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1 hour ago, NickHolt said:

I understand that Clayton Green will be driving the #04 Roper Racing Team truck at North Wilkesboro Speedway tomorrow (May 18).

BTW, Steve's wife, Dana, would help out behind the scenes for whatever Texas series Steve was running at the time. Very personable and competent lady.

That's good to hear Nick. Hopefully he'll have a good run there. I figured that you'd be the one to respond. Thanks for the info sir..

Honeycutt will start 21st, if/when they run the LMSC race. Still raining there at 9pm local time there. 

They just gave another update. The qualifying for the LMSC series has been canceled, and they too will go off of owners points. They also said that they will start 40 cars for the LMSC race. They haven't given a starting lineup yet, so I don't know where Kaden will start. 

Well, rain is still messing with everything at N Wilks. About half of the Pro LMs got qualified, then the rain started. Then CARS management canceled their qualifying, and the race will go off 2023 & 2024 owners points (not enough race dates in 2024, so they added the 2023 owners points). They still haven't said if they will start all od the Pro LMs that showed up. But because of all of this, Kaden Honeycutt will start from the pole position. 

There was 1 car, that was driven by a guy that I hadn't seen/heard of before. I might not have even noticed, until the announcer said his hometown. It was Clayton Green of Marble Falls, TX. It looked like he would have started in the top 15 before the rains came. They announced that he would start 27th. Maybe someone on this site can add some more about Mr Green's racing history.

They are still drying the track, but are hopeful to get the LMSC qualifying in. I have no idea how many cars the plan to allow to start the LMSC main. If it gets washed out, there will be some really good cars/drivers that are going to start way in the back, to include the NASCAR top 3 division drivers that are entered. The big problem for the CARS Tour is that they are up against an immovable drop dead time line. All of the All Star weekend races will own Thur- Sunday. So either they will need to get these races in tonight, or push everything out past Sunday. That would really hurt those smaller teams.

Well, due to weather, Kaden will be pulling the double on Wed. Everything that was supposed to be run tomorrow at North Wilkesboro has been pushed to Wed. I can also tell you there will be cars that probably won't make the race. There are 44 LMSC cars entered, and 33 Pro LMs entered. Steven Nasse will also do the double. Peyton Sellers is going to make a start in the LMSC race. There's a lot of very good cars entered in both races.

Kaden will practice & qualify Kyle Weatherman's #91 at Darlington today. Kyle had a family emergency but is supposed to be back for tomorrow's Xfinity race at Darlington.

Kaden will be running this coming Wed at North Wilkesboro Speedway. He will be running for Tom Usury's team again (in the Wood Brothers red & white lookalike #17). He will have a teammate for that race too. Layne Riggs, the 2022 National Champion. I don't know what car number Riggs will be in, but I'll venture a guess that it will be painted like the 17. That would be a phenomenal win for Kaden, as there will be lots of eyes from the top 3 series watching. Because the full entry list isn't available, I don't know yet if he's going to race the Pro race in the #51 that he's been driving for. I hope he is able to run both. 

There is going to be several Cup & Xfinity drivers there as well. The full entry list isn't out for either the Pro Late Models or the LMSC events. The Pros will race a 100 lapper on Tues, (the winner last year was Angie Grill). The LMSCs will run for 125 laps on Wed, (Butterbean Queen was last year's winner). Both days will be on FloRacing live. 

It's going to be fun, with the new asphalt that was laid down since last year. Makes me wonder which is more strove after, a Martinsville Grandfather clock, or an elevator ride to the roof at NW? Queen was so happy last year that I thought he was going to float up there, and carry his car with him. Hoping for some great racing both nights, and not a crash fest. 

On 5/4/2024 at 10:26 PM, Realfast said:

The last time he raced the niece truck. He was getting booed and people were saying to get him off the track.  He hit everything but the pace car. I’m glad he had a better run this time. 

And he's not done getting better either. Sometimes it just takes a minute to get used to running up front, with people he hasn't been used to racing around. With last year's 02 team, he was carrying the truck. Now he's got a truck that can be upfront consistently, he doesn't need to take as many chances just to gain a spot or two. I'm no racecar driving savant by any stretch, but he has the talent. I will truly be surprised if he doesn't get a win in that truck this season. I expect him to also get more wins in both CARS tour divisions. I've said it on here a couple of times now. If I had the funds, he'd have a good, full-time ride in the CARS LMSC division. Because, even if the Niece deal doesn't get him full time, the LMSC wins will get him looked at by other teams in truck & Xfinity series'. Al Niece has built quite the business, and I'm glad the he loves racing like he does. But I don't think that he has Gene Haas money, so it hurts me every time I see him having to self sponsor. Hopefully Kaden or Niece can find enough sponsorship money to get him in the seat for a full season.  

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!! 

13 hours ago, NickHolt said:

That's an interesting series to keep track of.  The Hunnicutt family has been a part of Texas stock car racing for quite some time.

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. 

1 hour ago, NickHolt said:

Way, way back when it was only a grey area in the rules, I bought a tricked-up center link from Howe that had vertical mounting bolts rather than the stock, horizontal bolts. It looked all the world like a stock Chevy center link. 

When I say "way, way back," not many stock car racers knew about bump-steer (roll-steer) at the time, but with the Howe center link, adjusting bump steer became a simple matter of adding or subtracting shims to get whatever bump steer your little heart desired.  

Not giving away secrets, but when I showed that Howe center link as it was mounted in the car to a well-known tech official (at the time), and asked specifically if the center link was legal. "Yep, it's a stock center link," was the verdict. 

Ed Howe was a very smart Late Model racer and car builder. 

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. 

4 hours ago, NickHolt said:

Money plays THE major role in nearly all forms of automobile racing today. Gone are the days when a bright kid and a bunch of his buddies from the corner garage figure out how to make a car go fast and win, not because they outspent the competition, but because they outthought the competition. 

I was very fortunate to be involved in the sport before money became such a factor. Yes, there were rich guys fielding cars, but usually they put their money in the drive train.  Smart kids put their money in the chassis/suspension and learned how to drive.

These days the well-financed teams hire smart mechanical engineers as their suspension tech advisors, bring on software consultants to run their tie-down tech and telemetry systems, and pay big money to cheat up their drive trains. May the guy with the most money win. 

I miss the good old days.  

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. 

11 hours ago, NickHolt said:

I love hearing news about youngsters with Texas connections. 

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.