Let’s give out some awards, shall we?
We’ve officially crossed the bridge into 2025, but we at Frontstretch have one last order of business before we can put the 2024 zMAX CARS Tour Season behind us.
2024 produced arguably the best season ever for the zMAX CARS Tour, with a compelling championship battle, major growth in popularity and recognition for the series and countless memorable moments from the first race to the last.
In the end, it was Brenden Queen who took home the championship hardware, celebrating at North Wilkesboro Speedway back in October as the season came to a close.
For the second year in a row, we’ve got our very own set of awards to give out. So let’s recognize those in the series who helped make the 2024 CARS season one for the ages.
Driver of The Year: Brenden Queen
When trying to make a pick for Driver of The Year, there’s no need to look any further than the guy who won the championship. Queen showed a combination of raw speed and unwavering consistency through different points of the season, and he did everything he had to do to win his first CARS Tour championship.
After being the runner-up a year ago, Queen earned our Driver of The Year award without a shadow of a doubt. Following a four-win campaign in 2023, Queen entered the year as one of the favorites to bag the title at season’s end.
After an uncharacteristically slow start, Queen and the No. 03 broke the dry spell with a dominant win at Tri-County Speedway in May, backing it up with a second win at Dominion Raceway just two weeks later. Queen led flag-to-flag in both races, catapulting himself back into the title fight.
While the Dominion race was ultimately the last time Queen found victory lane, he went on an impressive eight-race top-five streak to close the season, climbing out of a major points deficit to steal the championship away from Connor Hall in the final two races of the season.
Queen sets his sights on a new challenge in 2025: taking his talents to the ARCA Menards Series with Pinnacle Racing Group to chase a title at the next level.
Rookie of The Year: Brent Crews
In the span of a seven month Late Model Stock season, Brent Crews went from a kid with a lot of potential to one of the hottest prospects in the NASCAR community.
Anyone paying attention knew Crews had potential. Afterall, you don’t get to drive a full CARS Tour season for Kevin Harvick of all people without talent, especially at just 16 years of age.
Nonetheless, Crews went out and led 100 of 125 laps in his first ever CARS Tour start to open the season at Southern National Motorsports Park, putting the late model world on notice from the jump. Crews ultimately lost the lead late to Carson Kvapil, but the performance was a sign of things to come.
The teenage phenom went on to win three races over the course of the season, taking the checkered flag at Orange County Speedway, Caraway Speedway and Ace Speedway. He led the third most laps of any driver in the series.
The impressive season for Crews led to some fantastic opportunities for the 2025 season, as he’ll make starts for both Joe Gibbs Racing in the ARCA Menards Series and TRICON Garage in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Race of The Year: Caraway Speedway
Now, I know some of you may be thinking, “What about Langley Speedway?”
I get it, the three-wide finish was cool. But it was also manufactured by a green-white-checkered finish, so hear us out. Caraway was wacky from start to finish, from cars getting airborne to the best eight-lap run to the finish in series history.
Early on, Kvapil’s dominance was interrupted by Corey Heim climbing the wall and rolling over on the frontstretch. This bizarre event was directly followed by Heim’s teammate Queen nearly repeating the scene as he launched off the backstretch wall on the following restart.
Meanwhile, Hall had charged through the field, and when he found his way to the rear bumper of Kvapil’s car, he wasted no time introducing it to the front bumper of his own.
Finally, a late-race caution set up an eight-lap dash to the finish, and just when it seemed Hall was going to run away and hide, Kvapil returned the favor. As they say, the rest is history.
Six lead changes and three different leaders in the final eight laps as Hall, Kvapil, Crews and William Byron all fought at the front. In the end, Crews got the last laugh, giving the chrome horn to Hall in the final corner to cap the greatest eight laps of Late Model Stock racing you’ll ever see.
Performance of The Year: Carson Kvapil/South Boston
There were quite a few different directions we could have gone with this one, as both of Queen’s flag-to-flag wins come to mind as dominant performances.
However, the performance Kvapil put on at South Boston was special, and in a way it cemented his legacy as one of the series’ best as he moves on to bigger opportunities.
After a month away from the drivers seat of a Late Model Stock car, Kvapil returned to the series with authority at South Boston, going from sixth to first in the 125-lapper on a night when passing was at a premium.
After an epic battle with Layne Riggs and Ryan Millington for numerous laps, Kvapil put a slider on Riggs to climb to third with 26 laps to go. That left only Millington and Treyten Lapcevich in front of the two-time series champ.
The yellow flew a lap later, which set up a restart, and after the top two picked the top row, Kvapil was gifted an opportunity for the front row. Kvapil caught Millington napping, using the same wall-to-wall slider that he used on Riggs to steal the lead with 25 laps to go.
From there, it clear sailing for Kvapil, as he drove away to his 12th win in series history.
Quote of The Year: Landon Huffman/Andrew Grady
These two earned co-quote of the year honors because without one, we wouldn’t have the other. Both were equally polarizing and certainly earned publicity. We’ll leave you all to your own opinions on whether that publicity is good or bad.
When the series made its annual summer stop at Hickory Motor Speedway for the Throwback 276, tempers flared between Landon Huffman and Andrew Grady.
Huffman made contact with Grady on the exit of turn 2 early in the race, sending Grady spinning toward the inside wall and ending his night. All in all, it was a racing deal. However, Grady didn’t see it that way and had choice words for Huffman after climbing from the car.
“In the words of Denny Hamlin, Landon Huffman, you’re a hack,” Grady told Frontstretch. “It’s no wonder you lost your ride with the No. 22 [Nelson Motorsports]. … You’re a trash panda bud.”
Following the race, a fight broke out between Grady and another team along with some series officials, while Huffman found himself in an argument with JR Motorsports crew chief Bryan Shaffer.
In the midst of it all, Huffman clapped back at Grady with some words of his own.
“If he wants to call me a hack that’s fine,” Huffman told Frontstretch. “I’ve got a couple championships and about 40 Late Model Stock wins he can suck on.”
The comments went great for Huffman, as he landed a sponsorship deal with the Rocket City Trash Pandas, a Minor League Baseball team in Madison, Ala. The partnership was featured on Huffman’s car the following week at North Wilkesboro, and Huffman has recently teased future races for the team on social media.
Viral Moment of The Year: Three-Wide Langley Finish
Now more than ever, social media is king in the media world. The younger generations continue to embrace the wave of technology and social media, and it’s important to capture an audience with a quick soundbite or video clip to gain attention.
Therefore, the Viral Moment of The Year is meant to honor just that, a moment in the series that captured the attention of thousands and brought new eyes to the series in the process.
There was no better moment to receive this award than the three-wide photo finish between Crews, Hall and Kvapil at Langley Speedway that saw Hall take a hometown victory by just 0.007 seconds over Crews.
It was the closest finish between the top three in series history, as third place Kvapil was just 0.064 off of Hall at the checkered flag.
FloRacing‘s post of the finish alone got over 553,000 impressions on X (formerly Twitter) with the help of retweets from names like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck, along with quote tweets from NASCAR spotters and podcast hosts Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft as well as others in the motorsports world. It even got some love from influencer IcyVert.
In a time where social media is more important than ever, the Langley finish helped put the series on the map for many and created a footprint for years to come.
About the author
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.
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Really fun video with the 3 wide finish at Langley..The video is little long but it sets up well and is worth the watch.