RALEIGH, N.C. — The view for Carson Kvapil at the start of Saturday’s Drive For Puryear 125 at Wake County Speedway was a little different than usual.
Instead of starting inside the top five, a bad qualifying run for Kvapil relegated him to 18th out of 21 cars on the starting grid. With Wake County only being a quarter-mile in length, Kvapil only had a limited amount of time to carve his way through the field to challenge for another win.
Kvapil only needed half of the 125-lap feature to accomplish that goal. After dispatching Bobby McCarty on a late restart, Kvapil set a familiar yet dominant pace to pull away with his fifth victory of the season and further stretch out his commanding Solid Rock Carriers CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour points lead over Brenden Queen.
Starting in the back half of the field initially forced JR Motorsports to explicitly focus on points racing in the Drive For Puryear 125.
However, as the opening laps clicked off, Kvapil realized just how strong his No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was and picked off his fellow competition one-by-one. The circumstances may not have been ideal for Kvapil, but he was more than happy to show off the speed of his car in front of a packed Wake County Speedway crowd.
“We just had a really good car,” Kvapil said. “I really wasn’t expecting this after starting 18th. The goal was to stay out of trouble and finish the race, but at around lap 50 it was game on. We had great turn and could just get off the corner better than the others. It was pretty fun coming from the back like that.”
Kvapil admitted he struggled to get comfortable in his first laps around Wake County and was working diligently with his crew to find a perfect balance ahead of Saturday evening.
Being so far back in the field presented a plethora of risks for Kvapil, but he had to be both patient and aggressive while climbing through the field. Several restarts allowed Kvapil to gain spots by the choose cone, but progress became more arduous for Kvapil as he encountered faster cars like McCarty and Chad McCumbee.
The perseverance displayed by Kvapil helped him rebound from a rough start to the weekend and add on to his impressive win total in the CARS LMSC Tour. In some ways, Kvapil appreciated the adversity he endured at Wake County but is hopeful for smoother weekends as he closes out his second title.
“There are [races] where it comes down to the end, but from a whole race standpoint, I’d say this was the hardest one,” Kvapil said. “We started almost dead last and had to really drive through the field. There were no pileups, so we just kind of passed them.”
While Kvapil pulled away with the victory, Mason Diaz and Ronnie Bassett Jr. were left to settle the second position amongst themselves.
The two veteran late model stock competitors engaged in a spirited battle for the runner-up spot on the podium, with Diaz prevailing on the last lap. It was a grind for Diaz to earn that solid finish, but he was satisfied to continue a great summer that saw him earn his first CARS Tour win at Hickory Motor Speedway last month.
“It was a battle,” Diaz said. “We qualified up front but had to pit. The car was bottoming out and wasn’t turning, but this Chad Bryant Racing crew worked on it and got us back out. We plugged our way along, got to second with about 15 to go and just tried to hold ground on Ronnie.”
On the other hand, Bassett’s first season in the LMSC Tour has seen him accumulate four consecutive top 10 runs, which now includes two consecutive thirds. There are many areas he wishes to see improvement, but said great weekends in the Old North State Nationals and at Wake County Speedway highlight the strides his program has made in year one.
“We have to keep putting solid runs together,” Bassett said. “A lot of attrition happens throughout these races. We didn’t start off great and tried to make some chassis adjustments to make this car better. We did that, but we have to start where we ended.”
Feature Results
1. 8 Carson Kvapil
2. 24 Mason Diaz
3. 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
4. 03 Brenden Queen
5. 16 Chad McCumbee
6. 22 Landon Huffman
7. 6 Bobby McCarty
8. 15 Ryan Millington
9. 1J Clay Jones
10. 05 Mason Bailey
11. 81 Mini Tyrrell
12. 2 Brandon Pierce -2
13. 8B Chase Burrow -2
14. 4 Dylon Wilson – OUT
15. 11B Buddy Isles – OUT
16. 95 Jacob Heafner – OUT
17. 67 Cameron Bolin – OUT
18. 1 Andrew Grady – OUT
19. 19 Ethan Johnson – OUT
20. 08 Deac McCaskill – OUT
21. 5C Giovanni Ruggiero – OUT