Connor Hall returns home to Langley, and secures victory in his first CARS Tour start of the season.
Hall partnered with Nelson Motorsports, and brought his own crew and car. He has won the last four weekly races at Langley in the same car. The former Langley track champion feels as though he is in his prime. He does not get to run his late model as much, but has dedicated time to run a more concentrated schedule at home.
“People like Niece [Motorsports], they want to give me the opportunity to do my thing. They agree that I have a little bit of wisdom here and there. I’m in my prime. I feel that.” Hall said.
Hall had a spirited battle with his old rival Landon Lewis, but once Hall got control of the race, despite many restarts he was able to fend off every challenge from the No. 29.
“I don’t think there’s two people that you could line up on the front row of a late model race each week, and they’re gonna push each other to be better like that much.” Hall said. “And we conduct business differently at times, but when we line up with 4 to go, I think business is booming for sure.”
The two rivals are now teammates on a part-time basis for Niece Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Lewis comes home second to his old CARS Tour rival
“There were games played and things like that.” Lewis said. “But, at the end of the day it’s my job as the driver to do what I need to do to work on those. So just trying to work as hard as I could [to win].”
Lewis took a measured approach to the late restarts, and kept his top-five streak intact with his second place finish.
“The car was in one piece [at the end], we continued to make it better, and I just didn’t want to do anything that I didn’t need to do to put a bad rep on me for something I shouldn’t have done. So, sometimes you gotta settle for seconds sometimes, but, solid day.” Lewis said.
Lightning London and Quiet Caden
London McKenzie, one of the event’s frontrunners, spun off of Barnes’ left quarter panel and caused the big one. McKenzie has shown speed all year long, but experience and luck have not always been on his side.
“We’ve been fast, we haven’t qualified.” McKenzie said. “We haven’t started outside of the top 10 this year. So you know, our time’s coming. Our time’s definitely coming in. We’re excited to get back at Dominion.”
Caden Kvapil had to drive through the field many times after qualifying below expectations.
“We just missed it a little like normal in qualifying, and I feel like a lot of it’s me. I don’t know.” Kvapil said. “I need to work on it, but I’ve never really been good at it. So I think it’s just a part of it. We focused a lot on our race. We definitely had a better race car then I guess we didn’t in qualifying.”
Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme
Donovan Strauss ran through the field multiple times in the No. 51 Kyle Busch tribute paint scheme for AK Performance.
His drive to have a successful weekend came from honoring his racing hero.
“Over the last week, I’ve realized my love for this came from him initially when I was a 6 year old kid… He was always an inspiration, because he was just unapologetically himself, and that’s someone I want to be.” Strauss said.
Strauss achieved an eighth place finish, his best of the year.
“I just made a mistake down there under the [No.] 2 car and I got it. I got tight and I got into his door, and he cut the right front immediately.” Strauss said. “So to come back, come down to pitroad one more time, drive back through the field, and finish safe; that’s why I won the ‘Flo Field Master’ award last year.”
Up Next for Cars Tour and On Tour
The Cars Tour series will take an off week this Saturday, but heads to Dominion Raceway on June 13 at 7 p.m. for the Minis Mission 125.
On Tour is set for a double header weekend.
We will have coverage from this Friday’s twin Late Model Stock features at Wake County Speedway.
The following night will be at Bowman Gray focusing on Modifieds from the madhouse.
Story by: On Tour’s Daniel McKoy
