Posted on by Press Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have postponed this weekend’s NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The decision was made in cooperation with local authorities to ensure all local emergency resources remain dedicated to clean-up and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s impact on the area. Starting Tuesday, North Wilkesboro Speedway will become a designated collection site for hurricane relief donations.

The Brushy Mountain Powersports 150 was originally scheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 5. A decision regarding a possible make-up date will be announced in the future.

All ticket and camping purchases for the event will be refunded to the payment method used at the time of original purchase. Fans are asked to allow 10-14 days for the refund to be processed and reflected on credit card statements.

Additional information and updated schedule when available will be on NASCAR.com/regional.

In further support of the recovery efforts, North Wilkesboro Speedway will host a hurricane relief drive and serve as a collection site for the following:

• Non-perishable food items
• Cleaning supplies
• Disinfecting wipes
• Paper towels
• Mops
• Buckets
• Gloves
• Bottled water
• Batteries
• Portable chargers
• Hygiene items
• Diapers & wipes
• Baby formula

Donations can be dropped off at North Wilkesboro Speedway (381 Speedway Ln, North Wilkesboro, NC 28659) between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. this Tuesday through Sunday. Items will be distributed through Wilkes County Emergency Management and Samaritan’s Purse to communities in need.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Good recoveries or missed opportunities?

Cup Series playoff contenders Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell both were capable of snagging the checkered flag in Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway. However, mistakes from the No. 12 pit crew and Bell squandered the taste of victory and immunity for upcoming races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval, where their fates could be determined more by those around them than themselves.

After an unplanned stop to remedy a loose wheel in the final stage, Blaney rallied to a fourth-place result with help from a timely caution, while Bell settled for seventh place after separate dust-ups with the outside wall.

RELATED: Kansas race results | At-track photos

During the early portion of the final stage, Blaney had suspicions of a loose wheel that was all but confirmed by crew chief Jonathan Hassler as he referred to the security of the left-rear wheel as “questionable.” A few laps later, the defending series champion brought the No. 12 Team Penske Ford down pit road to put four fresh tires on and fell a lap down in the process.

“You go down the straightaway and the car just wanders around pretty hard and so I knew something was kind of wrong there,” Blaney said in regard to feeling the loose wheel. “Then it started off not vibrating in the corner and then it started getting bad in the corner and it started getting worse as I lifted getting down into the corner so that I couldn’t do it no more.”

Blaney’s abrupt pit stop came before the window to make it the rest of the way on fuel so the No. 12 team needed a caution to get back on track with the rest of the field — and that’s exactly what they got.

With 30 laps to go, Kyle Busch spun off Turn 2 while in the lead. Blaney found himself inside the top 10 at the time of the caution as the rest of the field completed their final green-flag pit cycle. Virtually everyone came back down pit road during the yellow and Blaney found himself back on track and on the right side of the coin to string together a top-five run.

“It’s not often I catch a break,” Blaney said. “It’s usually bad breaks. It’s not often I catch a good break so it was nice to catch a good one.”

Leading a race-high 122 laps, Bell, who won the Busch Light Pole for the race in Saturday’s qualifying, appeared to be in line for his fourth win of 2024 and an automatic berth into the Round of 8.

But wall contact thwarted a Stage 1 win for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver and he had to settle for six points in the opening frame.

In a frantic dash to the Stage 2 checkered, Bell once again hit the wall, this time more significant as he dropped from second to out of the top 10.

“I felt like I just got a little loose getting in the corner,” Bell said about the Stage 1 wall contact. “I don’t know where the 24 [William Byron] was. He was obviously trying to get by me there so I got loose getting in [the corner] the first time. Then the second time, just trying to make a run on Alex [Bowman] and drove it right in the wall.”

bell looks on at kansas
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Blaney and Bell both leave Kansas 28 points above the elimination line heading to Talladega next Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) but Bell knows he can’t feel too safe despite the cushion.

“It goes away quick so I’m glad that we made some points on the cut line,” Bell said. “From what I saw, there were a couple guys that are way back on the cut line, which is good, but the points go away really, really fast if you don’t perform. So the pressure is always on.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

Just four weeks ago, Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson were a sliver apart in their battle for the head of the Cup Series class, dueling for Regular Season Championship honors on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway. Reddick earned the edge with a gutsy ride to a top-10 finish, pipping Larson by a single point but setting a course for both drivers to enter the 10-race playoff with a head of steam.

Steam, however, evaporates. The racing calendar hasn’t even flipped to the next month’s page, and these playoffs have already proved that any veneer of invincibility can wear thin.

Reddick and Larson finished one point apart from each other again in Sunday’s Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway, and Reddick again held the preferred side of that narrow margin. The rub, though, was that Reddick’s 25th-place result was just one spot better than Larson’s 26th — this at a track where Reddick was the defending race winner and Larson was its most recent victor.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas

Reddick entered Sunday’s race with hopes of making Kansas a postseason reset, recapturing the sterling midsummer surge that propelled his No. 45 23XI Racing team to the head of the Cup Series class. In the four races since the playoffs dawned, Reddick is still searching for his first postseason top-five run, hovering at a 19.5 average finish during that span.

“I guess for me it comes to just performance,” Reddick said post-race at Kansas. “For a month straight, we haven’t been that great, but we have two weeks to figure it out.”

The issue is that the two weeks that follow include visits to two tracks cocooned in uncertainty, from next week’s stop at Talladega Superspeedway to the Round of 12 closer at the new-look Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. He’ll enter that tricky two-week stretch reeling from a six-position drop in the playoff standings that left him four points below the provisional elimination dividing line.

On face value, Kansas loomed as the round’s brightest opportunity, but Reddick only went backward after lining up 11th for the next-to-last restart.

“That restart was a lot of it. That’s just part of it,” Reddick said. “When you have really good cars you can make incredible moves on restarts and when things aren’t just going the way you want them to inside the race car it’s really easy to have a big mistake and that’s what ultimately cost us our finish.”

Larson figured to reign supreme, based not only on his regular-season prowess, but also fresh from one of the season’s most dominant performances in last weekend’s Bristol Night Race rout. For the second consecutive round-opening race, however, Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet group surrendered a significant chunk of their postseason buffer.

In the Round of 16, an early crash in Atlanta’s playoff lid-lifter left the top-seeded Larson with a 37th-place finish and a 20-point loss relative to the elimination threshold. Sunday’s Round of 12 starter marked another drop from the standings lead after a Lap 19 wall scrape forced the former Cup champ to rally back onto the lead lap after a systematic series of repairs.

Larson called his Kansas slog “just a long day” — a far different outcome than the Bristol romp where he led 462 of 500 laps. “… It is what it is, but we’ll regroup and move on to Talladega.”

He’ll head to the Alabama speed plant carrying just an 18-point margin over the elimination slash, more than halved from the plus-39 advantage Larson held when the round started. In these playoffs, further proof that the footing that divides those advancing from those ousted hangs by just a gossamer thread.

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — “They know that today was one of their worst days ever.”

The results sheet would say Denny Hamlin had a good points day Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway to open the Round of 12 in the Cup Series Playoffs, but the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team’s effort was stymied by slow pit stops all race long.

Tallying 36 points with an eighth-place result and fourth-place run in Stage 1, Hamlin salvaged what otherwise could’ve been a poor result.

RELATED: Kansas race results | At-track photos

“It was a great opportunity to lock ourselves in. Instead, we’re scraping and clawing to try to finish in the top 10,” Hamlin said.

During Stage 1, the first issue on pit road came as Hamlin ran inside the top five. The No. 11 Toyota left pit lane outside the top 10 and shortly after the restart, the 43-year-old veteran came on the radio to remind his team that he can’t lose track position.

Another pit stop toward the end of Stage 2 put Hamlin at the rear of the field due to his car having a loose wheel, thwarting vital points when the green-checkered flag waved on Lap 167.

Strike number three for the No. 11 crew came after a Kyle Busch spin from the lead with 30 laps to go.

In line to still hoist the Kansas playoff race trophy, Hamlin just needed one perfect stop to be in the mix on the ensuing restart. Instead, Hamlin parachuted from inside the top five to 16th on the following restart, cementing the day for him and taking the checkered flag on the lower end of the top 10.

“We lost 15 spots on pit road and had the fastest car,” Hamlin said. “We came in fourth and came out 15th or 20th or something like that and you can only pass so many.

“I can’t do anything. I think they’ve got to get some reps and get in a rhythm and peak when it really counts here in the next couple weeks.”

Taking the brunt of Hamlin’s disappointment on the team radio was crew chief Chris Gabehart. Being the eyes on top of the box, Gabehart had the best view to see how each stop played out for his team and why it went as wrong as it did Sunday.

“We had problems in one particular area of the car,” Gabehart told NASCAR.com. “But that had nothing to do with any kind of new or unique choreography. It’s the same stuff we’ve been doing all year. Just players have off days. I mean, you can see it in any pro sport.”

MORE: Playoff Pulse: Kansas shake-up

One mistake could’ve kept the No. 11 in race-winning contention to lock themselves into the Round of 8 without worrying about points at Talladega or the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Still, additional mishaps were the writing on the wall.

“We were strong enough to get buried once,” Gabehart said. “We were easily going to compete for a win even if we only got buried once. Just couldn’t keep getting buried.

“Most teams here would probably be fairly happy with the day we had. I mean, I think we may have moved up one spot and picked up a few points on the cutline but certainly at Kansas, the 11 expects more out of themselves than that, especially when we had kind of one glaring issue. The car was certainly capable of winning and so is Denny but it’s a team sport. It takes it all and we just didn’t have it all today.”

In total, Hamlin lost 60 positions from where he was when he pitted to where he restarted, according to Racing Insights.

But Gabehart backed his crew despite what happened and what could’ve been for Hamlin and the team, bringing it all back to the human element.

“These are humans doing extraordinary things,” Gabehart emphasized. “They aren’t robots doing easy things. This is … this is hard. Humans don’t always perform their best and today was an off day for those guys. There’s a lot on the line and my group’s, on average, been the best pit crew on pit road all year. I’d put them up against anybody.”

Posted on by Chris Murdock

The Round of 12 has begun in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and Kansas Speedway provided big gains for some. Others, meanwhile, came away knowing they will need great performances at the wild cards of Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course to have a chance to advance.

Let’s take a look at the winners and losers from a wild day at the 1.5-mile track in the Midwest.

WINNER

Despite not making the 2024 Cup Series Playoffs, Ross Chastain found himself in Victory Lane for the fifth time in his career after holding off William Byron in the closing laps to claim his first win since NASCAR Championship Weekend in 2023 at Phoenix Raceway. For Chastain, it was a sweet redemption for a season that perhaps hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations.

RELATED: Official race results | At-track photos

WHO’S HOT?

William Byron. With a less than favorable opening round of the Cup Series Playoffs, Byron entered the Round of 12 hoping to turn his performance around, and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet did just that at Kansas Speedway after scoring a Stage 1 win and a runner-up finish. Byron left the Round of 12 opener with the points lead and a 34-point cushion to the elimination line.

Alex Bowman. Building on his stellar Round of 16 performance, Bowman, Byron’s teammate, continued his lights-out postseason run. The No. 48 Chevrolet scored the Stage 2 win and ran up front during much of the Kansas bout. Bowman will head to Talladega with a sixth-place finish under his belt and a position eight points above the elimination line.

WHO’S NOT?

Austin Cindric. After a strong showing in the Round of 16, Cindric will have to bounce back following a 34th-place finish at Kansas. He qualified his No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang in the 17th position and held around mid-pack throughout the opening stages before contact with Kyle Busch sent the 26-year-old spinning into the inside wall. Entering the Round of 12 already below the elimination line in ninth, Cindric fell to 12th, 29 points down.

Tyler Reddick. Entering the Round of 12 20 points above the elimination line, Reddick left Kansas four points below after a 25th-place result. Still, Reddick shouldn’t be in full panic mode just yet as the spring Talladega race is where the No. 45 Toyota punched his ticket to the postseason festivities.

BUBBLE WATCH

RANKDRIVERCUTOFF
5Denny Hamlin11
6Alex Bowman8
7Chase Elliott4
8Joey Logano4
ELIMINATION LINE
9Tyler Reddick-4
10Daniel Suárez-14
11Chase Briscoe-25
12Austin Cindric-29
Posted on by Reid Spencer

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Enter the Great Disrupter.

Ross Chastain’s No 1. Trackhouse Chevrolet came to life in the second half of Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 and beat William Byron’s Chevrolet to the finish line in a hotly contested Round of 12 opener in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

Chastain grabbed the lead from Martin Truex Jr. moments after the final restart on Lap 248 at Kansas Speedway and held off a charging Byron by 0.388 seconds to thwart the playoff driver’s bid for automatic advancement into the Round of 8.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Kansas

Having failed to qualify for the postseason this year, Chastain reveled in his first victory of the season, his first at Kansas and the fifth of his career.

“For us on this 1 team, it’s what Cup racing is all about,” said Chastain, who led 52 laps. “It’s what (team co-owner) Justin Marks bought into Trackhouse with Pitbull, bought into NASCAR with Trackhouse to do stuff like this — to disrupt.

“Look, there’s been times this year where we couldn’t have disrupted the minnow pond outside of Darlington, let alone a Cup race. It’s hard. It’s really tough. To come and do this, there are times where I didn’t think after practicing and qualifying we had what it took. I thought we have been way stronger here in the past. It didn’t feel great all day, but our Kubota Chevy, it was better as the rubber went down, and the adjustments were great.”

SHOP: Race winner gear

Byron led 24 laps but couldn’t overcome Chastain’s aerodynamic advantage over the closing laps.

“Yeah, just clean air,” Byron said ruefully. “I feel like he got the restart he needed to, and I was in the second row just trying to clear those guys. Once I got clear of them, my balance was OK. Just a little bit tight, but just kind of inching up on him. I needed probably, you know, for it to be a longer run being in second.

“Damn it, I wanted that one really bad. It just sucks, man. You’re so close, and you know going to Talladega you know what that is. So just sucks, but proud of the effort.”

Truex finished third after restarting in the top lane and surrendering the first two positions to Chastain and Byron. Playoff driver and defending series champion Ryan Blaney rallied to finish fourth after an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel.

Ty Gibbs, eliminated from the Cup Series Playoffs at Bristol in the final Round of 16 race, came home fifth, followed by playoff drivers Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell (the pole winner), Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott, who started from the rear of the field after an engine change in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Byron heads to next Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway as the series leader, with a six-point edge over Bell and Blaney and a 34-point margin over ninth-place Tyler Reddick, the first driver below the cut line for the next round.

Hamlin and Bowman are fifth and sixth in the standings, 11 and eight points above the elimination line, respectively.

For Kyle Larson, top seed in the playoffs entering the Round of 12, Sunday’s race was an unwelcome instance of déjà vu. Reminiscent of his early exit after a slamming the wall in Turn 2 in the first Round of 16 race at Atlanta, Larson cut a right-rear tire and bounced off the Turn 2 wall on Sunday at Kansas just 19 laps into the race.

WATCH: Larson scrubs outside wall in first stage

During the subsequent 56-lap green-flag run to the end of Stage 1, Larson complained of a vibration in his No. 5 Chevrolet, fell one lap down and finished the stage in 35th place.

Larson got his lap back as the beneficiary car under caution for Daniel Hemric’s spin on Lap 143 and mitigated some of the damage to his points position with a 26th-place finish. Larson leaves Kansas fourth in the standings, 18 points above the current elimination line for the Round of 8.

Reddick, Daniel Suárez, Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric weren’t as fortunate.

Reddick, the defending race winner, could only manage a 25th-place result and leaves Kansas four points below the elimination line. Suárez finished 14th and trials Elliott and Joey Logano (tied for eighth) by 14 points.

Briscoe fought an ill-handling car and finished 24th, falling 25 points down to eighth place. Cindric sustained damage during a spin on the backstretch on Lap 157, finished four laps down in 34th and trails Logano and Elliott by 29 points.

Seeking his first victory of the season — with a record 19-year streak of winning at least one race per season on the line — Kyle Busch held the lead on Lap 226, with Chastain in pursuit. But as Busch attempted to put Briscoe a lap down through a narrow gap at the top of the track, his car broke loose and spun off Turn 2, causing the ninth caution.

“I’m sure he was racing to stay on the lead lap with whoever was in front of him there,” said Busch, who finished 19th. “Granted, they have a race to run, but back in the old days when you were under 30 (laps) to go or whatever it was, lapped traffic would kind of lay over and give you a lane and let the leaders race.

“I just wasn’t getting that, so I tried to force my hand into getting that and get to his outside, and for whatever reason, it just gave all the air in all the wrong places, and I spun out.”

The race featured 30 lead changes among 15 drivers, the latter a track record. Bell led a race-high 122 laps. Hendrick teammates Byron and Bowman won stages 1 and 2, respectively.

The Cup Series will continue the Round of 12 at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

Note: Cup Series post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Kansas Speedway garage area, confirming Chastain’s victory. NASCAR officials indicated that the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford of driver Harrison Burton and the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet driven by John Hunter Nemechek would be brought to the NASCAR Research & Development Center in Concord, North Carolina for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Alex Cadavid

Editor’s note: Projection updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying.

With a shortened playoff field due to four drivers being eliminated after Bristol, the remaining 12 are still searching for a clear path to the championship. Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 presented by ESPN Bet (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) should provide more light on their journey.

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineup | Weekend schedule

Following strong showings during practice and qualifying, Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports drivers continue to lead the way entering Sunday’s race. Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and even Chase Elliott, who will start at the rear, are all projected to finish highly in the Round of 12 opener. Coupled with other playoff drivers — including Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney — predicted to finish strongly, it’s a recipe for what should be another exciting finish.

All of us couldn’t wait to come back to Kansas after witnessing the closest finish in NASCAR Cup history. We sang a similar tune a few weeks ago when it was Atlanta’s turn to provide an encore after its three-wide thriller in February, and that race led to a colossal playoff shakeup.

So, what will we be in store for at Kansas?

In the simplest terms, everything from a playoff spoiler to a 0.001-second margin of victory is in the cards this weekend.

The last four Kansas races have each been thrilling for various reasons. There has been a dramatic, last-lap pass for the win in each of the last two, for starters. While much has already been said about this year’s memorable spring race, just last year we saw another chapter in the storied rivalry between Larson and Hamlin take shape as the No.11 driver made contact with the No. 5 on the backstretch. That race also saw 37 lead changes, a Cup Series record-most for a 400-mile race on a 1.5-mile track.

Last year’s fall race ended with an overtime restart and a mixed bag of race strategies played out in favor of Reddick, who managed to fend off Hamlin in the final two-lap shootout. The 2022 fall race gave us a playoff stunner, with Bubba Wallace playing spoiler and holding off title contenders in the final 40 laps to notch his second Cup win.

Kansas has been full of racing memories, and Sunday’s contest is just another opportunity to add more. It’s hard to predict just how everything will shake out, but it’s safe to say it should be another classic.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

TYLER REDDICK: Last time out in Kansas, Reddick struggled to make ground, but don’t let his spring performance dictate how this weekend goes. Reddick has scored the most points on 1.5-mile tracks this year, with 154 and is the defending race winner.

ALEX BOWMAN: Bowman has scored the most points so far in the playoffs (120) and virtually steered clear of any trouble after a chaotic first round. He finished seventh in the spring race and is peaking at the right time of year, pressing for a win.

CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell is tied with Austin Cindric for the second-most points scored by a playoff driver through the Round of 16 (103). Bell has scored top 10s in the last two Kansas races. Not to mention, Toyota has won four of the previous five races there.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Elliott quietly scored 97 points through the first round (third most by a playoff driver). He’s also scored the third-most points on 1.5-mile tracks this year. It’s also worth pointing out that Hendrick also had the most wins on intermediate tracks in the Next Gen era with eight.

BUBBA WALLACE: Kansas is one of Wallace’s best tracks. Including his 2022 win, he’s finished in the top 10 in three of the five races at Kansas in the Next Gen car. Plus, even though he’s not a playoff driver, he’s still a threat to crack Victory Lane.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE HOLLYWOOD CASINO 400 PRESENTED BY ESPN BET

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. 

FinishCar NumberDriver
15Kyle Larson
211Denny Hamlin
320Christopher Bell
445Tyler Reddick
524William Byron
612Ryan Blaney
723Bubba Wallace
854Ty Gibbs
99Chase Elliott
1048Alex Bowman
116Brad Keselowski
1217Chris Buescher
131Ross Chastain
148Kyle Busch
1522Joey Logano
1619Martin Truex Jr.
1777Carson Hocevar
1899Daniel Suárez
1943Erik Jones
2014Chase Briscoe
2134Michael McDowell
222Austin Cindric
237Justin Haley
2410Noah Gragson
254Josh Berry
2671Zane Smith
273Austin Dillon
2851Corey LaJoie
2947Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3041Ryan Preece
3131Daniel Hemric
3242John Hunter Nemechek
3338Todd Gilliland
3421Harrison Burton
3516Ty Dillon
3615Kaz Grala
3784Jimmie Johnson
3844J.J. Yeley
Posted on by Staff Report

Weekly Race Roster

Posted on by Brandon White

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — When it came time for Josh Berry to advance up the NASCAR developmental ladder, Carson Kvapil had the impossible task of carrying on JR Motorsports’ success in Late Model Stocks.

Berry’s reputation in the discipline included victories in nearly every crown jewel event, a CARS Tour championship and a NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I title. Inheriting a stellar ride like JR Motorsports’ Late Model Stock would be an intimidating prospect for any driver, let alone a rookie like Kvapil.

The past three years have shown Kvapil’s commitment to maintaining JR Motorsports dominance in Late Model Stocks, which was further encapsulated by his victory in the prestigious ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway Saturday night.

Kvapil, both physically and mentally exhausted after 200 grueling laps, found himself in disbelief over joining a notable list of ValleyStar Credit Union 300 champions that includes Berry.

“Awesome is an understatement,” Kvapil said. “This is so big. It’s the crown jewel of Late Model Stock racing and it has been for years. The last two years, we’ve been so close and have always been there at the end. We didn’t do anything wrong but were just a little bit off. I knew we were going to be good [on Saturday], we just needed to do the right things.

“It’s an honor to drive this car and an even bigger deal to win this race.”

The journey towards Kvapil obtaining a prestigious Grandfather Clock started when he made his debut in JR Motorsports’ Late Model Stock at Florence Motor Speedway in 2021.

A dominant run in Kvapil’s maiden appearance with the program ended with him losing a hard-fought battle to Kaden Honeycutt for the victory. A similar story unfolded two months later in Florence’s South Carolina 400, where he placed second to Ty Majeski after leading 38 laps.

The first starts for Kvapil with JR Motorsports only showcased his potential to crew chief Bryan Shaffer. Having worked with Berry for several years, Shaffer was ready to impart his own wisdom to Kvapil so that he could quickly find his comfort zone in Late Model Stocks.

“[Kvapil] was pretty good right at the start,” Shaffer said. “He just needed seat time in these cars to figure everything out. He knows where to start these races now and has a good feel of the car, especially in these long races.”

Shaffer would not have to wait long to see results in an endurance Late Model Stock event. When the CARS Tour opened the 2022 season with the $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals at Caraway Speedway, Kvapil earned his first major victory in the discipline.

Although he envisioned success would come eventually with JR Motorsports, Kvapil was surprised the first checkered flag came as early as it did. Shaffer’s excellent strategy, combined with the raw speed of his No. 8, enabled Kvapil to put the CARS Tour on notice with his breakthrough performance.

“I thought we were going to be fast, but really weren’t the whole race,” Kvapil said about winning the Old North State Nationals in 2022. “The first part of the race, we ran from about 12th-15th and about had no hope. We were stuck, but pitted off strategy to try and gain track position. We capitalized and had good speed at the end to win the race. I was feeling a lot of pressure, but I made it happen.”

The accomplishments rapidly accumulated for Kvapil after Caraway. In three years with JR Motorsports, Kvapil has amassed two CARS Tour championships to go along with 11 series victories, 34 top fives and seven poles.

With he and JR Motorsports displaying so much efficiency every week in the CARS Tour, Kvapil was hoping the success would one day carry over into the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. Finishes of second and third in the crown jewel event during his first two years only motivated Kvapil further to claim a grandfather clock for himself.

Possessing one of the strongest cars in Saturday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300, Kvapil’s primary challenge came from 2016 winner Mike Looney, who traded the lead with him several times throughout the night. Kvapil eventually gained the upper hand on the seasoned veteran and survived an overtime restart to add a ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victory to his growing resume.

Being perfect from opening practice on Saturday was paramount for Kvapil to emerge victorious in the crown jewel event.

“We just needed everything to go right and have a great car at the end, which we did,” Kvapil said. “In this race, you’ve got to be perfect. You can’t mess up qualifying or your heat race, and you obviously can’t mess up the race and get in trouble. We did all the right things and just had a great car at the end to put ourselves in position.”

Celebrating with Shaffer and the rest of his crew in Martinsville’s Victory Lane gave Kvapil time to reflect on his growth while under the JR Motorsports banner.

Kvapil still remembers how nervous he was climbing into Berry’s No. 8 for the first time at Florence in 2021. Since then, Kvapil has done everything to improve himself, primarily when it comes to providing feedback to Shaffer and everyone else on how to maximize the strengths of the car.

For Shaffer, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victory was equal parts cathartic and bittersweet, as he is preparing to move the Late Model Stock program forward with a different driver. He has cherished seeing Kvapil grow into one of the best young prospects on the developmental ladder and knows more victories are in his future.

“It makes me happy to see [Kvapil] moving on,” Shaffer said. “You don’t want a new driver because you run so good but you can’t hold them back. He’s ready to move up, he’s ready as anybody is.

“I think he’ll be racing [NASCAR Cup Series] cars in a couple of years.”

With Kvapil’s time in the JR Motorsports No. 8 Late Model Stock coming to an end, he cannot help but be grateful for all the guidance he has received. Along with leaning on Shaffer and car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kvapil also had the privilege of relying on Berry during his first couple of seasons.

Matching Berry’s accomplishments was never the goal for Kvapil. He wanted to build his own identity with JR Motorsports while simultaneously ensuring the program kept visiting Victory Lane in a Late Model Stock industry that keeps evolving every passing year.

Now that he is in the same position as Berry three years ago, Kvapil finds himself content with the journey taken at JR Motorsports.

“Everyone knows how good Josh Berry is with these cars and how many wins he had,” Kvapil said. “To be able to take over his spot and continue on the winning legacy is pretty special. What is special to me is the people who put me in the race car and had the confidence to do the job. I can’t thank them enough.

“This was a really big opportunity for me three years ago and we’ve had really good success. Now we have a grandfather clock.”

There are many chapters left to write in what is expected to be a long, successful career for Kvapil. Of those already written, one will stand out amongst motorsports fans.

He proved himself to be a worthy successor to one of the greatest Late Model Stock rides of all time.

Posted on by Adam Fenwick

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Winning championships often has a lot to do with consistency.

No one knows that better than Peyton Sellers, who claimed his fifth Virginia Late Model Triple Crown championship following a ninth-place finish during Saturday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.

“They get harder and harder (to win) that’s for sure,” said Sellers, who pocketed $7,000 for having the best average finish in the three Triple Crown events at South Boston, Langley and Martinsville Speedways. “We had three good races. We had a good race at South Boston, another good one at Langley and we had the speed for a while tonight.”

Sellers entered Saturday’s race second in the Triple Crown standings to NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I champion Connor Hall, who had a 1.5 average finish in the first two legs at South Boston and Langley compared to Sellers’ 3.5.

RELATED: Full highlights from the ValleyStar Credit Union 300

Hall’s pursuit of the Triple Crown ended before halfway as mechanical gremlins combined with a spin left him trapped multiple laps down, putting Sellers in the proverbial catbirds seat.

However, Sellers began to fade late in the race and that seemingly opened the door for Kade Brown to steal the Triple Crown in the closing laps.

Unfortunately for Brown, bad luck also bit him. With eight laps left Brown was collected in a multi-car crash while racing inside the top five. The incident ended Brown’s night and handed Sellers his fifth Triple Crown title.

“At the end of the day, the Triple Crown is a very big deal for us,” said Sellers, who recently clinched his seventh track championship at South Boston Speedway. “It means a lot. We start off at the beginning of the year and we shoot for a championship in the Triple Crown. To be able to do it is a very good opportunity.”

Sellers ended the Triple Crown with an average finish of 5.3.  Despite a challenging day that saw Hall finish 25th, he still managed to finish second in the Triple Crown standings with an average finish of 9.3. Bobby McCarty finished fifth to claim third in the final Triple Crown standings with an average finish of 13.6.