In the 81st start for the driver of the No. 81 Toyota, Mini Tyrrell couldn’t be stopped in his namesake race, the Mini’s Mission 125 at Dominion Raceway.
The polesitter led nearly all of the 125-lap event, moving himself closer to the zMax CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car Series championship lead held by runner-up finisher Connor Hall, who he fended off in a final six-lap dash to the finish set off when Brandon Pierce stopped on track with a problem while running in the top 10.
Tyrrell held off the likes of Conner Jones, Chad McCumbee and Hall on restarts throughout the night.
“I’m speechless,” Tyrrell said to FloRacing. “I knew we were good. I knew the guys behind us were pretty good too. If I could take my time on the corner, I would. It worked out. I’ve raced here for five years, and I finished second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. For three of those years, it’s been the Mini’s Mission 125.
“What we’re doing this weekend is bigger than racing. Everybody here won the race tonight in making those kids smile, but it’s just the cherry on top that we can sit here and celebrate with a CARS Tour check in victory lane.”
Hall worked his way up to second after starting 10th, taking the CARS Tour points lead with another consistent night.
“As a competitor, I wanted one more spot,” Hall said. “Given the bad luck in the last four weeks we’ve had at the race track, this was a good step in the right direction. We fought pretty tight tonight, and it made it pretty hard to race for certain position. That kind of penalized us a little bit. Overall, I though we had a really fast Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris [No.] 88.”
McCumbee was the only other driver to lead laps, coming home third at night’s end.
“This was a special race,” McCumbee said. “I certainly wanted to win it for my group. [I’m] super happy for Mini. That was a lot of fun on that last restart, so much side by side [racing], super clean. We never touched not one time, but he just had a little bit better car than we did today. [I’m] super proud of this effort though, second race on this car. We got a little positive momentum now, and momentum is everything, especially in a series this difficult.”
Tristian McKee and Lanie Buice completed the top five, with Doug Barnes Jr, Daniel Silvestri, Aaron Donnelly, Chase Burrow and Landen Lewis rounding out the top 10.
Jones stalked Tyrrell from second place for most of the day after battling hard on most restarts, but the 19-year-old spun on a restart with 21 laps to go, getting the worst of a three-wide battle with McKee and Lewis.
Donovan Strauss set up that unfortunate restart for Jones after parking his car in turn 3 with 22 laps to go.
Lewis worked his way into the top five at one point after pitting for adjustments on the first competition caution. But in the closing laps, the former points leader faded with heavy left side door damage, eventually getting into the No. 2 of Pierce to cause the final caution.
Caden Kvapil spun on after the first competition caution with 79 laps to go. Carson Lofton and Connor Weddell both received heavy damage on the frontstretch.
The fastest car in practice Tate Fogleman, Landon Pembelton and Cade Brown were involved in a crash in the first attempt at a start, Fogleman and Pembelton sustained too much damage to continue, while Brown was able to start the race and recover to finish 15th.
Mini’s Mission 125 Results
The CARS Tour returns to action at Caraway Speedway on Wednesday, July 2. Covering will begin on FloRacing at 7 p.m. ET.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing