ron.brown11

Kaden raced the #45 Niece truck at Kansas tonight. He finished 4th!!! Somebody's going tp put him a steady ride if he keeps this up. I think that if he could win 3 races in either of the series (Pro or LMSC) will get him a shoot at either a truck or Xfinity ride.The Niece team is the best chance because he has history there already, Hammer Down Mr Honeycutt!!

Yeah it really is Nick. Can you imagine being disappointed in only having 21 Pro late models starting a main? There were nearly 30 for the LMSC field. Having those new owners in the CARS Tour, has really changed the landscape for asphalt stock racing on the east coast. Purses are climbing, not to equal what's being paid for the dirt late models, but you have to walk before you run. I love what Larson is doing for sprint cars, and Jr & that bunch are trying to do the same on their series. I really think that both bode well for Sat night racing. With what all Larson is doing, racing so much, and now an Indycar ride for the 500, makes me wonder how long he'll stay in Cup. Unless he's just using that money to fund the rest of his racing. One of the announcers last night mentioned that after Deak McCaskil had his huge wreck about 5 weeks ago, the #17 LMSC took Kaden out of the seat to put Deak into it. Deak is running the full season, and Kaden isn't. I'm hopeful that Kaden will get all of the rest of the races he's scheduled for, and maybe some extra shows. Deak didn't have a good night. In fact he hasn't look good since that crash, and R&S Race Cars got his car repaired and returned to him. That #17 is an R&S chassis. We'll see..

Well it's been a Kvapil kind of night at ACE. Little brother Caden led all 100 laps for the win in the Pro cars. Big brother Carson got the lead with about 25 laps to go, and held off Brendan Queen for the win. Ryan Millington the pole sitter, had broken a track bar or something in the rear end. After leading 95 laps of the 125 lap race. He hit something with the left from valance area. that causes a pretty good push on corner entry. So Carson Kvapil won, Butterbean was second, and Ryan Millington hung on for third. Bobby McCarty the points leader came in 4th. Thankfully there were no big wrecks tonight. The LMSC points leader Connor Hall spun out, got some damage but managed to climb back up to 12th

Kaden finished 3rd. Kvapil led every lap. Kaden entered the night leading in the points by 1 point. With Nick Loden's crash the lead will be a bit more now. Nice job Kaden Honeycutt!!

Caution on lap 32, and Kaden is running 6th. So far, his car hasn't looked anywhere as good as it did 2 weeks ago at Orange County. Hopefully he's just saving tires, and can move forward. So far Kvapil has lead every lap. The biggest mover so far has been Spencer Davis, of Dawsonville, GA. Well, that restart didn't go well!. Fortunately Kaden was able to miss it. Going into turn 1, the 4th place car tried to cut down on the 3rd place car. Unfortunately he wasn't clear. The 3rd place car rode up on the left rear tire, got completely airborne, and did a 180 degree turn in the air. I thought he was going to leave the track. Thankfully he didn't. Kaden was right behind them, and was able to go low to avoid them. On the landing, Nick Loden went driver's door first into the wall. Fortunately he was able to walk away. Bollman was able to drive away, but that car probably won't very good. That was a Donnie Wilson car. Loden drives for his family's team.

Comp caution at lap 56, and Kaden is running 8th.

They will start 25 in the LMSC race later tonight. Kaden is not going to be in that race unfortunately. Ryan Millington, the 3x track champion is on the pole. Brendan Butterbean Queen will start 2nd.

Kaden will start 10th tonight at ACE Speedway. There's only 21 cars that qualified for the Pro Late Models, and I was a bit surprised that there weren't more. Over half the field qualified within .3 of pole sitter Caden Kvapil. From 1st to 21st was .8 of each other. The PLMs should roll off in about 15 minutes.

I remember the first time I saw the center link that you describe. To say that I didn't understand how it would work, would be an understatement. Yes Howe was a really smart guy, buy also a heck of a racer too. It took a while for those racers to figure out what the new cars would need to be fast. Plus, it took those drivers a while to figure out how to drive them. Once they did, they could hold their own against Howe, Tommy Mair, and several other Berlin Speedway drivers. There were a few from other MI tracks to make the trip, but the best came from Berlin. Between Howe, Mair & Bob Senneker, it was still hard for the locals for a season or two. The first few years, Howe would do complete cars, but most were sold as kits, to be completed by either the buying team, or to several independent chassis shops. Here's a short list of some of those shops. I'm sure that most of these names will be familiar. Dillon, Port City, Lefthander, Hamke, Jr Hanley, and Randercar. Dillon's most famous driver was Mark Martin. The guy that was very instrumental in the design of the early Howe chassis, is the guy that designed & built the Brinn transmission. I can't remember his name though. Rodney Combs was still racing regionally, but was from Cincinnati. For the first time in 1975, he teamed with another guy named Woddy Fisher. Woody owned the Stroh's Brewery distribution center in Cincinnati. Both cars were painted exactly alike, but Rodney's was a brand new Howe chassis. Woody's car was a brand new Petty Duster kit car. I had gotten to be friends with Woody, and he invited me to skip school to be at their test day at Tri-County Speedway. Rodney's car was really fast right off the trailer. He ran about 3 short sessions, tinkering with it a little after each. Then he went out and ran 5 straight laps below the track record, and then parked his car. Woody was not getting those same results. Rodney spent about 20 minutes taking some measurements, then jumped in the car. He ran 5 laps, pulled in, and made a few adjustments. Then he went out for another few laps. He clicked off 8 straight laps that were faster than he ran in his own car. I was standing next to Woody while he was running those laps. Yep, he was a bit embarrassed. Rodney climbed out and asked Woody if they like to trade cars. Beings that Woody was a huge Richard Petty fan, and later would have one of his speedway cars, Woody said no. He said the he guessed that he needed to grow a pair. He was a lot faster the rest of the day. Neither car got new tires all day. Each car started with a new set, and every lap run that day was on those tires. There's an old website covering those Petty Kit Cars, and if you go through a bunch of the pictures that were sent, in a few of them you'll see Woody's Charger. The Pettys sold it to him with the understanding that he could only sell it back to them. Woody was pretty successful in that car in the ARCA series. Woody got really sick about 4 years into his ARCA career, and stopped racing. His brother ran it a few times, but wasn't the driver Woody was. That was after I left Cincinnati for the Air Force. I don't know what ever happened to that speedway car, but I would bet that it never left the Fisher family. Also in those old pictures is a couple of pictures that had Dale Sr driving some. I tried to find that site for those pictures, but couldn't. I did find one called "For C Bodies Only" that had some, including Woody's Duster. If I can find that site I'll post it. Back to Kaden. He's running tomorrow night at Ace Speedway in NC. He'll be running the same car that he won in, in the Pro Late Model series back on April 20th. According to the entry list for the LMSC division, he isn't running the #17 Wood Brothers look alike car, as it isn't listed on the entry list. He's run really good there in the past, so I'm hopeful tomorrow will be great for him. I'll be watching for sure.

Nick, I just read that Brendan Queen has already used his success in the CARS Tour to get an opportunity. He will be running the truck race at N. Wilks in May. He'll be driving for Tricon (Gilliland). That's why I said that Kaden can make that jump if he can win some of those LMSC races. There are a lot of eyes on the drivers in that series now. And there are several young drivers in that series that could get a shot.

Yeah Nick, money sure helps a lot. When I went to high school in Cincinnati and going to the races, EVERYBODY ran big blocks with tunnel ram intakes and 2 huge carbs. Then this guy from Beaverton, MI showed up for a high paying 100 lapper. He cleaned everybody's clocks, driving a Camaro with a small block. Back then most tracks calculated the required weight of the car, based on the cubic inches of the engine. All of the tracks that I went to, used the 8lbs per cubic inch rule. So the weight required for those 427 and larger engines was staggering, compared to a small block. But that wasn't the main reason they were beat. This guy's chassis was extraordinary. That guy was Ed Howe, the inventor of the store bought chassis for the local racer. Within about 18 months, nearly all of the late models in the region were running small block engines. Within 3 years, nearly every late model in the region was a Howe or other mass produced chassis. We even had 2 Petty Engineering kit car chassis' running there. For all intents & purposes, that was not only the end of junkyard chassis', but also the end of big blocks in the late models. It's hard to argue against the success that these chassis' has been. It's also easy to see how they have helped drivers get better, quicker too. But yeah, it sure was cool to see really smart people take a junkyard frame, and be able to make it do something incredible.

Although I enjoyed the end of this ARCA race, I was shocked when FloRacing made it their Race of the Week selection. Who knew that racing side by side, and not dumping each other for the win, would be something that others might appreciate.

I don't normally watch the ARCA series much, for a couple of reasons. First is because there's only 2-3 cars/teams that have the funds to control pretty much everything. The second is that they're usually a crash fest. However, last weekend's race at Kern Co was the exception. They didn't crash much, and the last 12 laps between Cole Raz & Trevor Huddleston were worth it. These guys traded the lead several times, while running every one of those laps side by side. Yep, they rubbed & doored each other several times, but they didn't wreck each other. Neither are full time ARCA drivers on any of the big teams. Raz won it, but basically apologized during his interview. Trevor said that he was pissed, but that's the calmest "pissed" I've ever seen. Yeah, I'd been happier if they had congratulated each other, but hey I get it. Trevor's dad Tim, now runs things at Kern County. He's been the guy doing the same thing at Irwindale for several years now. I still don't know if Irwindale is racing the oval this year.

Nick, I truly believe that Kaden would have won the LMSC main, if not for knocking the toe in out. Even with that he came close. He and Mini Tyrell got together a couple laps before the huge crash, and you could tell he was having issues with the nose of the car on corner entry after that. With the Pro Late Model that he drove, they only have 2 employed team members, everybody else are volunteers. I only know that because he said so during his victory lane interview. Nobody had anything for him in that race. Neither ride is for the full schedule unfortunately. I think if he can win 5-6 races in the Pro series this year, he could get a full time ride in the LMSC series. If he could get 3-4 wins there this year, he'd be looking at an ARCA or truck series ride. That guy has skills! And it doesn't hurt that both Harvick & Jr are fielding cars in that series, and are at the tracks occasionally. They can't help but notice that kind of talent, when he's outrunning their cars, which are probably the best stuff out there. His only shortfall is that he doesn't have a big wallet or sponsor to bring along with all that skill. He doesn't seem to get rattled no matter what the situation is, or if he's running against better equipment. Ah if I only had won the Powerball...

Well after 225 laps of racing, for 2 different teams, Kaden finished 2nd. The fact that he even finished is amazing. He restarted 3rd and got shuffled back to 7th. With about 35 laps to go, Connor Zilich got into the then leader Bobby McCarty's left rear going into turn 3. It sliced his left rear, and that collected 5 cars. Somehow Kaden managed to snake between the cars that crashed both high and low. On the next restart Kaden started 2nd, and he just didn't have quite enough to run down Brent Crews, who was driving a Kevin Harvick #29 Toyota. He held off the 2 time champ Kvapil to keep 3rd. Before the big wreck, Kaden and Mini Tyrell got together, and Kaden said it knocked to tow in way out. He thinks that he could have won if not for that. At OCS, running the second grove in the fast way around. He was shocked that Crews gave him the top lane on that restart. But the car plowed like a truck going into turn 1, and that was his last chance to try for the win. Layne Riggs drove the #62 Harvick Ford. WOW what a night he had, and he finished 10th. He was spun out, involved in an accident, and cut a tire, all on separate incidents.

With 53 laps left, Kaden is running a strong 4th.

Kaden will start 6th in the LMSC race.

Kaden passed for the lead on lap 1 at Orange County Speedway in NC. He lost the lead on a restart late in the race for a lap. He spanked the field tonight, in the Pro Late Model 100 lapper, leading 99 laps. I hope he can double up later tonight in the Late Model Stock race. What a drive for that young man!!

All of Mr. Labonte's funeral services have been posted, and will take place in High Point, NC on Fri & Sat.

Mike, I'm not planning on checking out any time soon, of course my wife might have something to say about that lol.. But hey, I'm 67, and have had 25 surgeries between March 2008 and Jan 2021. Both my parents died at age 71, so maybe my time is getting close too. I always used to think that all of the fighting, and shit like that was because everyone was so competitive. I've come to believe that almost all of it was simply hard headedness. Once we get past that, it's funny how much we have in common. Then comes respect for each other, then friendship. I sure wish I'd been smart enough to realize that a bit sooner. I haven't known Nick anywhere near as long as you have Mike, but I've always respected him. He always played things straight, and by the book. When I was helping Greg Baber with his modified, he hired Nick for his expertise on chassis setup. I'd like to think that I learned a lot from him, but he didn't have a great student. Geometry was never my best course in school. But he still took his time explaining why he wanted adjustments etc, and never got frustrated. I also took his classes, and he showed patience there too. Again, I really respect that.

Nick, I was sure that you would know more than I do about Bob, and you did. All I ever heard was third party stuff. I too was glad to hear Mike with some personal info. I had always heard the Bob could be a little rough around the edges, but was a good guy. I never went to CC, going to SA on a GI's pay was about all I could afford then, while living in Del Rio. I was glad that he was able to get Terry & Bobby to Cup. I know that have been other Texans to make it, but none had the impact that Terry & Bobby had. I don't think I ever heard Ken Squire say Terry Labonte. It was always "Texas" Terry Labonte. Like you Nick, I was born somewhere else. But TX is my adopted home. God willing, this is where I'll die too.

Bob Labonte passed away this week. There weren't any funeral details listed in the story. He did a lot to put Texas asphalt racing on the national map. I'm sure that Nick Holt can add much more on that, as I was just coming to TX as Terry was moving to Cup. RIP sir..

Kaden started 6th, in Sat's 125 lap race at Caraway Speedway in NC. It was the season opener for the Late Model Stock season, and his first start in the Wood Brother's/David Pearson paint scheme #17 Mustang. He ran as high as third at one point, and got shuffled back to 11th, and then climbed back to 5th at the end. Caraway's grove is on the bottom in the corners, and if you get off the bottom (or get moved off the bottom), you can lose a lot of spots. He was running in 3rd and got moved, and finally got back 5th. Carson Kvapil won the race, but very early it didn't look like he would. He and Deak, McCaskill (spelling?) got together going into turn 1. Kvapil ran over Deak's left rear tire and went airborne with both right side tires. Luckily it didn't really seem to hurt either car. There was only 1 significant crash near the end. It involved 7 cars, but Andrew Grady really got the worst end of it. He got caught up in a lot of crashes, not of his making last year. Unfortunately this season started the same way. Too bad, as he was running really good too. That car will need at least a new front clip. Katie Hettinger, last year's runner up for the Pro Late Model championship, made the jump to the top series. She got as high as 7th at one point, and managed a top 15 finish. This years she's driving for her family owned team. That's an outstanding start for her, as there were 30 cars that started the race. She too lost several spots after getting moved. I think that she's got a bright future in racing.

Kaden raced the CARS Tour Pro Late Model race today at Southern National in NC. He started 3rd and finished 3rd. On lap 3 Kaden drove it off into turn 3, and got under the then leader Tanner Tyler. I don't know if Tanner's spotter was asleep, or Tanner just decided that he was going to turn down and try and close the door. It really hurt Tanner's car the worst, but Kaden had the toe knocked way out for the remaining 97 laps. But he soldiered on for the third place finish. He also mentioned that the car he ran today is a 2015 Hamke chassis. The he went on to say that they have a new car that he'll be driving at Hickory. I'm not sure just how many of the Pro Late Model shows he's running this season. Next weekend the CARS Tour Late Model Stocks will be running at Southern National.I haven't seen the driver entry list for that yet. I'm hoping the Kaden will be there in the #21 car.

Ryan sure didn't have as good as last year at New Smyrna. Last year he drove a car out of the Jett stable and was stout all week. I'm not sure who he drove for, or if that was a family owned car. He was mostly middle of the park in the races that I saw this year. I didn't see every night this year. I'll go back and try and see the rest.