The short-track mentality instilled in Carson Kvapil lives on through his 2025 rookie campaign in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports. It has made for some adjustments.
Before Kvapil’s first stab as a full-time NASCAR competitor, he was accustomed to working a full 40-hour week at the JRM late model shop. His free time was spent at the shop of his father — 2003 Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil — to prepare his brother Caden’s cars. That was the way of life for the two-time CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion.
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“The biggest change for me is not working on the race car,” Kvapil said of his rookie season, though he made it clear that he still gets his hands dirty on Caden’s cars. “These Xfinity cars are similar to the late model stuff but have different components. Short tracks are Saturday night fun racing; this NASCAR stuff is awesome, but I treat it more like a job.”
That job entails learning on the fly. While competing in nine races throughout 2024 to prepare for 2025, Kvapil learned how to use the air to his advantage. Navigating intermediate tracks was a new challenge, one that is still daunting more than halfway through his rookie campaign.
As a resident short-track competitor, the 22-year-old Kvapil has shone on short tracks in 2025, with a runner-up at Bristol Motor Speedway to prove it. Bigger tracks, however, have given Kvapil the most hurdles.
“They are so big that, for me, I almost don’t know where to go,” Kvapil admitted about competing at larger venues. “There is so much room to work with. I don’t really have it scientifically figured out why I’m struggling, but I don’t feel as confident going to the mile-and-a-half or two-mile tracks.
“As the season has gone on, I feel like I’ve learned a lot. As we click off more races like those, I’m going to get more comfortable.”
One voice of reason is Andrew Overstreet, Kvapil’s crew chief. When Kvapil made his national series debut at Bristol in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2023, it was Overstreet who helped with Spire Motorsports. The duo already formed chemistry in 2024, making it a natural pairing for 2025.
“They have to know that you have 110% confidence in their ability,” Overstreet said of his role. “I feel like a lot of these guys, when they come in and don’t have the results, they start questioning if these guys believe in me. There has never been a time that I didn’t believe Carson wasn’t capable of doing great things. I knew in 2023 that he was going to be good, I knew it last year and I still believe it this year.”
Overstreet believes Kvapil has progressed rapidly in short order. He took an unconventional route to the Xfinity Series, bypassing the Truck and ARCA Menards series almost entirely.
“That’s one of the struggles that I feel like I have: I come to a lot of these race tracks and I’ve never been here,” Kvapil said. “I am racing against guys who came from the Truck Series, and they have been at these race tracks — it’s in a truck — but still laps on the track.”
One shining light through 19 races is that Kvapil believes the No. 1 team meshed instantly. Together, they’ve earned eight top-10 finishes, including three of the last four races, highlighted by a runner-up at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway). Kvapil ranks sixth in the regular-season championship battle, trailing only one rookie: JRM teammate Connor Zilisch.
“I would say the finishing results have been a little rough for us,” Kvapil said. “90% of them haven’t been from crashing out or doing nonsense moves, it’s more so bad luck.”
Atop the pit box, Overstreet believes he needs to clean up the way he calls races. But he’s also learning how to manage people for the first time, as this season is his first being a full-time crew chief.
“We’ve challenged Carson to do some things a little bit more aggressively, and everything he’s doing, he keeps getting better,” Overstreet said. “He is a smart racer and has a good race craft, and he doesn’t tear up his stuff. As a group, we’re trying to be more aggressive so we can get that first win and be ready once the playoffs begin, so we can make a good run at it.”
Winning is important to Kvapil as six drivers have already won with JRM in 2025, a series record. The No. 1 team has had close defeats, not to mention a hard-fought battle with Zilisch at Circuit of The Americas.
Kvapil remains steadfast on gaining experience in Xfinity before hopefully one day moving to the Cup Series, with multiple organizations taking notice of his upside.
“Every race weekend is a race weekend, and you can’t jump too far ahead or try to get expectations for what’s coming in the next year,” Kvapil added. “Every opportunity that comes, we’re going to be looking into it. I’m OK running the Xfinity Series for the next few years and hopefully, we work out a Cup deal at some point.”
MORE: Xfinity Series standings | Xfinity Series schedule
By scoring 43 points last weekend at Sonoma Raceway – tied for the second-most in the event – Kvapil increased his buffer to 90 points over the elimination line. The series visits Dover Motor Speedway this Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Kvapil narrowly missed out on victory last year in his second career Xfinity start.
“I’ve learned so much from that time; I’ve ran so many more races since my second race,” Kvapil said of his “Monster Mile” return. “I feel like if I were able to do it all over again, we would have been in Victory Lane. Just part of the learning curve, and we’ve got to take it week-to-week. We’re looking at Dover and circling it on our radar.”
If you’re looking for storylines, the first doubleheader weekend for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour in more than 25 years is chock full of them.
