RIDGEWAY, V.A.- After a year of ups and downs, Connor Hall cemented his legacy at JR Motorsports Saturday (Sept. 27) night at Martinsville Speedway.
The performance in this year’s 30th rendition of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 for JR Motorsports was nothing to write home about. Hall and the No. 88 spent most of the night in the fifth-to-eighth range before fading to 11th at nights end.
However, following a win in the Thunder Road Harley Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway and a runner-up finish in the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway, the 11th-place finish was enough to secure the revamped Virginia Triple Crown title for Hall at night’s end.
The 2025 seasonhasn’t come without challenges for Hall and JRM, that’s no secret. There have been plenty of highs, like two zMAX CARS Tour wins on the year and the big victory at South Boston. There have also been some lows – stretches of inexplicable struggles, especially throughout the summer months.
Yet as Martinsville has come and gone, Hall now calls himself something no other JR Motorsports late model driver before him can: a Virginia Triple Crown champion.
2025 Virginia Triple Crown Winners!
— Connor Hall (@connorhallweb) September 28, 2025
Mixed emotions post race last night, everyone goes for the clock. To be running in the top 5 with 25 to go we were trying our best to get there. We will keep trying for that grandfather clock but for now finally starting to soak in this win! pic.twitter.com/uPl0vXld10
While the CARS Tour title is still up for grabs, that alone is something Hall has now delivered to JRM for the first time in team history. These days, opportunities to make that claim are limited with the historic success the team has had. Still, Hall found a way to permanently etch his name in the JRM history books.
That – and the $20,000 payday that now comes along with it – is something Hall is proud of.
“Anytime that I can do a first of something at that organization is obviously something cool,” Hall said postrace. “I just got off the phone with Dale [Earnhardt Jr.], he’s pumped up about it, which obviously makes me feel better about it. It’s cool to kind of etch my name in the JR Motorsports late model programs history, even if it’s something such as a Triple Crown and some CARS Tour wins and what not.
“I want to finish the season out strong with them and hopefully snag a CARS Tour championship to add onto it as well.”
With his departure from JRM upcoming, new opportunities are on the horizon for Hall in 2026 and beyond. While he was tight-lipped about specific details, signs seem to be pointing towards Hall going NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racing in some capacity next season.
Hall is now faced with a similar situation to Brenden Queen from a year ago. A late model guy throughout his entire career with the opportunity to go race at the national level. It’s the break every late model guy hopes for. But when it happens, it’s hard to leave the short track roots behind.
“I have a hard time myself comparing to others,” Hall said. “When you wake up in the morning and I walk to my sink in my bathroom, I look in the mirror and it’s the same guy I’ve looked at the last 10,000 years of my life. I’m just me to me, and I feel like I’m a pretty lowkey guy when it comes to how I approach the racing.
“I don’t go around trying to toot my own horn saying I’ve done this, I’ve done that,” Hall said. “Late Model racing has honestly made who I am today. There’s a lot of good coming and I don’t want to say too much, but it is a little sad to me that, in a good way, my time as a full-time late model guy is kind of gone. I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t make me emotional a little bit. It’s what I’ve dedicated my whole life too, I grew up never thinking I would get these opportunities so it is something I’m really thankful for.”
As it stands, Hall has quite the legacy to leave behind in Late Model Stock racing. He’s a track champion at Langley Speedway, a Hampton Heat winner, a two-time South Boston 200 winner. Hall won back to back NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series national championships in 2023 and 2024. Even if he can’t capture the CARS Tour title at season’s end, he’ll leave with at least seven wins on his CARS resume.
The one thing missing for Hall is a grandfather clock, the prize so many work so hard to acquire. Many never do, yet the great ones seem to find a way. Hall took pictures with the Triple Crown trophy on the front straightaway Saturday night, looking directly at the clock on the stage.
Did it bother him? Well, it certainly drives him to keep coming back for more.
“Yeah,” Hall said. “I said I don’t know who it will be with or what the circumstances will be, but I will literally keep running this race until I go home with one, and then I can probably lay my late model career to bed.”
Hall went on telling stories about his early years of late model racing, at times not being able to race at Martinsville due to funding, and his father not wanting to tear up the equipment they had. It’s the one race that keeps pulling even the best in Late Model Stock racing back for more, just look at Saturday’s runner up, Lee Pulliam.
Will it pan out at the next level? For Hall’s sake, hopefully so. It doesn’t always, and often by no fault of the driver.
But should it not, what Hall has to fall back on is not only a crafted legacy in just one year at JRM but the stamp of approval from Dale Earnhardt Jr., and that alone is worth more than any sponsor can buy.
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.