ron.brown11

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.

Kaden ran an ARCA West race last night ate the Bullring in Las Vegas. That was a surprise to me that he was running that race. He finished 9th. I don't know of the team that he ran for, so have no idea the quality of that team. But I'm glad that for him getting that shot. Hopefully he will get more chances. I also didn't have a chance to see the race, just the highlights today. Dylan Cappello won the race. He's a many time winner in the Spears Modified series, and has either 1 or 2 championships there too. That was a 1 off ride for him too. After he stopped running the touring Spears Super Late models & modifieds, he's been running both late models & mods there at the Bullring when he's in town. He works full-time for Front Row Motorsports, working on Zane's Smith's team. He's a really good young driver, and who knows, FRM has a history of hiring young talent.

It's been out there for a little while now, that Haillie is going to drive the Xfinity car for them in 2024. I wasn't surprised that AM Racing added an Xfinity team this past offseason, but I was surprised that Austin Wayne Self wasn't going to drive it. Their truck team seems to now be a rental, which isn't a bad thing, as it helps generate funding for the Xfinity start up. I haven't seen AWS behind the wheel much in the last 18 months it seems. Moffitt has done a decent job so far this season, considering that it's basically a start up team in its 1st season, in a new series. I know that Deegan is a contracted Ford driver, and they need a seat to put her in. But in 3 seasons in the trucks, and 2 in ARCA, she hasn't been "all that". Yes, she has 2 wins in ARCA, but she wrecked the leader on the last lap in both. In the truck series, her best seasonal finish was 17th, in her 1st season, and 21st in her second. If she tracks out the rest of the season as she did in the first part of it, she'll finish maybe 19th. I get that she is marketable, but so was Danica. Look at how many bad races & temper tantrums that brought. Hell, I'd love to see a really good/great female driver make it big, because it will be great for racing. I've seen nearly 6 years of Hailie's career, and great talent hasn't shone through unfortunately. What I truly worry about is this. If Haillie fails too, will teams and sponsors stop looking at female drivers? I hope not, but that's a real concern. As most drivers/teams at any level know, without sponsors the wheels stop turning. After Danica left Cup, Go Daddy seemed to drop off TV. It wasn't until about 5 months ago that they started showing up on TV again. And it isn't on a race car either. When trying to attract sponsors, drivers/teams usually face 2 obstacles. First is trying to show them how you can help them. If they've never looked at motorsports as a way to market, you have to make it very clear for them the benefits. Second, if it's a company that has been a sponsor in the past in motorsports, have they been burned by previous drivers/teams? When you look at the amount of money that Ford has spent on Haillie, there has been very little return on investment. ROI is the biggest concern that companies have when spending their marketing dollars. There are a couple of female drivers that I've been watching for the last couple years. First is Katie Hettinger. She has been very good in late models, and is sitting 2nd in the CARS Tour Pro Late Model series. She's very fast, wins, and doesn't tear up equipment. She's good enough that she's already in Chevy's driver pipeline, and she just turned 16. The other is Isabella Robusto. She's in Toyota's driver pipeline, and even in their TV commercials for TRD. Unfortunately she suffered a bad concussion going for the win, running a CARS Tour Late Model Stock race back in April. She hasn't made another start in the series since. Hopefully she'll be back soon. She too is fast, wins, and doesn't tear up equipment. There's a couple more that I've been watching, but the sample size has been limited. They aren't running full time, so time will tell if they can get funding to run full time. Ford doesn't really have a good driver pipeline system in place. Unfortunately they just let their best lower tier driver, Zane Smith walk. I think that will turn out to be a big mistake for them. He's fast, he wins, and he doesn't tear up equipment. Sound familiar? We shall see..

The CARS Tour "Old man" Deak McCaskill won the 125 lapper for the Late Model Stocks. Deak started second but led every lap in winning. What a drive. Pole sitter Layne Riggs, driving Kevin Harvick's #62 was second, and he had several times where he could have dumped Deak in the late going and didn't. Very classy in my book. Bobby McCarty finished third. Brendan Queen finished fourth, and Carson Kvapil finished with. Kvapil still has the points lead over Queen, but by a couple of points less then what he started the night with. There were a 3 cautions for accidents, but thankfully none that were severe. But 2 of them did have drivers looking for retaliation. Thankfully cooler heads or tough officials kept it from getting out of control. The first half of the race had Chad MCCumby running 4th behind Deak, Riggs & McCarty. All 4 were driving Ford Mustangs. McCumby was the only one that couldn't hang there at the front. Queen was in his Toyota, and Kvapil in his JR Motorsports Camaro. To add some fun to the night, the State Fair was very visible right behind the back stretch all night.. Being that this was a CARS Tour race, I was really disappointed that Kaden Honeycutt wasn't there for the race, bummer.He was listed in the 9th position in the points prior to the start of tonight's race Hopefully there isn't any issues between Kaden & Mike Darne. In the CARS Tour Pro Late Model show, what a race!! Nick Loden has been taken out of 4 races this year, especially the spectacular crash at North Wilksboro. This guy was in third or higher all race, after sitting on the pole. Go to FloRacing's site and can watch the highlights without being a subscriber. The top five finishers were all right there together at the finish, This was an awesome race!! The late model race was good, but the Pro Late Model race was even better,Loden wins; Cole Butcher 2nd, Kvapil 3rd and Katie Hettenger finished 4th. Unfortunately she has lost the points lead to Kvapil. She3 put on one hell of a drive to get that 4th too. While running 5th, she and another car got together and it dislodged her hood.She dropped to last after going pitied to have it reattached. She made a hell of a drive to get back up front

I forgot to post last weekend for the Late Model Stock Car class. It was the Valley Star 150. Kaden started about 12th. He was running in the top 12 most of the laps. He made it up to 8th for a few laps, then dropped back to 17th. He got tagged and spun, dropping back to about 26th. He then climbed on his horse, and drove it back up to 11th, and that's where he finished. #77 Ward & #22 Landon Huffman finished 1st & 2nd respectively. The last 2 laps were worth the race. It reminded me a lot of the Darlington finish between Kurt Busch & Ricky Craven, as they were both leaning on each other A LOT!). And nobody was looking for a fight afterward, There were 84 cars trying to make a 40 car starting grid. It was a good race too. The qualifying heats were a blast, as 42 cars had to go home if they didn't make a transfer spot. The guy I thought was going to win, Brendan Butterbean Queen started 4th, but had some moments, but made it back to 10th, just in front of Kaden,

Well Big Money Matt Hirschman may have missed 5 weeks with a broken arm, but he sure didn't didn't forget how to win a race. Austin Beers lead about the first 50 laps, and then a caution come out, Hirschman was running 3rd. He pitted and just screamed back to the front, about 19th position, then taking the lead for the rest of the race. With 4 caution flags in the last 20 laps, he schooled them all for the win.

Hey Nick Holt, in this you mentioned PECU. Is that Public Employees Credit Union? If it is, do you know when he left that employment? Depending on that, it's possible that my son worked for him. My son re-did all of PECU's hardware & software systems about 15 years ago. He was hired directly by the president of PECU, at the downtown Austin main office. For some reason the McLemore name sounds familiar, but my memory isn't that good anymore. I only saw this after I found out about the passing of your brother. I was looking to see if there was anything on this site about John's passing, and just after I texted you. As I said in my text, may God Bless you and your family.

That was a fun race to watch, as I hadn't ever seen one from there. It's very near the ocean (moisture), the surface is 20+ years old, and because of the ocean, there's a lot of sand on the track. Tire wear was significant to say the least. Queen was the pole sitter, and within 5 laps he was running 1.5 seconds a lap slower, as were most of the front runners. If a driver had the itch to lead, just move into the second lane and drive around everybody in front of them. Said driver would surely be passed sooner or later. You really had to pay attention to all of the comers and goers. Thank goodness the leader board tracker worked the whole race. For the second race in a row, Kaden had ButlerBuilt seats as a sponsor. Glad to see someone giving them some backing. He also ran the 02 truck again last week. Haven't read anything to indicate that was going to continue. Too bad he cut down a right rear early, and I think he ended up last. I can personally attest to what sand does to race tires. We ran Goodyear slicks at Tucson Raceway Park, and yes that's in the desert. We didn't have an ocean beach sand, but there was sand none the less. Drivers had to be very careful if they were among the first to hit the track, as it was normal to see rooster tails of sand coming off the tires. If you rented the track, you always hoped that there were others that would do so too. One car would take forever to blow off the track, and no matter how many would be there, there wasn't any emergency services available (ambulance, fire truck, flagman, or wrecker). Occasionally the track would host a weekday event, aimed toward some of the local high school auto shop students. To get some race cars there for the students to see up close, they would entice teams to bring their cars out by allowing free track time. We would usually have some of all the classes, ie supers, limited LMs, mods, factory stocks, and hornets. There were no designated class practices, as it was basically a free for all. Everybody out there at once, and no flagman, or somebody operating the caution lights. Most never had spotters either. The good thing about it was that in just 5 minutes the track was blown off. The bad thing was the drastic differences in lap times. The closure rate for the supers and mods, over the factory stocks & hornets was crazy. It was wild to see the way some of them reacted when the fast cars went by. On more than 1 occasion I would see them go agricultural racing. Luckily I never saw anyone crash. The first time I ever did one of those track days, we had 4 mods show up. I think we pissed off a few of the super drivers, because we could nearly out run them. They ran 10" wide tires, while we were on 8" tires. They were only faster in the corners, we killed them on the straights. It was a lot of fun for sure.

Well the 125 lapper at American River. Queen started on the pole, but immediately dropped as low as 14th. to conserve tires. With 30 laps to go, Butterbean took the lead. On the last lap, Ronnie Bassett Jr nearly took Queen & himself out in turn 3. Bassett ended up 3rd, as Connor Jones made the pass when Bassett nearly spun while trying to get by Queen. Connor Jones is a teammate for Kaden Honeycutt, racing for Mike Darne Racing. Kaden Honeycutt started 9th. and fell back to 16th at 1 point, drove back through the field to finish 6th. Mason Diaz finished 4th, and Caden Kvapil in 5th. There were 3 cautions, two were competition, and 1 for a spin. The starting field consisted of only 20 cars, and that was the smallest field this season. The track calls itself a tri-oval, but for all intents & purposes it's a circle. It has good side by side racing, sometimes 3 wide. I really enjoyed the show....

Kaden is on the entry list for this weekend's CARS Tour race @ New River All American Speedway. He'll be driving the Mike Darne entry. Although he sits 9th in the points, realistically it's starting to look like Brendan Queen is going to be the only driver that has a chance of beating Carson Kvapil for the championship this year. I also read that Kvapil is getting to race a truck series race soon. Queen is 41 points behind Kvapil, and Mason Diaz is 100 back. I think that they only have 5 races left in the season. I received my Sept issue of Speedway Illustrated this week. Brendan Queen is on the cover. I hope that doesn't turn out to be a curse. There are only 20 cars listed on the pre-registration list. If that's all of the entries, this will be the smallest number of cars for a CARS Tour race this season. There have been some heavy crashes in the last 4 races unfortunately. Over half of the races this season, they have sent cars home that didn't make the field. I've never seen a race from New River, so I don't know anything about it, other than it's a 4/10 mile track. Hopefully it will be a good show, and more cars.

I was bummed to see that Honeycutt wasn't on the entry list for the Locked In 150 @ Florence Speedway Friday night. The winner of that race will get to start on the pole for the South Carolina 400 there in Nov. He also didn't race the show @ Wake County last Sat. I don't know if the Mike Darne race team didn't plan on running these shows, or if something has happened to keep them from running. Darne had the team car (Andrew Grady) at Wake Co. and is also not on the entry list for this race. I know that this race isn't a CARS Tour sanctioned race, and hope that they are going to run this show. If my memory is working today, Kaden ran the SC 400 last year for Darne. Hopefully the track & the local area won't have flooding in the area from the hurricane. This race was scheduled for tonight, but moved to Friday because of it. More than anything, I hope all those folks are safe. The race can always be rescheduled.

I was really surprised, as there were 6-7 cars that ran out of gas. There wasn't an exorbitant amount of caution flag laps. I really don't think Landon Huffman had anything for Honeycutt if that didn't happen. They were allowed to add fuel during the controlled caution, so I don't get it with so many running out. Top teams too! I wasn't able to watch last Saturday night's CARS Tour race live. I wanted to watch Daytona instead. I had forgotten just how bad those rollover crashes there could be there. Unfortunately Ryan Preece reminded us all. I have been following his career for several years now, and absolutely love seeing him run a Tour type modified. I'm pretty sure that I didn't breathe until he popped his head out of that car. My wife doesn't like racing much, and was sitting at her computer in the living room. I said I thought to myself, this is bad. "What" she said, which surprised me. I really didn't think that I had actually voiced it out load. Then they showed the replay. "Oh no" was all she said. I can't tell you if she breathed, but I'm pretty sure I didn't until he got out. I'm sure that the sprint & midget drivers/fans will say "So what, that happens all the time at our races", and that's true too. But inertia is quite a bit different when a car weighs 1100 pounds vs 3500 pounds.

Haden took the lead, and with 6 laps remaining he too ran out of gas. Landon Hufman went on to win it BUMMER!

The yellow is out with 9 laps to go. Kaden is leading, but he and Landon Huffman have beeb side by side for 7 laps. Coming to the green flag

With 20 laps to go, McQueen was leading, and then ran out of gas. Your new leader is Butterbean!!

35 laps to go and Honeycutt is up to 3rd!!!

With 40 laps to go, Honeycutt is back upon to 7th. What to roll Kaden!! He's up to 5th now, with 38 laps to go. Another yellow.

It just got worse. With cars going 3 wide, Kaden Brown spins. Honeycutt got squeezed into the wall and spun. Funny thing is, he passed those 3 cars that spun, so he's now scored 3 positions higher then before his spin.