Brenden Queen captured the PLM CARS Tour Series championship at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — The CARS Tour championship weekend was truly an opportunity to see who would bring home the big trophy with season championships determined before the final race of the season.
This was not the case this year.
In the CARS Tour Late Model Stock division, the top two were separated by nine points as of the posted points standings on Oct. 12. Brenden Queen, in the No. 03 Lee Pulliam Performance car, earned 437 points on the year while the No. 22 Nelson Motorsports entry of Connor Hall is a short distance behind with 428 points.
The gap between the top two in the Pro Late Model division was larger, but not insurmountable. Spencer Davis, driving the No. 29 for Spencer Davis Motorsports held a 29-point lead over Caden Kvapil who drove his family-owned No. 35 car.
The first of three races on Saturday night at North Wilkesboro Speedway was the Pro Late Models. TJ DeCaire earned the pole and chose to start on the high side with Kaden Honeycutt to his inside. The green flag flew and Honeycutt got a great start, gaining a few car lengths over the field.
The first incident of the evening occurred with only five laps on the board due to contact with the points leader, Davis, whose car washed up into DeCaire. Davis got into the marbles at the top of the track, barely keeping his car off the wall.
More trouble found Davis after dropping down the scoring order before stopping on the track, causing the flagman to unfurl the yellow for the first caution. The No. 29 brought the car to the attention of the crew, facing a penalty of three laps due to intentionally bringing out the caution.
With 92 laps remaining, Tate Fogleman washed up and spun, prompting another quick yellow.
About five laps after the previous yellow, the red and yellow flags were waved by the flag official when Lanie Buice had an engine expire and dropped oil over the track. Logan Jones and Daniel Webster were collected in the incident.
As the race progressed, 14-year-old Tristan McKee aggressively battled Honeycutt for the lead as they began making their way around the lapped car of Dusty Garus.
McKee was able to snag the lead away from Honeycutt with the slightest of nudges with 21 laps remaining, however, that was short-lived as the competition caution was shown with 19 laps to go.
Caden Kvapil chose the inside of the first row with McKee to the outside and Gio Ruggiero and Honeycutt in row two. As the field came up to speed, Ruggiero and McKee came together with Honeycutt narrowly missing the two. Kvapil was sent to the rear for jumping the start.
The green flag flew over the leader, Honeycutt, with DeCaire alongside him. DeCaire was not able to make the pass on Honeycutt, who led the remaining laps, claiming both the race win and the CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship.
Kaden Honeycutt was jubilant after winning the CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)
Honeycutt reiterated his excitement about winning the championship after a trying year and moving to the Bryson Lopez Team in August in his Facebook post, “Champions and winners at North Wilkesboro Speedway!!!! Are you kidding me!!!! I can’t even believe it.
“Thank you to everyone at Bryson Lopez Racing, Dustin Bryson, Jc Umscheid, Ralph Thorne, Johnathon Platt, Wesley Weed, and everyone on this team for their effort and support. Ever since I made the move to this group at Ace in August I knew we could win races and finish it off. I can’t wait for the Derby in December for the Snowflake 100.”
Honeycutt’s focus turns to the remainder of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season and into 2025 with Niece Motorsports.
The third feature race of the CARS Tour championship night was the Stocks. Carson Kvapil started on the pole while Queen completed the first row.
Brenden Queen was ready to pursue the CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Photo: Ricky Martinez | The Podium Finish)
Early in the race, two separate incidents nearly had championship implications as Buddy Isles Jr. nearly slid up and into Queen in a close call.
The first caution of the race flew 15 laps into the race when the No. 28 of Landon S. Huffman tangled with the No. 77 of Treyten Lapcevich while battling for the 11th position on the track. Huffman pitted to repair the damage and returned to the track before a tire went down on Lap 30, sending him into the wall.
Eighty-seven laps in, Isles stopped at the top of the track with no power to his No. 11v machine. While his car was undamaged, he retired for the night, finishing in the 26th position.
Kvapil had a strong hold on the lead until 44 laps in when Connor Jones challenged Kvapil for the number one spot. Six laps after Isles’ incident, Peyton Sellers and Trevor Ward made hard contact initially between Sellers and Parker Eatmon.
Ward’s car was heavily damaged and necessitated assistance from the track staff as the front-end assembly was torn from the car.
Although Kvapil led every lap of the race, he relinquished the lead to Jones on Lap 110. Jones bested Jones to the stripe while Mini Tyrell, Hall and Queen rounded out the top five. Queen secured enough positions over Hall to claim the CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship.
