ron.brown11

On 1/8/2024 at 9:33 AM, 24nomo said:

Yes, I do not think the Cars Tour Intent was to pull anyone from the East Coast.   I seriously doubt any would make that haul under any circumstance.   

24nomo, 2 years ago I would have agreed with what you're saying. But I also didn't see the SRL creating a national series, to go along with their late models, pro late models, & the modifieds on the west coast. I've seen several west coast teams running Five Flags, New Smyrna, and the Rattler races. I've also seen a few CARS Tour teams go west too. I think what we will see is the teams that really want a championship will make the haul. It may only be 5-10 cars, but that's exactly what NASCAR did in its early years. A group of 10-15 regulars, and a bunch of locals. Plus, I really think that the new ownership wants a bigger footprint, and they have already shown a way to accomplish that.

ZMAX! Between the national sponsor & all 4 Tour owners being involved at the Cup level, they're going to find away to make it happen. The SRL already has a program to help teams financially (tow money & I think preferred pit selection too), if they will commit to running all of the races. The CARS Tour already has a program to help the drivers/teams in their selected 12 list. They get some tow many, a bump in the purse money, discounted tire and fuel costs. If the race purses are decent, expect that they won't have too much worry about starting a good car count. Compare the number of cars entered in the premier CARS Tour from last year to this year. The car count has nearly doubled. Rarely did they send cars home last year, because they had so many trying to make the show. This year they had to do that in several races, and in others they started several more cars than what they advertised on their entry forms. An awful lot of new team popped up.

The biggest thing that dirt tracks have had over asphalt tracks for a long time was common rules. I think that the asphalt world is finally waking up to that. At least I hope so, because if they don't, this expansion will be short lived. Fingers are officially crossed.. 

On 1/8/2024 at 9:03 AM, MikePeters95 said:

I think the CARS West Coast deal is to establish it on the West Coast.

Also if you ever want to check on the health of Irwindale, I doubt any y'all keep up with drifting, but Formula Drift always starts at the Long Beach Grand Prix and ends at Irwindale.  Nothing changing for 2024 / 2025 last I heard.  

At some point Mike, I think that something will occur to kind of join them together. I don't think that the SRL or the CARS Tour will benefit from fighting each other. But I hope that both can survive, whether that's individually or together. I perused both series' Pro Late Model rules, and they're nearly identical. I don't know if David Hoots is still involved with the SRL, but he started it. After NASCAR shut down the Southeast, Northwest, Midwest & the Southwest tour divisions, he started it. It was no accident that he retained the Southwest Tour name (I read that somewhere, and NASCAR blessed him using that name), and put the SRL first. He was the guy that ran all of the NASCAR Winter Heat seasons at Tucson Raceway Park. I don't know where he grew up, but he genuinely seemed to love the southwest region. My great friend, and engine builder for my modified, Rusty Hatten maintained and operated the jet dryer trucks assigned to the west coast. He had many conversations with Mr Hoots. He also tried relentlessly to hire Rusty to maintain a good bit of NASCAR's west coast equipment. Rusty just didn't want to move from Tucson to Phoenix (I don't blame him either!). As good of an engine builder Rusty is, he's even better at maintaining AF fighter jets. His skills doing anything mechanically is unbelievable. I was a pretty good jet & car mechanic, and a quality control inspector on fighter jets. I have absolutely no hesitation to bowing my head to his skills, none. 

Drifting isn't the biggest thing at Irwindale. They have robust drag strip there too. Between the oval, drag strip, drifting and track rentals to car companies doing TV commercials, the Huddleston's have kept Irwindale alive. I truly hope that it survives, but I still can't find anything that says who's going to operate it.

Well there is another surprise to the 2024 CARS Tour schedule. They are expanding the schedule to include 2 races at Harvick's Kern County, and 3 more at Irwindale. Kern will be March 2nd, and November 16th. The Irwindale dates are April 13th, May 11th, & August 31st. These dates are for the Pro Late Models only. I would expect that this will really tax these teams financially, as they are a predominately Atlantic coast series. Plus, the Pro Late Models tend to not have as much funding when compared to the Late Model Stocks division. The first 3 races will require a tow the full width of the US, as will the last 2. I would expect a lot of the west coast Pro Late Model drivers/teams will be buying a CARS Tour license. If this works out, and the races are a success, I would expect that the 2025 CARS Tour schedule will contain west coast dates. Also I would expect that the SRL & the CARS Tour rules are pretty close.

With Irwindale having these dates, I'm guessing (hoping) that the track is going to remain open for at least the 2024 season. I looked at Irwindale's schedule on their website. They show March 9th as the opener for the circle track. There are no dates for anything (drag or circle) after March 30th. I would expect a full schedule will get announced very soon, especially since the CARS Tour has announced their dates there. I could not find anything as to who is going to run the track for 2024. Kern's schedule isn't posted on their site yet either. I'd love to know if somebody new is going to operate Irwindale. I'll keep looking. 

3 hours ago, NickHolt said:

Sounds like there's some big-time stuff going on behind the scenes...

 

Nick, I personally think that nothing will come from all of this. But I say that, predominately because I feel like NASCAR will give the teams/drivers a healthier slice of the money pie. I think if that happens, we probably won't hear much about the RTA staying public, with their demands about making the charter system permanent. I still think that will continue behind the scene though. Especially now that charters are starting to be really expensive to come by. Dale Jr wants one. Brad K says that RFK wants to expand. Trackhouse needs another one for SVG for 2025. Spire bought up another one already this year, at a pretty hefty price. This is exactly why the RTA has wanted charters to become permanent. It gives them a lot more residual value, if they choose to get out of NASCAR. But that only works for them IF NASCAR is still an operating/popular product. If SMI (or anyone else not named NASCAR) doesn't start a rival series. So if they were to decide to close up, then those really expensive charters are worthless.  It's obvious that NASCAR is no longer a dictatorship that it was under Big Bill & JR, so now it just comes down to how "flexible" NASCAR is willing to be. How much is NASCAR willing to swallow. There are a lot of chess pieces on the board, and I'm not yet sure who has the next move. If nothing else, it's gives us something to speculate about for the next 12 months. But I still believe that things will work out, and NASCAR continues.

I posed the question on here a few months ago, "How long would it be before Tony campaigned a top fuel dragster"? Well that question has been answered, and for a reason I didn't see coming. Leah is taking a year off, so that they can try and start a family. I hope that all goes well for them. 

I just read that Bayley & Niece Motorsports just signed 4 sponsors for their truck team for 2024. Good Luck Young Man!!

On 11/29/2023 at 8:09 PM, ron.brown11 said:

So far Nick I haven't found much. By looking at the Irwindale website, they show drag racing until the middle of Dec. They also show the SRL All Star Showdown the first week of Feb. But I also read that the property has sold (or at the very least deep in that process). The planning board says that 90% of the Irwindale site is going to become an industrial site. Sound Familiar?? Ca. Speedway comes to mind. But everything in CA takes forever because of "environmental" concerns. But with Tim and Lisa Huddleston going to run Harvick Raceway, I think that things must be pretty far along in the sales/development process. Tim has a long history with the track, as he raced there starting in 1999 when it opened. Plus, if my memory is still working, he's a SoCal resident. Both tracks traditionally ran on Sat nights, so splitting time would be near impossible, unless he ran one and Lisa the other. And that's a possibility, as she was very much involved in the day to day activities from what I've read. But I would absolutely now expect that Irwindale will close, and probably sooner than later unfortunately..

I've found other articles that say that the Huddleston's bought Kern Co, and Harvick is just an advisor. If that's the case, I think that Irwindale is/will close soon. The Huddleston's are just the operators at Irwindale, and wouldn't see them spending much time at a place that they operate, as opposed to the track that they own. I'm not saying that another operator couldn't come in, but I can't see someone wanting to operate the place short term, if the sale is pending or final. Unfortunately it's looking like a really good track is going to close, and most likely it will be permanent. I hate seeing any track close (dirt, asphalt or road course), because usually they don't ever return. But one thing I'm sure of, SoCal desperately needs another industrial complex, especially since so many companies are leaving CA.

1 hour ago, ron.brown11 said:

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..

So far Nick I haven't found much. By looking at the Irwindale website, they show drag racing until the middle of Dec. They also show the SRL All Star Showdown the first week of Feb. But I also read that the property has sold (or at the very least deep in that process). The planning board says that 90% of the Irwindale site is going to become an industrial site. Sound Familiar?? Ca. Speedway comes to mind. But everything in CA takes forever because of "environmental" concerns. But with Tim and Lisa Huddleston going to run Harvick Raceway, I think that things must be pretty far along in the sales/development process. Tim has a long history with the track, as he raced there starting in 1999 when it opened. Plus, if my memory is still working, he's a SoCal resident. Both tracks traditionally ran on Sat nights, so splitting time would be near impossible, unless he ran one and Lisa the other. And that's a possibility, as she was very much involved in the day to day activities from what I've read. But I would absolutely now expect that Irwindale will close, and probably sooner than later unfortunately..

7 hours ago, NickHolt said:

Thanks, Ron, for all your thoughtful comments on the national short track racing scene!

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!