ron.brown11

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. 

Well that re-start didn't go good for Kaden. He re-started 8th, and got shuffled back to 19th. Hopefully he can climb back up there.

With 113 laps down, Kaden is running 8th. Mason Diaz took over the lead 5 laps ago. On the second controlled caution, Brendan Queen got put to the tail of the field, for taking about 30 seconds too long on pit road. No mater, he's running 6th at this controlled caution. For these past 2 controlled cautions, Kvapil has needed a push to get restarted. Not sure what's going on, but the car seems to be running ok once it re-fires. We'll see if it makes all of the laps.

Kaden started 15th in the 200 lapper at Tri-County. Sixty laps in he running 6th. So far, Carson Kvapil has led nearly all of the laps.

Unfortunately Matt broke his arm in the Thompson 150 race on Wed night. He was involved in a 5 car crash on the backstretch. The video didn't show any of his impact, and his car showed no damage on the left side. So I'm guessing that he got into the outside wall, but nothing looked askew as it rolled to a stop. But he didn't drop his window net once stopped. the announcers never followed up.

He broke his ulna bone, and is going to have surgery on Monday. I love watching him race, very clean & cerebral. In all of the races that I've seen him run, only 1 time did I ever see him get into a back & forth situation with another driver. That was at New Smyrna back in Feb. I think Patrick Emerling was trying to impress a new car owner, and decided he was going to move Matt, and did so blatantly. I was surprised that Matt took the opportunity to repay the favor. Then on a restart, Emerling did a huge slide job in turn 1. Matt rolled out of the throttle a bit, then gassed it up. He didn't put him in the fence, but let's just say that Emerling didn't get close enough to try anything again. Matt won, as he did every single race there in Feb. Hopefully he won't be out too long, but the ulna is a bit harder to heal, as it's the bigger bone of the two.

I just read an article on Frontstretch.com. It was titled "Three Drivers That Deserve A Better Look". Number 1 on that list was Kaden Honeycutt. I wasn't surprised, and was also very happy for him. Second was Layne Riggs, and third was Matt Mills. I watched a lot of Layne's national championship races last season, he's really good too. I haven't seen Matt Mills run much, but what I've seen was very positive. I hope that they all will get decent rides, to see if they do have what it takes to get to the top. From what I've seen of Kaden & Layne, I think they do. They just need someone to take a chance on them.

Kaden is running the CARS Tour race at Tri-County Speedway on Sat. That would be a great payday for them. Jared Fryar will be there too. Layne Riggs will also be there in the Harvick #62 again. As there are 35 entries for that race, somebody probably isn't going to get to race. The track is a 4/10 mile in length, so I'd be surprised if everyone starts. If they do start them all, traffic will be a constant all race long. Hopefully it will be a good clean race.

I can't say anything to that. I don't think I've seen him race, but I could be wrong. But the fact that he supports Kaden so much, that would lead me to believe that he was a racer. Because it sure doesn't sound like Kirby is 1 of those rich daddies that can afford to buy Kaden a ride. I wish he could, because I believe Kaden has the talent to race at higher levels. He always seems to run upfront, doesn't tear up his equipment, and wins some. Too bad I didn't win that $1.5 billion last week!! 

But there is 2 businesses that use the same address, and he's listed as the manager of both. The other place is Trailertech LLC.

Yes, it's Kirby. He's the manager of HD Trailer Manufacturing in Aledo, TX. I have a cousin that lives 6-8 miles from the business there.

Evan Shotko spanked them again, this time for all 150 laps. Eddie MaDonald led the first 25 or so laps, and from then on it was the Evan Shotko show. With 10 laps to go, a yellow came out for a stopped car. McDonald tried wearing out the right side of Shotko's car on the restart. To no avail, as Evan put a full second on him in those 10 laps. 

Chris Davidson was fast qualifier for the race! The top 6 drivers had a pill draw to set the front 6. Chris drew a 2, and McDonald drew the 1 pill. Something was a bit off for Chris' car, as a yellow came out just 12 laps in. He came down pit road, swapped the left side tires, and made a chassis adjustment. That put him back to 17th. By the lap 40 stage break, he was back to 8th. By the second stage break at lap 90, he was up to 5th. With about 25 laps to go, Chris was up to 3rd, and that's where he finished. He really seems to like Jennerstown Speedway, as he looks very comfortable racing there. I know that there are a few different engine packages that can be run, from what the announcers said. So I'm not sure if that's why he doesn't seem to have as good of drive off the corners as some of the other cars. I know that all the local Jennerstown cars run a fairly low HP crate engine, and 6th was the highest finishing local car. 

Barry Awtey, was running a solid 5-6 place until a restart after the second stage break. The car in front of him missed a shift. That killed the nose/airbox on his Challenger. He parked it to save the motor, as it was kicking water out badly. He was the only local that looked to have anything for the traveling teams. 

Unfortunately there was 1 bad wreck in the third stage. Going into turn 3, a guy decided to take it 3 wide. He lost the nose, clipping the car in the middle. This shot the nose up into the left front of the car on the outside. His car got airborne, and went head on into the beginning of the front straight wall. Jennerstown is a fast 1/2 mile track, and it has wide sweeping turns. At the point where he was contacted, those cars are already at WOT, and he never saw the contact coming. I doubt that he ever touched the brakes before wall contact. Even if he could, I doubt that it would have helped. His car didn't touch the ground about 7 feet before impact. The impact sheared off all of the right front suspension, and the tire nearly contacted the leader Shotko. They don't have SAFER barriers there. He got out of the car after a couple of minutes, but he was hurt, as he could barely stand. Hopefully he just got the wind knocked out of him. There was no update on him at the close of the broadcast. The driver's last name is Marhefka, and he's a regular at Jennerstown. 

I was disappointed at the car turn out for the race, as only 17 were there. Not sure why it was so low. Last year there were about 25 cars, if I remember correctly. I don't know what the pay structure was beyond the fist 2 positions. First paid $10k, and second paid 3k. 

Well, it rained at Jennerstown tonight. The race has been rescheduled for Sunday at 1pm. It's not supposed to rain either. I hope Chris has a great run!!

Kaden finished 4th in the CARS Tour 125 race at Ace Speedway in North Carolina. He started 11th or 12th, and had a good clean run, after getting taken out at Hickory in the last race. Kvapil won running the Jr Motorsports #8 car. He increased his points lead over Queen. Mason Diaz was second. Ryan Millington was third. Brendan Butterbean Queen lead the first half, but the car went away after a restart and finished 5th. I really think that Bobby McCarty had something for Kvapil, but on another restart he grenaded his tranny trying to get in 4th. That took a bit to cleanup, and they had to go red for a bit. Thankfully there were no major crashes, mainly just nose to rear damage for a few couple cars. That's a great thing for the teams, as the next race is next Sat at Tri-County in NC, and it pays $30k.

I'm trying Nick, as that's not something I've always been good at. But you know how it is with addicts lol..

I see that Chris is on the entry list, for the Motor Mountain Masters race at Jennerstown Speedway tomorrow night. Right now there is better than a 50% chance of rain, so hopefully they get the race in. Last year's was cut short due to rain. Last year Chris finished 5th. If they get to race, I got a feeling that Chris will finish higher than that this year, as it looked like he found a line that worked for him about halfway through the race. Last year's winner Evan Shotko will be back to defend. Eddie MacDonald finished 2nd last year will also be there. There are a few others that will probably be strong there, but there is 1 name that makes everyone a little nervous, Barry Awtey.

He's the winningest driver in Jennerstown history, and all of his wins have come in late models only. He literally lives like 3 blocks from the track, and his dad raced there too. And he's not a 1 track wonder either. Jennerstown has had a couple seasons that it was closed over the last 10 years. He just moved to a couple of other tracks, and won championships there too. About 6 weeks ago, I was watching a race night from Jennerstown. Barry got crashed in the heat, not his fault. Before they even got the car back to the pits, his crew chief was seen running to a car and exiting the track. A half hour later a rollback wrecker showed up with another car. They unloaded it, and took it through tech. He started last in a 16 car field, and won that 30 lap main. They had to run 3 of the 4 tires from the wrecked car, and a used tire for the 4th that night. Then won the next 3 races in that old car, even though the new car was clipped and ready to go. In some ways, he's kind of like Dale Sr. He can put his car in places that shouldn't work, but he makes it. Rarely does he touch a competitor, and for as much as he wins, he seems to be pretty humble. Jennerstown is a nicely laid out 1/2 mile track, and it's pretty fast. The pre-entry list only shows 18 cars entered, but I suspect that there will be more. I noticed that several of the local regulars weren't on the list, including a couple that have won there this season. No it won't look like the Battle of Berlin field, but it usually pulls a lot of the upper east coast racers. Hoping for a good show tomorrow. 

Fortunately/Unfortunately I didn't get to see it live. We spent the evening with our 3 year old identical twin granddaughters, which was a blast. They're learning how to swim. Aw the unbridled joy of kids having fun.. I watched it about 10pm last night, but it was worth the wait.

This guy Evan Shotko is a name that you need to keep track of. His driving skills are unquestioned in a super late model. But he works for his dad, and is the head honcho for chassis setups at that shop. Not just his either, as he does a lot of the top teams that race in the MI area. Teams that run supers, limited lates and street stocks. Last summer he went to Jennerstown Speedway in PA, and absolutely spanked them. A week or 2 later, he spanked the field at last year's Battle of Berlin. That field looked a lot like last night's, minus Chase Elliot. In his post race interview, he was pissed at himself. He said the he failed to account for fuel burn off when he took the new tires, and he ended up with a pretty good push in the car. I've always been bummed that nobody ever gave Bubba Pollard a shot at the national level. I don't think Shotko will suffer that same fate. He's good. I would love to see Hocevar and him compete on a weekly basis, as I think Shotko is better. Maybe down the road that will happen.

Eric Jones finished 11th last night. My bad..

I think that Cole Butcher, driving Donnie Wilson's car, hurt himself. He really abused his first set of tires, and that got him a lap down. He had a really good car, as he did at the last CARS Tour Pro Late model race in another Wilson car. 

I think the in-car quote of the race came from Bubba. I think it came about 20 laps into the race. Said he couldn't believe just how hard guys were racing, with over 200 laps still to go. He only led twice early in the going, probably just to see how his car acted in clean air. And then at the end. He never looked like he was pushing his car that hard in either case. He just kept finding a place to keep his car out of trouble. There were several of the cars from last night there a couple of weeks ago, for a 75 lapper. Bubba never led until about halfway, he then passed those in front of him and drove off. He learned a lot he said from that race. This season he switched to a Terry Senneker chassis. Boy has that paid off. I try to follow the west coast SRL tour as much as I can. You'd be surprised just how many are getting their cars from Senneker in MI. Terry is a really good driver in his own right too. They were interviewing him at Berlin a couple of months ago. They asked him why he isn't racing much any more. He said that keeping his west coast teams, plus the locals, has put a big crimp in him racing. But says that's ok to him, as he loves building them as much as racing them.

I saw Bob Senneker win a lot of races in the midwest, and the ASA series. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. At my home track in my high school years, there were 2 cars that would show up a big $$ races, that weren't regulars. when those 2 cars would pull in line at the pit gate, many late model drivers & teams shoulders would just drop. They were now wondering if third was as good as it would get that night. Most nights they were right. Those cars belong to Bob Senneker & Ed Howe. Both were great on dirt and asphalt, and Tri-County Speedway started out dirt and then they paved it. We had a really good late model field there for years. But they got beat mentally, while standing in the pit pass line most nights. The first time Jody Ridley showed up at TCS, they laughed at him. They all ran big block fords, Chevys & Mopars. He had a 1965 Ford Falcon with a small block. They weren't laughing at the end of the night, as he took the big purse home to GA. The next time he came, they wrecked in the first few laps to put him out. And it was intentional.. Jody never came back before I left for the AF, but he did ok, as he got hired to race a Cup car. Bill Elliot's first race car was one of Jody's old Falcons. It worked out for both. Good things do happen to good people.