WILLIAMSTON, S.C.- For the first time since 2017, the zMAX CARS Tour made a stop at Anderson Motor Speedway Saturday (Aug. 16) with both the Pro Late Models and Late Model Stock cars.
🏁 @landenlewis99 victorious at @amspeedway! @CARSTour #CARSTour pic.twitter.com/HH40F9qNjX
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 17, 2025
With Dale Earnhardt Jr. back in CARS Tour field, a sold out crowd in Anderson County saw Landen Lewis pick up his third win of the season, inching ever closer to Earnhardt’s driver, Connor Hall, in the championship battle.
Some personal perseverance, a fan favorite’s late charge and the return of the ‘Baseball Car’ highlighted the Tour’s return to Anderson Speedway, here are three takeaways from the Bennett Equipment 225.
A Night of Personal Redemption For Landen Lewis
Over the course of the summer, Lewis and his driving style have been a hot topic in the CARS Tour community.
Every week, the Kevin Harvick Inc. team shows up with speed. And 99% of the time, Lewis has the car at the front of the field where it belongs. But mistakes have kept the team from finishes they deserved.
An incident on late restarts at both Caraway Speedway and Hickory Motor Speedway turned top-three finishes into wrecked racecars in the blink of an eye. In both incidents, Lewis took a bulk of the blame from his competitors.
‘The guy who tears up racecars’ is not the label anyone wants. Lewis himself would be the first one to tell you, that’s not who he wants to be.
After canceling a trip to help his team fix the wrecked racecar from Hickory, Lewis and the KHI team showed up to Anderson with a new approach, an attitude fine-tuned to chase a championship, a more long-term goal than week-to -week race wins.
After a troublesome and frustrating couple of races, Lewis parked the No. 29 back in victory lane Saturday, racing the No. 14 of Jared Fryar clean all the way to the finish.
There’s no better way to find redemption within yourself than what Lewis did in front of a sizable crowd at Anderson.
“It’s electric honestly,” Lewis told Frontstretch. “You don’t really get this feeling anywhere else. It’s super cool to win out in front of this big crowd like that. Like I said in my interview earlier, it shows that short track racing is still alive and these fans love it.”
“The races I have won this year have been big, and that’s even more special.”
With Saturday’s win, the championship fight is on. Four races remain, with less than 10 points between Lewis and Hall at the top of the standings and Mini Tyrrell, Kade Brown and Landon Huffman in toe.
The path to a title is simple: Lewis and the No. 29 team just have to execute.
‘Late Race Landon’ Huffman Falls One Spot Short
Is ‘Late Race Landon’ an official nickname?
No, absolutely not. But it seems fitting considering how Huffman’s entire 2025 has gone.
Time after time we’ve seen the No. 57 come on strong at the end of races, coming up just short of victory. Races at Orange County, Ace and Caraway all come to mind.
Saturday night at Anderson was no different. A mid-pack qualifying effort was followed by a heroic charge through the field in the closing laps, just to come up one spot behind Lewis in the end.
“Qualifying again hurt us a little bit,” Huffman told Frontstretch post-race. “We’ve just been so good late in the race, for whatever reason I’ve been able to manage my stuff. Week in, week out, we’re arguably the best car. Well, we are the best car at the end of these races. We’ve just got to work on the front half.
“Maybe I’ve got to be a little more aggressive racing with some guys back there. I’m a lot nicer than I should be when I’m racing there mid-pack but I feel like that also gives me an opportunity to be here at the end.”
There’s no doubt the speed is there for the Carroll Speedshop team, and Huffman has made some incredible drives through the field this season. It makes you wonder when, not if, the win is coming.
While Florence hasn’t historically been a great track for Huffman, South Boston and Tri-County certainly have. If Huffman can put the No. 57 closer to the front of the field in the beginning, the chances of a second CARS Tour win are real.
Keep your hopes up Claremont Posse, a Pockets & Brews party may be just around the corner.
Dale Jr. Brings Back The Baseball Car
For many race fans, the ‘Baseball Car’ driven by Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR’s 2001 Pepsi 400 is one held near and dear to the heart. And much like the classic Bud 8 back in November, the iconic scheme was brought back to life Saturday night at Anderson.
Sporting a new modern touch highlighting the Speedway Classic played at Bristol Motor Speedway a few weeks prior, Earnhardt brought back the classic white-and-red Budweiser look to the delight of many in the short track community.
⚠️ @DaleJr goes around with 73 to go at @amspeedway! @CARSTour #CARSTour pic.twitter.com/kSQqcNv7M0
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 17, 2025
Earnhardt qualified 22nd, possibly in honor of the legal drinking age being 21+ – we kid – before working his way through the field to a top-10 finish by night’s end. It wasn’t without drama, as contact with Lanie Buice saw Earnhardt spin down the front straightaway near the halfway point of the race.
Still, another top-10 run is solid for a guy who doesn’t do this week after week, even if that guy is a NASCAR Hall of Famer. The love of both throwback schemes, and seeing Earnhardt at the track has many wondering, how long will it last?
The answer is simple: Until it isn’t fun anymore.
“I’m not going to run this stuff too much longer,” Earnhardt said. “I’m going to run a few more years. I need this Tour to have success. … going to these types of tracks, racing in front of these types of people, it’s really nostalgic, it’s kind of fun.
“I do this because it’s fun, I don’t need or have to do it. I love the Tour, I love this type of racing and I want to be around it, … I come here and I’m like man, what if I showed up and I didn’t drive, I might wish I would have raced. I’m trying to push myself to run a little bit more.
“I’m gonna run until I’m not enjoying it, which I don’t see that happening any time soon, until I think I’m not good enough. All these guys are coming out of the goodness of their heart, their buddies and friends, if I feel like I’m wasting their whole weekend, we’ll think about doing something different.”
The question remains unanswered as to whether or not we’ll see another Budweiser throwback hit the track on a Late Model Stock car.
Maybe Earnhardt will be content to run the classic red scheme until he hangs it up. Who knows, maybe the graphics team is working on a Born on Date 2004 Daytona 500 template as we speak. The throwbacks are two-for-two on delighting fans and bringing them to the track so far.
What’s Next
The Tour will take a weekend off before heading back to the Palmetto State on Friday, August 29 at Florence Motor Speedway. The event serves as a prelude to NASCAR’s Southern 500 weekend, just up the road at Darlington Raceway. All coverage can be found live on FloRacing.
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.