuffled up, I think that’s what we needed.”

Carson Kvapil could have been disappointed to somehow finish third when he was less than a tenth of a second behind Hall at the finish. However, he mostly felt relief to score a third-place finish on a night when his car was not as good as he hoped.

“We all come out here to win. I’m honestly happy just to be in the top three. I feel like, all race long, we were struggling. I just didn’t have the car under me to get up there and pass cars.

“We had a really good shot at it with the green-white-checkered. I got under him off of two and moved him up the hill a little bit. I thought I was going to have him in three, we just came together. I got a little jacked sideways and the 29 was able to get inside of us.”

Matt Waltz finished fourth, with Treyten Lapcevich rounding out the top five.

Another Langley champion, Brenden Queen, took the lead on the frenetic lap 100 restart. However, during another battle a bumper brace came loose on his No. 03, which eventually led to a spin on lap 118 when Crews’ nose hooked to the dangling brace and upset the balance on Queen’s car.

Queen ultimately finished 14th, passing several cars in the closing laps.

The zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stocks race again on June 15 at another Virginia track, Dominion Raceway.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour on X

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