HAMPTON, Va. — On Sept. 7, Connor Hall entered his final NASCAR points-paying race of 2024 knowing he had all but clinched his second consecutive Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship. With a stomach full of his father Earle’s grilled pork chops, Hall was enjoying one last night of racing with the friends and family who help maintain his No. 77 Late Model Stock. The Diet Cokes were flowing. Smiles were seemingly permanent.
Upon exiting his car that night at Langley Speedway, Hall was livid.
With a face as red as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series patch on his suit, Hall scrambled around his still-steaming hot ride, checking tire wear and examining the suspension. The 27-year-old Hampton native finished fifth, his first result outside the top two at his home track all season.
“We might as well have stayed home,” the enraged driver told his team, which later discovered the engine was down on horsepower with damaged rings and pistons after overheating a few weeks prior. A misguided track-bar adjustment further hampered Hall’s pace.
Hall and his team members have set such a high bar for themselves over the past two seasons, a fifth-place run at Langley felt like a punch to the gut.
WATCH: Hall leads a tour of his race shop
Slowly, though, the smiles returned. Hall watched Langley’s remaining support division races while sitting on the ground and leaning against the car he had basically condemned a half hour prior, laughing with his girlfriend Lindsey and others who stopped to chat.
Hall’s perspective is different at the end of the 2024 season than it was at the conclusion of last year’s championship run. This year, he scored the vast majority of his NASCAR points victories before spring turned to summer. The opposite was the case in 2023.
In earning the 2024 Weekly Series Division I national title, Hall’s record shows 18 NASCAR wins in 26 starts at five different tracks. He earned top-five finishes in 24 of those starts and never finished outside the top 10. He took checkered flags at Langley, Virginia’s South Boston Speedway, South Carolina’s Florence Motor Speedway, and North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park.
The bigger picture is the reason Hall was able to shake off the disappointment of his last Langley race of the year.
He also knows his back-to-back Weekly Series national championships are major reasons why he suddenly has everything in front of him when it comes to a career as a NASCAR driver.
‘I thought almost all my doors were closing’
So much has changed for Connor Hall over the last year, and yet so much remains the same.
Located right off the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Hall’s home features an assortment of “2023 Weekly Series national champion” decor. Among the new furnishings is the championship trophy flanking his TV in the living room. About 15 minutes away, at the race shop located inside the detached garage at his parents’ house, Hall’s championship banners grace the walls.
Beyond these aesthetics, Hall lives the same life he was maintaining in 2023 while chasing his first title. The son of Earle, a champion hydroplane racer, Connor Hall still works as a boat salesman at Bluewater Yacht Sales. He still spends a good chunk of his spare time boating and fishing, hobbies he acquired at an early age and never relinquished. Loyal by nature, he maintains longstanding friendships both inside and outside the world of racing.
He still spends time in the shop working on the race car with his father and friend/crew chief Clayton Parrish. At the race track, he still benefits from the aid of car chief/tire specialist Brad Roper, as well as the help of spotter Bo Gurkin and crew members Matt Veltri and Cody Gary. His pit area on any given race night still feels more like a family gathering than a workplace.
More so now than ever, Hall considers himself an aspiring NASCAR driver who’s doing everything he can to create opportunities for himself. He started racing go karts at Langley at age 8 before moving to the track’s Legends division and, eventually, late models. He considers himself behind on development in part because his parents insisted he obtain a college education before pursuing a career as a driver.
Now Hall’s life is as dedicated as it can be to what he hopes is a path to NASCAR’s national series. He often drives the 300-plus miles from Hampton to the Charlotte area, bolstering his racing connections and bunking with friends. He watches his diet knowing any possible advantage he can gain in the driver’s seat is worth the effort.
“I thought almost all my doors were closing throughout last year,” Hall said. “That’s one reason why I attempted the (2023 national championship); I was praying it brought some avenue to me.
“I’m more invested in my future within motorsports right now than I have ever been.”
Hall benefits from his laid-back personality. In July, for example, he was able to quickly shrug off an exasperating second-place finish in the Hampton Heat, Langley’s crown-jewel race and the second leg of the prestigious Virginia Late Model Triple Crown. His next race at Langley ended with a resounding victory, his ninth win in what was then 11 starts at his home track in 2024, including a CARS Tour triumph.
Hall’s calm demeanor can be deceiving when it comes to his motorsports exploits. He’s perpetually curious, a trait representing the tip of the iceberg that is his hunger to succeed.
As it relates to that hunger, for Hall, 2024 was a smörgåsbord.
PHOTOS: Best of Hall in 2024 | All 18 wins
‘Just be consistent and run the clock down’
After their championship-winning effort in 2023, Hall and his late model team members over the winter did what came natural.
They just chilled.
The final stretch of racing last season was a grind for the No. 77 crew. Last year, Hall didn’t commit to the title push until August, so they spent their late Summer chasing points and obsessing over the national standings. By the time Hall was crowned champion during the end-of-season NASCAR awards banquet in Nashville, he was spent. There was no way, Hall and his team thought, they would commit to another season of national title contention.
The plan changed with one small, joking comment.
“Before the start of the season, we tore the car all the way down and put it back together, and we were just like, ‘Holy cow. It looks so good,'” Hall said. “We thought we might have made it even better than the year prior. I was sitting there joking with my dad, Roper and Clayton at the shop when we were all working one weekend. I was like, ‘Man let’s go for the national championship again.’ And they were all like, ‘Heck yeah.’ And I was like, ‘What?’
“We had said we’re never doing this again. But after we all took two months off, we were all re-energized and ready to go.”
Hall started his title defense on an absolute tear. By the end of March, he already had nine wins on the books, further justifying the team’s efforts to pursue another championship.
With a newfound deal to race for Nelson Motorsports on the CARS Late Model Stock Tour and in select NASCAR races, Hall knew he needed to front-load his Weekly Series schedule so he could earn as many points as possible before the busy, late-Summer weeks. In addition to Langley, he traveled to Florence, Southern National and Hickory on multiple occasions. During a stretch from March 2 at Hickory until the Hampton Heat in late July, with the exception of one slip at his home track, he won every NASCAR points race he entered.
“I was like, ‘Well, this is kind of a no-brainer,’ ” Hall said of his continued push for a second national championship.
Hall and his team put themselves through hell both last year and this year. The difference was the timing.
“We hit the ground running so hard at the beginning of this year, I was already like, ‘Man, if we have to do this all year, this is going to be a lot of work,’ ” Hall said. “So, in a sense, I feel way more re-energized now than I did at the end of last year. I would say that’s the biggest difference in the feeling.
“When the last day of the season came last year, we had sweat rolling down our backs, and we were like, ‘Holy cow, thank God it’s over.’ But this year, we were just kind of casually like, ‘Oh, 18 days left.’ Just more of an enjoyable last month of the season.
“More buying time than throwing Hail Marys. Just be consistent and run the clock down. Knee the ball with a minute left. Go shake hands.”
With 592 points, Hall had built an insurmountable lead in the national standings before the engine trouble spoiled his last two NASCAR points races of the year. He ended the season with eight wins at Langley (not including CARS Tour), five at Hickory, three at Southern National, one at Florence and one at South Boston.
The victory at South Boston was particularly satisfying, as it came in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, the track’s biggest race and the first leg of the Triple Crown. Driving Nelson’s No. 22 Toyota, Hall after a tire issue started the race from the rear of the field. After picking off the competition one-by-one, Hall beat his friend Trevor Ward to the finish line for one of the biggest wins of his career to date.
“I always joked that [South Boston] was going to be the last track I actually got a win at,” Hall said that night. “I checked this one off the list on their biggest platform. And to get to race one of my really good buddies for the win was pretty much a dream come true.”
If Hall’s trajectory continues, he’ll be turning more dreams into realities in the coming years.
‘I’ve always wanted it’
Aug. 10 was a relatively routine day and night of racing for Connor Hall. He practiced and qualified throughout the afternoon. After competing that evening, he conversed with friend and mentor Chad Bryant. He joked around with his late model crew. He gave Lindsey a hug.
Hall may have treated Aug. 10 as a routine race day, but it was the biggest of his life to date.
On that scorching-hot evening at Richmond Raceway, Hall finished 10th in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut driving the No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet. The event could not have gone much better; he ran top-10 average lap times in practice, and he made up for his own error in qualifying during the race, working his way through a field of more experienced competitors after starting 21st.
The seeds of Hall’s debut at Richmond were planted when he and Bryant spoke about the next steps in the driver’s career. Bryant connected Hall with his friend Charles Denike, a crew chief at MHR, and Hall’s meeting with Denike led to a fruitful sit-down with team co-owner Bill McAnally and then-racing director Chad Norris.
The relationship between Hall and Bryant has evolved to the point where the big picture is often the topic of conversation. At first, Hall would pepper Bryant with persistent calls for advice on his late model setups. Now Hall and his team have all the knowledge they need to set up the car on their own.
These days, Hall and Bryant talk about each other’s goals in racing. Hall says their discussions, which still occur on a near-daily basis, are more “refined” now that they’re closer than ever.
“You’re not trying to build with building blocks; you’re trying to fine tune whatever it is you’re dealing with,” Hall said. “The main thing he calls me about: He still is very much a person coach, or driver coach. He’s just one of my best friends. We just talk about how to better attack the entire weekend rather than just the setup.”
Hall is thankful for Bryant’s friendship, and he knows Bryant’s mentorship has catalyzed so many of the opportunities on which he’s seized. From ARCA Menards Series starts a few years back to the late model program to his Truck Series debut, all of Hall’s big steps in motorsports have been taken alongside Bryant.
And they’re going to continue. Hall has big plans in place for 2025, which he’ll announce in the coming weeks. With back-to-back NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championships on a resume that now includes a top-10 finish in his lone Truck Series start, Hall is gaining clarity on the path he’s hoped to see for years.
“There might be times where I’ve wanted it just as bad,” Hall said of his goal to race full-time in any of NASCAR’s national series. “But with some of the puzzle pieces that are falling into place, and the opportunities I’m receiving, it’s just more viable now.
“I’ve always wanted it. It just seems to be more attainable now than it has been.”
As a result, Hall’s work-life balance will continue to tilt toward the former as he chases bigger platforms. He plans to temporarily relocate to North Carolina in 2025 as racing becomes more of a day job and less of a weekend recreation. He’ll manage longer-distance relationships with his friends and family in Hampton, and the continued success he hopes to achieve will give grounds for such sacrifices.
Regardless of what’s in store for Hall the race-car driver, he insists he’ll always be the down-to-earth guy who enjoys more than anything in life the company of those he cares about most. He will never take for granted the moments, particularly in Langley’s infield, that have defined the last couple years.
The results aren’t as important when Earle is grilling up some deliciously marinated pork chops, and everyone around Connor Hall is keeping a smile on his face.