ron.brown11

Thanks Nick, I try to keep up with it the best I can. I still love this stuff. You have heard me mention on here several times, just how great the facilities are at Kern County Raceway. I was worried about how/if it would continue to exist, as Charlie Beard the owner, has passed away. Well that has been taken care of in a way I didn't ever expect. It is now called the Kevin Harvick Raceway!!. Harvick is from Bakersfield, and has been a big supporter of racing in that area. He's a past champ at the bulldozed Mesa Marin Raceway, there in Bakersfield. He will not be the day ro day operator of it, as he has hired Tim & Lisa Huddleston to do that. Tim has been the guy that has kept Irwindale going for several years, after Toyota sold the track. Irwindale was really in trouble before he started running it. Tim was also a former racer in his day, and his son Trevor I think still has the most LM wins there. I don't know yet if this means that Irwindale is going away, as I haven't seen anything about that yet. But I will be looking for info. Mr Harvick is going to be a very busy man between the broadcast team, CARS Tour owner & now owning Kern Co, I mean Kevin Harvick Raceway..

Yesterday the ownership for the CARS Tour, Earnhardt, Burton, Harvick & Justin Marks, made 2 major announcements. The first is that ZMAX will be the title sponsor for both the LMSC & the Pro Late Model series.Also Marcus Smith (SMI President), was also there for the press conference. As Smith & SMI have had a working relationship with the ZMAX Lubricants for several years (ZMAX Drag Strip in Charlotte), it makes sense that both were represented there. Plus, the press conference was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's great that a regional racing series has landed a national sponsor. That will help the series, the teams & the track operators to be able to attract a wider fan base. All three will have a platform to try and generate more sponsors. This should be a win-win for all involved. The second was the announcement of the 2024 schedule. Included in that is that North Wilksboro will have 2 CARS Tour dates, with one of them again being during the Cup All Stars weekend. If you missed that race this year, it was fantastic, so having 2 of them in 2024 should be twice as nice. There is one thing that I think will be having the powers that be in Daytona, scratching their collective heads. Why was Marcus Smith so prominent at this press conference? The easy answer is because he owns N. Wilksboro and CMS. But that's not why the NASCAR hierarchy would be interested/concerned. I've said on here before, Bruton Smith really wanted to start a rival series to the Cup series. I still think the Marcus Smith & SMI would love to fulfill daddy's wish. If the new TV/Streaming contracts don't get split to where the teams/drivers get a bigger percentage, and the Charter system doesn't become permanent, SMI could swoop in and pilfer a lot of the Cup teams. Oh, and they'd already have a built in driver farm system in place, with the CARS Tour Series. I am not a conspiracy theorist by any means, and find it hard to think that the ownership on the CARS Tour (all are involved heavily in NASCAR), would want to jump ship. But hey, they are all business owners too, and money still pays the bills. Add in the fact that NASCAR did 3 things that could easily streamline things for an exit if SMI were to ever start a rival series. First, they consolidated NASCAR & ISC into 1 entity. The second happened a couple of years ago. They bought back all outstanding stock. The third happened last year, when the started talking to a major bank, that department to which NASCAR was working with, specializes in helping to buy/sell major corporations. Without those first 2 things happening, I wouldn't give the third thing a second thought. It's a whole lot easier to sell 1 major entity than two. It's also MUCH easier to sell that entity, if there are no private shareholders that you have to convince to sell their shares. Who knows, maybe Marcus Smith can do what Bruton wasn't able to. As I said on here a while back, the next 18 months could be very interesting, or a big nothing burger...

That's Great Josh & James!! If they have the drive and abilities to want to race, by the time they're 10, racing will be second nature to them. Then the real fun will begin for them. If they decide that they don't want to pursue racing long term, you won't be mortgaged to the hilt, and you will still have been able to share a lot of time together doing it as a family. Still a win/win for you all. Oh how I wish I could have started that young. When I was 16, I owned a 1970 Torino GT convertible. It was a beautiful car with a custom paint job, I had a friend that could paint really good. All I had to do was supply all supplies and a lot of grunt work. It was also pretty fast too. A guy that I knew that ran what were called hobby stocks (Novas, Camaros, Mustangs, Darts etc, with inline 6 cylinder engines), had a Maverick HS. He offered to trade his car, trailer, & all of his spares for my street Torino even up. I was all for it, but I had a couple of problems. First I didn't have anything to pull the trailer. He'd decided to go sprint car racing, and wanted everything gone. So I asked my dad if I could put a trailer hitch on the back of his 6 year old Lincoln suicide door Continental. He didn't quite answer that before he said that wouldn't be the problem. So I asked "well what's the problem then"? He said that he wouldn't sigh the required "Underage Release" that was required by the track. This was the same person that got me into stockcar racing, he just didn't want me participating. So I went into the Air Force when I graduated, and did a career there. At the ripe old age of 42, I ran my first race. That was a 600 hp modified that weighed 2400lbs, and we raced on 8" wide slicks. Talk about a steep learning curve!! I had a lot of fun, won some, but it was anything but a family affair. By that time my dad had passed away, and never saw me race. My mom saw me race 3 times, as she lived in Ohio, and I lived in Tucson. My son absolutely HATED that race car. You would have thought that I was shoving bamboo under his nails, by just asking he to help push the car into the trailer. My wife's reaction wasn't as bad as my son's, but it was in the same ballpark. Unfortunately my brother lived in Cincinnati, so he was only able to come out a couple times a year. So the majority of my racing was done with the help of friends in Tucson. Plus, when truly just starting at the age of 42, some of that youth invincibility we have when we're young isn't there anymore. So I'm certain that a would have been a better driver if I could have started much younger. That's why I'm happy for you both, and of course your kids. I hope that it works out well for all involved. Please keep this site posted with how they're doing. Good Luck!!

I'd love to say that Kaden invented that really high 3rd lane going in to turn 3, but a regular there named Glenski runs that line all the way around the track there. He'll run an entire main with his tires kicking up dirt, and he's fast at it too. I listened to Dale Jr's post race interview, and I think he was a bit disappointed in himself, that he never tried that really high line. Kaden went around him there just like he did Berry. And Jr was always one to try high lines during Cup races. I really think that Kaden thought he could pull away from Brown, and that's why I think he did it when he did. Plus, if Cup racing has taught me anything over the last few years, it seems to be easier to get someone on a restart, and then hold them off. But Brown's car was really strong the entire race. For a while there I thought he was pushing it too hard. He was not, that car was really stout all race long. It's a shame that Matt Cox had his issues, because that's who I thought could stay with Brown consistently. I loved that both Brown & Kaden said exactly what they did to each other, and weren't mad about it. Both roughed up each other, but neither tried to wreck the other. But that first lap after that restart, Brown showed exactly how good his car was, by being able to run Kaden back down in just 1 straightaway. That was bad fast. Like I said above, I think that there are some really good drivers working their way up. I don't know if Kaden has anything set up for next year, but I'd sure love to see him back in that R&S car with some good funding. I've said on here many times, I have been watching Brendan Queen for 5 years now. He's an awesome driver, has good sponsorship, and a very marketable driver. I truly believe that Kaden is at least at that level in driving ability. He also must be pretty good at getting others to believe in him, just based on the volume of rides he's put together. But none of it was with a well funder team. Queen has done all of his racing driving for only 2 teams (for asphalt racing). I have no idea whose equipment he drives on dirt. All of his race wins and Langley track championships came in his family owned late model. His first race for Lee Pulliam was last year's SC 400 race at Florence, and he won that. As a rookie, he nearly won the CARS Tour championship. Kaden needs that type of stability in a decently funder team, that knows how to win. If Carson Kvapil gets a ride higher up, or if Jr wants to add another CARS Tour team, I'd bet that he looks at Kaden. Between the abilities he has shown all year in cars that aren't well funded, and then what he did on Cup championship weekend, many people noticed. Hell, he even had an article on NASCAR.com about the champ weekend. Now, will someone step up? If I had the funds, he would not have to worry about that for a season or two. And I'm not big into gambling. Maybe I need to start buying Lotto tickets.

I watched the South Carolina 400 last night. The name is a carry over from when it used to be run at Myrtle Beach (where it was 400 laps), but at Florence the name stands for the total number of laps for all of the features run. The late models ran for 250 laps, and was a really good race. There were some crashes (most were fairly minor), including 1 car getting upside down. Thankfully nobody got hurt, and they were red for about 20 minutes to get that car back on all 4s. Cade Brown won it in a hard fought victory. On the final restart (about 10 laps to go), Kaden Honeycutt out dueled Brown into turn 1, pushing Cade up the track a bit. Cade ran Kaden back down going into turn 3, and returned the favor. Cade's car was incredible in clean air, and stretched his lead to over a second at the checkers. Honeycutt was 2nd, Carson Kvapil 3rd, Josh Berry 4th, and Brendan Queen was 5th (last year's winner). Dale Jr finished 8th. Cade was the 2022 track champion at Florence, and the 2023 champ at Hickory. He's another young driver that I think has a very bright future. He has 1 big advantage over Honeycutt, he has better financial backing, and has been in a stable car owner situation. Honeycutt ran his second race for R&S Race Cars, and both were top 5s. He has shown so much talent in multiple type cars & teams, especially over the last 6 weeks, somebody has got to notice. How I'd love to see him in a stable, decently financed team. Are there any open seats at JRM?? You should have seen him running the top lane there. I think he shocked Josh Berry when Kaden passed him, and Josh has won races there at Florence including this race, when running for Dale Jr. They started 41 cars for this race, and I really expected more incidents. There were a handful of 1-2 cars spins & minor crash damage, plus the rollover, mostly due to the shear volume of cars on the track. And considering how abrasive the surface is at Florence, I expected more. Matt Cox ran about 90% of the race in the top 3, and looked like he might finally win one of these races. He's the back to back track champ at Florence, but it was not to be. When the final yellow came out, while running second, his car lost oil pressure and was a DNF. His car didn't have as much as a tire mark on it. He was the only one that seemed to be able to keep pace with Brown. Looking at the top 5 finishers from this race, 4 of them are young and very talented drivers (I didn't include Josh Berry because his path to the top is over, as he is there already). I've watched a lot of asphalt racing this year, and I've seen an awful lot of very good young drivers, at several different tracks. I truly think that there are several young drivers, that will start populating NASCAR's top 3 divisions for years to come.

I forgot to post this about the aftermath of the Hettinger/Kvapil brawl. Hettinger was parked for the final race of the season. Kvapil wins the championship. Too bad, I would really have liked to see them race for the championship in that last race. What Kvapil did was wrong, and so was Hettinger. I still believe that he would have won it, but I would have enjoyed seeing them race for it. Maybe I'm a bit slow, but I don't think they would have wrecked each other in the finally. There was nothing that either driver/team did that was good for racing that night. Having them race for it cleanly would have really helped everyone, drivers, teams, and the sport. I didn't hear of any penalties for the second crash/brawl. Higden doesn't run the CARS Tour typically, so I don't know what a penalty would mean to that team. Bocshelle (spelling) has been splitting time in the other car with William Sawalich, so apparently the family has some $$ to afford that. If I remember correctly, his is a Donnie Wilson car. I know that there are some that will say the brawling is ok, just let them have at it. Sponsors, ie the ones that foot a lot of the bill, probably don't think so. Without fans & sponsors, there won't be much racing to watch. Fans but tickets & merchandise to help pay purses. Sponsors buy tires and engines etc, to get you on the track. Dollars still make the world go round.

On nascar.com they did a good write up on Kaden's busy weekend. On the phone app it shows up readily. On the computer site, select the news drop down and click on Roots Series tab. It's a good read about in incredible weekend for him.

I agree arob. Sat & Sunday were great races. Too bad that Friday's truck race was such a shit show. I've seen Carson Hocevar race at Berlin Speedway for a couple of years, and now for over a year in the truck series. Unfortunately his style hasn't changed any. I'm not sure what his future will look like, if he can't figure it out.

Mike, I love that track. I lived in Tucson for 14 years, and went there for every NASCAR weekend. I also went there when they were still hosting the annual Copper's World Classic races. They would run Winston West, NASCAR Southwest Tour races, Sprint and Midgets. But the wildest races were ALWAYS Super Modifieds!! Eight hundred horsepower and 70% left side weight. You hoped that nobody ever needed to make a quick correction to the right.They would flip kind of like a motorcycle that high sides the rider. It would usually be a very violent flip. Amazingly, I never saw a driver get hurt. There's nothing like seeing cars go 6 wide through the dogleg, and then trying to funnel down to just 2 wide, and that's for all of the races there. When I lived there, the dogleg was the start of the backstretch, and the backstretch now is what used to be the frontstretch. If you look behind the the dogleg, there is a huge RV area now. There used to be a mountain there. NASCAR blew it up, and carried it out in trucks. Back then, they had maybe 300 RV spots on track grounds. Eight percent of the RVs would park up in the Estrella Mountains, about a mile farther southwest of the current RV area. We would ride trams back and forth. They now have 10K RV spaces there. They have a full grocery store there, along with I think 10 full shower houses. But if you're willing to fork over the cash, you can park your RV right there on the back stretch. I've never been back to the track since all of the renovations. But that's on my bucket list. The guy that built my modified engine used to maintain all of the jet dryer trucks for NASCAR's western region tracks. He was wearing face masks way before Covid hit. He would usually operate 1 of the jet dryers for races at PIR and CA Speedway. He hated going out to blow off the track before the opening practices at PIR. He said that even with the truck windows up, the cab would fill with the desert sand. The day that Greg Moore was killed at CA Speedway, Rusty was sitting in the jet truck, about 60 feet from Greg's impact with the inside wall. He said that the only thing worse than seeing that, was gridding out an A-10 crash at the Gila Ben, AZ Goldwater bombing range. The pilot didn't get out, and he was friends with her. Unfortunately I had to do that a couple of times during my AF career. I didn't know the pilots though, Thank God. Nick, I've said it before, I think he has a great future if funding doesn't stop him. I love watching him race.

Kaden did start last (25th), and he finished 6th! He wasn't driving for Mike Darn Racing for this race. He drove an R&S Racecars car, and was the team mate to Bobby McCarty, who ran second. Four races, for different types of cars, and he did great in all of them. Superman!!! Brendan Queen led all 125 laps for the win, but Travis Kvapil won the championship by just 1 point. He never got higher than 8th, but only needed to finish 16th or better no matter what Queen did. Jared Fryar finished 4th, after starting 16th.

Kaden Honeycutt is officially Superman!! He ran the ARCA race at Phoenix Friday afternoon, and ran 9th. Then he ran the Craftsman Truck Series race for Young Motorsports. He finished 8th in that race. Young Motorsports isn't a very well funded team. However, his day wasn't done yet. He boarded a flight back to North Carolina to run the CARS Tour Pro Late Model show. As he was not at the track in NC, someone else qualified the car, and because of the, Kaden had to start last for the 100 lapper. He took the lead about on lap 52, and held off Kaden Kvapil (the newly crowned Pro Late Model champ), to get the win. Great drive!! I was tied up on Sat & Sun, and didn't get to watch it until today. Oh yeah, he's going to race the CARS Tour Late Model race too. I'll post that result after I get to see it. But I'm guessing that he will start last again, due to him being in Phoenix for qualifying.

Yep, I'm happy for him too!

Big Money Matt Hirschmann ran in the top 5 basically all night. Only dropping down during pit stops. I really thought going into tonight's race that Matt was going to be the guy to beat. He finished 4th, and never lead a lap. He's won several races since he broke his left arm at Thompson Speedway in Aug. He had surgery on it, and missed about a month of racing. Matt never runs for championships in any series. As his nickname says, he just hunts big purse shows, and wins a lot of them. He and his father build his cars. Tony Hirschmann was a great driver in his day too. He's also a Cup series spotter, I just don't recall who he spots for though. The race tonight was a fun race to watch. There were a couple multi-car wrecks and a handful of spins. It was really Cool seeing the Wood Brothers 60s era modified pace the field to the green, with Donnie Allison driving it. Also joining the Wood's car was Ray Hendrick's Red Flying #11. What a site that was. I think one of Ray's family members drove the #11.

Ryan won his very first Whelen modified race there at Martinsville in 2012, driving the Mohler Ol Blue #3 mod. Tonight he drove a car that he & his dad built in their garage. He started on the front row and took the lead on lap 2, and lead the next 50,or so laps. During a yellow, he made 2 stops for fuel and a tire (they can't change any tires at the same time as adding fuel). That dropped him back to about 11th, but he was back leading in about 15 laps. He lost the lead later when he stopped for his last tire, during a yellow. He restarted 9th I believe, and just drove it to the front. He beat 4 time Whelen champ Justin Bonsingnoir (spelling?) by over a half second. What a strong race for Ryan. Hopefully that will translate to his Cup race on Sunday. Ron Silk won the season championship by about 8 points over Justin. Both drivers won 5 races each this year. This is Silk's 2nd championship, as he won it in 2011.

Bayley will be driving the Niece Motorsports #41 truck next season. That's great news for a good young driver. Congrats Bayley!!

Kyle Larson & Brad Sweet, owners of the High Speed Limit Sprint Car Series, has bought the Tezos series from Tony Stewart. No reason listed as to why Tony decided to sell, but he might be simply spread too thin. Between SHR, owning Eldora, his drag racing team, driving his own dragster, and getting married, that's a very full plate. I know that he has people that have jobs to operate those entities, but Tony has never struck me as a hands off anything kind of guy. He runs his own top alcohol dragster, but I've also read that he has made a few passes in Leah's top fuel dragster. Maybe he's going to move up, and top fuel is a lot more expensive than alcohol. Either way, I think that the Tezos series will continue to do well. If they keep on expanding, and paying the purses they pay, they might start to make WoO nervous.

Now I know why Kaden wasn't at the CARS Tour race at Tri-County. He was running the ARCA West series race at Madera Speedway in CA. He won the race, and that's 2 for 2 for him!! He led nearly the entire race, and really had to earn it, as he had to hold everyone off through 6 restarts. In his winner's interview, he said that he was going to race this car again at Phoenix, along with running the Craftsman Truck race too. He won at All American Speedway in CA a few weeks ago. Here's to hoping that he can keep getting rides in good equipment!

Brendan Butterbean Queen led every lap, after setting fast time in qualifying. I'm sure that it won't make up for losing the last race at Tri-County, as that one paid $30K to win. This one only paid $7K. Kvapil ended up 10th. He had a 33 point lead prior to the start of this race, so that will close up after tonight. I know that a race that only had 1 leader may sound like a boring race, but except for the big wreck, it was a very good race. It was announced that Landon Huffman will be moving to a different team for 2024. He will be team mates with Jared Fryer. I don't know what car number he'll run, but the family race team number is 75, and nobody is currently running that number this season. He's a good racer. He has normally only run at Hickory Speedway, but got his first chance at running the CARS Tour this season, about 1/3 of the way into this season. He's the guy that won the $30K race at Tri-County in Aug after Queen ran out of fuel.

Well I guess it's my fault. One lap into the restart they piled up 12 cars on the front stretch.

With 40 laps to go, Queen is still leading at the last comp caution. Compared to the earlier race, this one has been docile. Hopefully it won't turn into a wreck fest.

Forty five laps in, and at the first comp caution, Queen has led every lap. However, this is the track that he was leading at 2 months ago, and ran out of gas. So did 5-6 others. Hopefully that doesn't happen tonight.

I lied, the Pro Late Model race was 75 laps, my bad..

Oh yeah, today was not a good day for big brother Kvapil there either. He'll start 11th for their main. Butterbean Queen is on the pole for that race. Should be a good 125 laps..

Kaden Kvapil (points leader)had an uncharacteristically bad qualifying effort for 8th. Then he got put to the rear for the start, because of an unapproved adjustment after qualifying. Katie Hettinger qualified 3rd, and took the lead about lap 20. She held the lead until about 24 laps. By this time, Kvapil had advanced up to 2nd. After a comp caution, the two ran side by side for3 laps, with Kvapil being on the inside. Coming off turn 2, he drilled her, causing her and 6 other cars (3rd thru 7th) to crash/spin before turn 3. Katie got the worst of it for sure, as that car will absolutely require a rear clip. As the clean up took about 10 minutes, and they don't count yellow flag laps, they pieced her car together sorta. The officials did make Kvapil go to the rear, and of course they restarted together. Yep, they almost made it back to the green flag, when Katie hooked Kvapil, and both crashed. It took the officials a bit, but they parked her. But before they parked her, a brawl broke out between the 2 teams. Yeah, that took a minute to stop, and of course the two teams were only 2 pits apart. Brawl #1 completed. Kvapil to the rear again. One order was restored, the race resumed. The final laps were led by the guys that had been running 8th & 9th. Coming out of turn 4 coming to the checkers, the guy running 2nd just absolutely dumped the leader, and he wasn't able to spin across the finish line. The guy that had been running 2nd crossed the line first. The guy that got crashed got out of his car, ran across the track to pit road, looking for said offender. Now the top 3 finishers were supposed to stop on the front stretch for pictures, but the guy that crossed the line first, drove onto pit road. Big mistake!! The wrecked driver leaped off the pit wall, and started banging on his car. That was just the beginning. What seemed like 5 seconds after the car slapping, about 20 crew members started a WWE brawl. That took about 12 cops and about 15 minutes to calm down. Somebody came across the pit wall onto the front stretch, reached back across the pit wall, and rear chin locked the driver that got wrecked, and drug him back onto the front stretch away from the fray. Finally, the officials announced that the offending driver was DQ'd. So the third place car ended up winning that race. That driver? Kaden Kvapil. This guy came from last place 3 times to end up the winner. Hettinger was only 4 points behind Kvapil prior to this race. I'm not sure exactly how many points per position they get, but with just 1 race left in their season, I don't think she has much of a chance at the championship. Unless this was just the opening round in the fight. I can't wait to watch the Late Model Stocks race!!

That's Great News Rodney!!! It sounds like Owen is going to provide the leadership that has been missing from the asphalt racing community for more than a minute. Here's to hoping that Mobile, Five Flags, & New Smyrna put their schedules out real soon, and maybe the tracks can work together in building their individual schedules. If they do put out their schedules soon, that would allow Owen to adjust a date or two to avoid some conflict, weeks or even months in advance. They are all going to have their own regular race nights. But if they can coordinate running Specials, like the 100 lappers that you all were talking about on the podcast, those fields for the late models could swell significantly. There's an incredible amount of late models along the gulf coast, and I'm betting there are quite a few still in TX. Running a 10-12 race schedule will really be helpful for those that can't afford running weekly, or nearly weekly. It will help enormously for those that want to tow to HMS from farther east. Plus it allows for "battle damage" repair time when things go wrong. I've run 22-24 race seasons, and it can absolutely wear you out, both physically & financially. I know that I've mentioned this before on this site. But with the expansion of the CARS Tour along the eastern seaboard, there's a chance to tag on to that trend, and possible even get a race date with them. I also believe that HMS is such a good facility, that it could draw cars from that tour, if the purses make it worth the trip. Five Flags has a great reputation, but HMS is a better facility. Five Flags probably has more room for hauler parking though. I've never been to Mobile, so I don't what that looks like. New Smyrna has a lot of room, but the track isn't as good as HMS either. Plus they're going to repave New Smyrna soon, and it won't produce good racing for a couple of seasons after that. I'm sure that dirt racing lovers are tired of hearing me go on about asphalt racing in TX, but there's room for both. You all touched on this a bit during the podcast. For those TX asphalt racers, they need to know that they have a place to race consistently, before they invest in getting their cars/teams/sponsors ready to do so. I saw this first hand in Tucson, when the France family pulled out of running the track after the Winter Heat Series. People were unsure if there was going to be a place to race, as the nearest asphalt track was the Bullring in Las Vegas. The Deery family didn't get the track lease until March, and didn't get full fields until June. Teams simply stopped working on their stuff, because is sure didn't look like the track was going to reopen. The fans were also skeptical, and also were slow to return. Our season usually ran from the first week in April, until right before Thanksgiving. I'm very hopeful that Owen and his group succeed. But that's going to take the racers believing that HMS is here to stay for more than a season or two. My sense is that he's in it for the long haul, as that's what his success at other tracks says. I would sure love to see that happen. TX has produced some really great racers & racing over the years. I refuse to believe that it's time has passed.