Race defender Mini Tyrrell saw victory lane at Dominion in the fourth annual Mini’s Mission 125. His winning move was a daring three-wide pass for the lead.
He was carrying more than just himself into victory lane, as his non-profit organization Mini’s Mission was in the forefront of this race weekend.
“It’s so hard to do these, and to get one again, that was huge.” Tyrrell said. “And for me, it’s having all those families here, and having them for dinner, and having them at the lake at my family’s house Thursday. Just trying to take a little bit of pressure off of what they go through.”
Teammates? Not here
Brendan “Butterbean” Queen got the short end of Tyrrell’s leap for the win. While middle of three-wide, Connor Jones pinched Tyrrell down low then slipped up into Queen.
A wrecked Jones caused the final caution which put the Truck Series RAM teammates upfront.
Off the final restart, Tyrrell nudged Queen into the wall, and ran away with the win.
“I wish I haven’t got put in a fence just to see what could have happened.” Queen said. “But yeah, we’ll just remember. We go to the next one and keep having fun, and it was a lot of fun doing this. You know, I got to remind myself I’m too competitive, but this is for fun. My job is in the Truck Series.”
Tyrrell said that the three-wide move was the only shot he had to win the race.
“It was cutthroat for sure.” Tyrrell said. “I mean, we obviously me and Brendan go back and we’ve battled each other for wins. We’ve run many late long races together, so, I’ve got a ton of respect for him. And, he’s such a good driver, and I think me and him both are trying to just get to the same place, right?… I guess he might have been a little upset. I gotta watch it back and see if I got into him a little bit, but, it is what it is. I mean, that’s hard racing. But racing for a win. It’s five, ten laps to go, and I’m here to win.”
Conner Jones versus Carson Brown
Leaders Conner Jones and Carson Brown lined up on a late restart, and race control penalized Brown for jumping the start. The penalty was to send Brown back a row in the next restart, and Brown rebutted.
“I ended up with the advantage [at the restart], ended up clearing them, and then they called it [the positon] back.” Brown said. “And then I got put back in a row. But I mean, first of all, there’s supposed to be a warning. If there’s not a warning, then after that, then they send the row back. And that didn’t happen either.”
The two made contact again when Jones was shuffled from the lead and was spun off the front of Brown.
Jones taken out, Brown keeps his spot
“All I felt was him in my right rear,” Jones said. “Car says it enough, he just turned right into my bumper cover. I don’t know what we gotta do because he kept his spot so the tower thought it wasn’t his fault. The CARS Tour’s got a lot to figure out.”
This comes off the heels of Landon Huffman being sent to the rear at Langley for a similar incident. Dominion’s ruling contradicts the call from Langley.
“I got cleared off the top then ended up right hooking the No. 44,” Brown said “Then they’re all mad at me and drove through our pits and almost hit some people. Yeah, I’m not quite sure what to think of the whole day.”
Is the tire compound too hard?
This weekend saw a return of the tire combination from Nashville: F45 star’s on the right and ST3’s on the left.
After the race, drivers had mixed opinions of the tire compound that Hoosier brought this weekend. Brenden Queen was the most direct about his disappointment.
“I hate the ST3.” Queen said. “ I hate racing on bricks. Put it in a driver’s hand, give us some soft tires, and let us manage the races. You [will] have less people running into each other, and you’ll have more strategy and finesse with the race.
Chad McCumbee was more diplomatic.
“I actually think the ST3, for what it’s meant to do, checks all the boxes,” McCumbee said. “I would much rather see a tire that wears and falls off. I would much rather see a six tire race even. If this series is meant to develop drivers, why not teach them to take care of and manage their tires. We were trying to avoid all the riding but now it has flip flopped, and we have another set of issues.”
Up Next
CARS Tour will be off for a month, and will be back in action at North Wilkesboro on July 17.
