Update (Aug. 6, 3:32 p.m. ET): The zMAX CARS Tour has announced that Treyten Lapcevich has been disqualified from his LMSC Window World 125 win at North Wilkesboro Speedway after an unapproved part was found on his No. 77.
Corey Heim, who originally finished second, has been awarded the victory. It’s just his second career victory in the zMAX CARS Tour.
According to the release, Lapcevich’s team Chad Bryant Racing admitted to misinterpreting the rule in which the unapproved part was implemented. Lapcevich made a statement on X declaring his and Chad Bryant Racing’s intention to appeal the disqualification.
Additionally, CARS Tour announced earlier on Tuesday (Aug. 6) that the Aug. 9 race at Ace Speedway would be postponed one week to Aug. 16 due to incoming storms from Hurricane Debby this weekend.
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NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. β It took over two months, but the zMAX CARS Tour finally was able to complete its biggest race of the year at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Saturday (Aug. 3).
After rain forced the postponement of both the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock Car events from NASCAR All-Star Week in May, the series took advantage of NASCAR’s Olympic break to make the race up.
That allowed several stars to return and beef up both entry lists. Along with a bolstered purse and its overall prestige for the Tour, plus the two-and-a-half month wait, and it made for a great night of racing.
Here’s what happened in a long-overdue night at North Wilkesboro.
Tristan McKee Earns Huge Birthday PLM Win
For racecar drivers, there’s no better way to celebrate one’s birthday with a win.
A win at North Wilkesboro? In the biggest race of the year for the Tour, and specifically the Pro Late Models? Even better.
That’s exactly how Tristan McKee celebrated his birthday on Saturday night, taking the lead earlier from polesitter Nick Loden to earn his first CARS Tour win of the season. Despite the best efforts of the Wilson Motorsports duo of Corey Heim and Spencer Davis, McKee was able to hold strong in the waning laps to take the win.
Oh, did I mention his age? It’s only McKee’s 14th birthday.
Aside from a scheduled race break at lap 40 of the 100-lap feature. The caution only came out once for incident, when polesitter Loden hit the wall with 28 laps to go. That bunched the field back up, giving Davis (then running second) and Heim (then running third) one last chance to pass the Setzer Racing Development No. 6. Heim was able to pass Davis for second, but couldn’t quite track down McKee.
Though he feels like he could have if he had more time.
“I think if I had a few more laps,” Heim told Frontstretch after the race. “I didn’t really get to race around him much to figure out his weaknesses and whatnot.
“If I could have found out kind of where he was lacking speed, maybe I could have sized him up and maybe got into him or passed him clean, whatever it took.”
Behind Davis in third came Dylan Fetcho in fourth while Matt Craig rounded out the top five.
Treyten Lapcevich Earns First Career LMSC Win Despite Several Close Calls
If the Late Model Stock Car race on Saturday was a part of the 2024 Summer Olympics, we’d be hearing O Canada ring out through the speakers for the winner.
Treyten Lapcevich finally broke through for his first career CARS Tour win, and it came in the series’ biggest race of the year. He took the lead from Brenden Queen about halfway through the 125-lap feature and got to take his Chad Bryant Racing No. 77 on the historic North Wilkesboro lift to victory lane.
“This is huge,” Lapcevich told Frontstretch after the race. “Especially to come at a place like North Wilkesboro, where, you know, all the greats have raced and won at. […] Chad Bryant Racing guys gave me such a great car again, so super thankful to be here, like I said. Couldn’t have happened at a better place.”
The entire year has been a learning curve for the Grimbsy, Ont. native. For those who don’t know, Lapcevich is the 2023 NASCAR Pinty Series champion, while his older brother Cayden won the same title in 2016. Instead of returning to the now-named Canada Series to defend his title, he decided to make a full-time run at the CARS Tour LMSC title for 2024.
“It’s been a lot different honestly,” Lapcevich said. “Not only the racing itself β you know, the NASCAR Canada Series, we’re used to longer distance races. They’re usually 250-300 lappers, and you kind of get into a rhythm and you get a change [of a] set of tires. But here […] 125 laps, it’s sprint races compared to that.
“That’s been an adjustment for me, and obviously learning the car too. I’ve never driven a car with truck arms and that’s been the really big difference.”
Heim ended up second again, coming a combined two spots short of sweeping the evening.
“Any time you’re pretty close on speed at a high-momentum-style racetrack, it’s really tough to pass people,” said Heim, who won the Craftsman Truck Series race at Wilkesboro back in May. “And that kind of proved true tonight.”
Lapcevich’s win didn’t come as easy as McKee’s PLM win, however. The first issue of the night for the No. 77 came on a lap 8 restart, when Lapcevich, restarting fourth, missed a shift and was hit from behind by Ryan Millington. That caused a stackup in the outside lane, resulting in a massive pileup involving somewhere around 15 cars.
As you can imagine, a lengthy red flag followed.
Several drivers saw their nights come to an end early, including NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sammy Smith and Pro Late Model championship hopeful Kaden Honeycutt. Dylon Wilson, Jacob Heafner, Cameron Bolin, Kade Brown and Connor Mosack were also among those who saw their nights end early.
Honeycutt, in particular, was unhappy with Lapcevich’s restart.
“I just can’t believe guys are missing shifts halfway through the year,” a dejected Honeycutt told Frontstretch. “It’s really, really, really dumb. That’s not part of racing. That’s not racing. People just don’t know what they’re doing and just tearing up racecars, and a whole lot of them for sure.”
Lapcevich, citing an ongoing clutch issue, understood the frustration and apologized to all involved over the accident.
“I really want to apologize to all the guys that were involved with that,” Lapcevich said. “Obviously my words can’t fix the racecars, unfortunately, and I feel really bad about that.”
Following that incident, Lapcevich’s car came to life, and seemed to be the only one who could mount a charge against the dominant car of Queen. Lapcevich made the move for the lead just past the halfway point, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
Brandon Pierce dropped oil and spun out with four laps to go. Just as the caution was coming out, Lapcevich hit the oil and slid up the racetrack, barely kissing the outside wall. Fortunately, he saved it and was able to hold on for the victory.
“I thought it was over,” said the 20-year-old. “I hit the oil, just was able to squeak by the [No.] 2 at the top of the track. I chased the car to the top, there was a little hole there in between him and the wall. Just scraped the wall a little bit, but obviously it was a lot better than it was looking like it was going to be.”
Bad Nights From Point Leaders Open Doors in Championship Battles
Aside from two huge wins for McKee and Lapcevich, the points situation in both series saw drastic changes.
Entering Wilkesboro, Honeycutt led the PLM standings by just one point over Davis. Davis went on to finish third, while Honeycutt was able to snag eighth. Not a poor performance by any means for Honeycutt, but he has now lost the points lead to Davis by four points.
Meanwhile Jimmy Renfrew Jr., defending winner from Hickory Motor Speedway and third-place in points entering Wilkesboro, finished 10th. Caden Kvapil, fourth in points entering Wilkesboro, rebounded from a poor qualifying effort to finish seventh. With only two points separating those two, that should put Kvapil into third over Renfrew.
However, both are still within a dozen points of Davis with five races left, leaving the PLM championship wide open heading down the stretch.
On the LMSC side, it was Connor Hall with a 28-point lead entering Wilkesboro over Brent Crews. Just one point separates Crews and Queen in third. However, Hall and Crews were both involved in the massive pileup on lap 8, with Hall receiving the worst damage.
With his No. 22 mangled in front, Hall flew into the garage area under the red flag, where his Nelson Motorsports team furiously transformed his No. 22 into a modified car. They completely sawed off the front end of Hall’s car in about 10 minutes.
Against all odds, with points at stake, Hall returned to the race.
Crews only managed a 10th-place finish, while Hall nursed his car home for a 18th-place run. A trackbar broke late in the Hall machine, only furthering his troubles. Still a valiant effort from the No. 22 camp.
Queen went on to lead the most laps and finished fifth, which pulls him and Crews right back into the championship fight. Queen was the second fastest car all night but late-race shuffling and contact with third-place Mini Tyrrell forced him back to fifth.
After Hall managed to open up a gap in points, the last two races have closed that gap back up, as Crews, Queen and Carson Kvapil (fifth in points entering Wilkesboro) all gained ground on him.
But don’t count out Lapcevich either.
The Canadian entered Wilkesboro fourth in points before pulling off the win. Lapcevich entered 37 points behind Hall, gaining roughly half of that back with his win. He has quietly finished top-five and top-10 all year, and this win could be just what Lapcevich needs for a chance at back-to-back titles in two series that couldn’t be any more different.
Reverend 100 & Window World 125 Results
What’s Next?
The zMAX CARS Tour heads to Ace Speedway for the second time this season for a Friday night showdown on Aug. 9.
The brothers Kvapil swept the evening at Ace back on May 4, with Caden leading every lap en route to the PLM win, and Carson taking the lead late to win the LMSC event. Ace is Carson’s playground in particular, as he has three LMSC wins at the track.
Coverage for the zMAX CARS Tour at Ace Speedway begins Friday, Aug. 9 at 5 p.m. ET with the PLM division. The LMSC division will follow shortly after at approximately 7 p.m. ET. As always, FloRacing will have the race broadcast.
Anthony Damcott joined FrontstretchΒ in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter, among many other duties he takes on for the site. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.