Wilks

[RodneyRodriguez]

Full day Weds after the ASA rain out and CARS Tour with a shit ton of cars. Y'all watching or boycotting? 

[ron.brown11]

Yep! Just watched the Last Chance ASA race. Grant Endanger won it. Qualifying for the CARS Tour and their Pro Late Model series is ongoing. I'm not big on watching qualifying, especially since there is over 50 cars for each of the 2 CARS Tour series'. I plan on watching all 3 features later today. I've been doing some reading, while have the audio playing in the background. With only 7 cars left to qualify, Katie Hettinger is second in the Pro Late Models. She was .01 seconds behind pole sitter Angie Grill. John Aramendia won't make the show I don't think, as it will come down to a math situation against several other regulars. They don't list a last chance race, and they're only taking the top 35 on speed. There will be some provisionals, but those are tied to current owner's points. John qualified 51st of 54 cars unfortunately.

Edited May 17, 2023 by ron.brown11

[ron.brown11]

The Pro Late Models will start 40 cars tonight, 35 on time & 5 provisionals. Should be fun!!

[ron.brown11]

Update to the total amount of cars to run the CARS Tour top series. Only 38 cars showed up, after having 52 pre entries. Harrison Burton's car had some issues, and has withdrawn today. So they will start 37 cars tonight.

[ron.brown11]

After 24 cars, Jared Fryar is on the provisional pole!!

[ron.brown11]

WOW, Brendan Butterbean Queen just put it on the pole by over .02 seconds. He's won the last 3 Langley Speedway track championships in late models. Former multi time national champion Lee Pulliam is his car owner for the CARS Tour. In their 1st race together last fall, he won the Florence, SC CARS Tour 250 lap main. That's the race that took the place of the Myrtle Beach 400 after it closed.

If memory serves me, the highest qualifying Cup driver was Daniel Suarez. They pulled the qualifying ticker right after the last car timed in. I think Kaden Honeycutt will start 18th.

I can't wait to see these races today. And I won't lie, I had some tears in my eyes just watching that last chance race. I am so glad that they are racing at North Wilkesboro again. I remember how happy I was when SMI & Bahare bought out the place, and moved that dates to Texas & New Hampshire. I was wrong then, as I'm betting that North Wilkeboro will put on a better show then either one of those tracks. Plus, and this is a big plus for me, it's great to see a track come back instead of closing. I truly hope that they can keep it going beyond this weekend. Fan & sponsor support will be the deciding factor I believe. Good Luck North Wilkesboro!!

[ron.brown11]

Good Pro Late Model race. Ageless Augie Grill won it in a Mustang. On the initial race start, Augie jumped it. When the starter displayed the yellow, it caused a wreck that took 3 cars out. The second yellow was flat out scary, but unfortunately the cameras only caught it towards the end. So I don't know how it started. One car got spun into the inside wall, then another car got spun down into him. The second car nearly went over the pit wall after tearing off half the side of the first car. He got all 4 tires airborne, and his window opening went into the pit wall. He then careened off that and struck the outside wall at about a 45 degree angle. Then it took the safety crew & ambulance over 3 minutes to get to him. At 1 point a couple of pit crew members ran out to the car to try and help the driver. After about 8 minutes the driver finally climbed out. All of the cars for the second CARS late model race were lined up just inside the pit wall. I thought that car was going to go over the wall and take out a few of them. I hope that he's okay.

I think the best drive of the race was Dylan Cappello. He started in the mid 30s, and finished 11th. He's a young guy, and used to race in the SRL modified series out west, and did a few late model shows too. Then he left CA, and he works for Front Row Racing, on 1 of their pit crews. So he doesn't get to race much anymore. With about 22 laps to go, he was about 24th As there were no more cautions, he passed 13 cars under green. Masterful driving! 

[ron.brown11]

Between the 2 CARS Tour classes, and the ASA cars, there was over 150 cars at North Wilkesboro for these 3 races. That's Amazing! As I've said before, I really believe that with the new owners of the CARS Tour, there is a pathway and enough asphalt late models to spawn a touring series along the Gulf coast. Rodney, you know a lot of these "powers that be" in the Gulf region for racing. Do you think that it's possible??

[ron.brown11]

Here's the starting position for all of the Cup drivers: Ross Chastain 27th; Brad Keselowski 22nd; Kevin Harvick 19th; Dale Jr 9th; Daniel Suarez 6th. Kaden Honeycutt will start 17th, and Jared Fryar 2nd. I love Harvick's car number 62. His wife is Delana Harvick-Linville. I used to watch her dad John Paul Linville, race fairly often when I was in high school. Good driver in his day. I thought it was pretty cool he chose to run John's number..

[ron.brown11]

Big crash on a restart. Carson Kvapal got into a car in front of him, and 8-9 cars piled in. Dale Jr's car is hurt, but I think he will continue. Suarez's car is hurt much worse. Keselowski's car got a bunch of damage too. I think he will continue as well.

Edited May 18, 2023 by ron.brown11

[ron.brown11]

When I listed the Cup drivers in the race, I forget to list Briscoe. He started 34th, and is now running 2nd, 65 laps in. Honeycutt is running 7th. Fryar is running 6th; Dale is 12th; Harvick 14th; and Keselowski 17th. Kes got damage also in that big crash earlier. Suarez is running in the mid 20s with quite a bit of damage.

[ron.brown11]

That track record qualifying lap wasn't a fluke. Brendan Queen won it going away. There was a yellow with about 30 laps to go. Butterbean restarted 3, took about 5 laps to take the lead. He won by nearly 5 seconds. They pulled the leader ticker with 2 to go, so I don't have much in a rundown. Fryar was third, and Kaden 5th. I've been watching Queen for 3 years now, and I don't think he'll be in the CARS Tour for long. 

Just got some more positions. Briscoe 10th; Harvick 11th; Keselowski 12th; Suarez 15th; Dale 16th; Chastain 19th. Queen got one of the coolest trophies I've seen in a while. It's looks like a copper moonshine still. Sweet! 

[ron.brown11]

OK time now for the ASA super late model race!

[ron.brown11]

They just interviewed Jared Fryar. He was wearing a cool Freddy Fryar hat.

[ron.brown11]

At the stage break at lap 100 of 150, Chase Elliot, William Byron, Bubba Pollard, Danial Suarez, & Ty Majeski is you top 5. Derek Thorn won the last Snowball Derby is 6th. This has been a very clean fast race so far. Can't wait to see these last 50 laps!!

[ron.brown11]

Bubba Pollard wins the ASA Super Series 150 in a Ford, William Byron was second, Chase Elliot was third; 11th was Ty Majeski; Sammy Smith was 4th; Derek Thorn was 9th. Suarez was 5th. That was about all of the top 10 that I caught without the ticker running. Good clean hard racing. Very enjoyable race to watch. There was a pretty good crowd considering that it's a week night.

[NickHolt]

Thanks for the great updates, Ron!  You're hired!

[24nomo]

I hope that track holds up for the heavy Cup Cars and Trucks.  It is coming up in chunks now.

[RodneyRodriguez]

man Ron my man I agree!!! Will be interesting to see what happens I bet the Thursday "off" day is a "maint" day for sure. 

[arob]

 

[ron.brown11]

Nick, you don't want to watch me type. You wouldn't want me doing play by play lol.. I jotted down a few things, and the rest was trying to remember details. Oh yeah, only after the race was either over, or under a yellow. You see, I can type while I'm watching something, you just won't understand what I was trying to say. I doubt I would understand either.

24nomo, I agree. There were a few cars with asphalt damage. As much as I think the heavier cars are going to cause a problem, I think the width/grip of those tires will be even a bigger problem. This new car has a tremendous amount of lateral grip, right up until they don't. And that ledge seems to be very narrow.

I really think that Brendan Queen has a bright future, if he can stay funded. Last season, at Langley, a guy offered him a chance to run his modified (it was a decent car, but no where near that of the defending champ's). He qualified on the front row, and through several cautions to keep the field close, he beat the 2 time defending mod champ going away. He ran some dirt races (not sure what tracks), and won a couple of them too. He was worried that he was going to be labeled as a 1 track wonder, so he raced at other tracks when it didn't conflict with his title hunt at Langley. I was really happy for him when he was able to hook up with Lee Pulliam. I'm thinking the Lee's pretty happy too. Last year he won the Hampton Heat at Langley, in his family owned car. It's their biggest race of the season, and a pretty good payday too. Lots of big names were there. He qualified up front, lead a couple of laps, and then fell to the rear of the lead lap cars. The announcers were losing their minds, worrying about him about to be lapped. And he was. At 1 point he was 3 car lengths short of being lapped. When he felt it was time, it was like he just flipped a switch, and drove to the front. When he made his pit stop, all they did was change tires. Not 1 adjustment. He's a young guy, but he's already learned how & when to race. To be there at the end, with something that's capable of winning. I think that he's won right at half of the races that he's run for Lee. With Lee's background, Brendan will get a lot of eyes on him at higher levels. 

I don't think it will happen, but I would really love to see Dylan Cappello get more chances to race. I'm guessing that "free time" isn't something that crew members of a Cup team have a lot of.

[rebelracewriter]

Ron, you now qualify for the "rebelracewriter starter kit"....a pencil and note pad🤣

[ron.brown11]

I'll need more than a starter kit lol.. I went through an entire military career, and more than a decade of owning/operating my insurance agency. I never kept a day planner or calendar to remind me of things. Now, I am very grateful for the invention of post it note pads. I still have a great memory for things that happened in the mid to distant past. Names & current memories not so much. But in fairness to me, names have always been hard. Because everyone has their name on their uniform, I never gave much emphasis on remembering names. I wish I had though.

[HiTech]

On 5/19/2023 at 12:22 PM, ron.brown11 said:

I'll need more than a starter kit lol.. I went through an entire military career, and more than a decade of owning/operating my insurance agency. I never kept a day planner or calendar to remind me of things. Now, I am very grateful for the invention of post it note pads. I still have a great memory for things that happened in the mid to distant past. Names & current memories not so much. But in fairness to me, names have always been hard. Because everyone has their name on their uniform, I never gave much emphasis on remembering names. I wish I had though.

HARD  enough to remember my name seeing  i have been called everything u can think of . i am bad about   names too .. really bad now days i call my son my brothers name and my brother my sons name ..

all the time ....

 

[HiTech]

 LOOKS like it took hendrick 27 years   to win again at wilks .dang i was 40  years old then .