It Was a ‘Great Night’ for DGM Racing Amid Odd O’Reilly Charlotte Race

CONCORD, N.C. — It was probably one of the oddest races – if not the oddest – in Charlotte Motor Speedway when it comes to the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday night, May 23.

Amid a weekend that has an overcast of tragedy enveloping it following the loss of NASCAR legend Kyle Busch, a literal overcast hung over the 1.5-mile speedway and halted almost all on-track activity planned for the day.

That is, until the O’Reilly race took the green flag. Amid six cautions and a near five-hour red flag, the race finally ended immediately after the conclusion of stage two when it was finally official.

But when the mist settled, underdog team DGM Racing found both of its entries within the top 15 finishers.

“Part of me wishes we could have ran some more,” team owner Mario Gosselin told Frontstretch. “But you know, top 10, everything’s in one piece. I mean, it’s a good night, and my other car, the No. 92 car finished 15th, so I mean definitely a good night for DGM.”

Their two cars were first timers when it came to DGM success, too. One was the JR Motorsports regular Carson Kvapil, who earned his first top 10 for the team. The other was Leland Honeyman, who returned after being out of the series for nearly seven months since the season finale at Phoenix Raceway last year.

For Kvapil, the result was another step in the right direction as the 23-year-old continues his quest to compete for the series championship. However, his day started on the wrong foot. With no qualifying or practice, Kvapil’s starting position was based on the rulebook.

“I feel like, obviously, practicing, qualifying, getting rained out was not good for the car I’m in and stuff, right?” Kvapil told Frontstretch post-race. “I feel like I would have liked to get out there and make some laps. … It just kind of puts you behind for the day, I guess you could say.”

What was more frustrating was, ironically, his confidence in his No. 91 Chevrolet. To his pleasure, Kvapil’s car seemed to have speed all night. The only problem was that there wasn’t enough green flag time to move forward in the pack. The Mooresville, N.C. native simply ran out of time before he could get further through the field.

“We never even got to race,” Kvapil said. “I think, overall, these guys on this No. 91 Clearance Technology Chevrolet brought us a good car, and I felt like there was times where we were really good, and there were times we kind of struggled, but at the same time, I feel like this race was all about just kind of restarts.

“So, I just hate it for all these guys that we couldn’t run the whole race, but I feel like we still came out with a decent finish in ninth.”

Team owner Gosselin shared his sentiment. However, he still sees the positivity of a decent finish.

“We never really got the full potential of ‘Alright, did we go enough or we need to do more,’ and I feel like we were one adjustment away from having a really, really good car, but then again, you look back and you had oil in the corner that took four or five cars, and we’re right there in the middle of it.

“It could have been us, right?”

But it wasn’t, and what’s more is that Kvapil earned that decent finish with a team where decent finishes don’t come often. Running a limited schedule with the team and bringing JRM support with him, DGM looks forward to whenever Kvapil is in the car as it brings a real chance at success.

“All these guys, I’m sure they look forward to whenever we’re running the car,” Kvapil continued. “It’s an opportunity for us to get a good points day and go hopefully run up front. But for them I feel like they kind of bring their A-game. They kind of circle these races on the schedule, and it’s cool to work with these guys.”

On the other side of the DGM garage was the sister team of the No. 92 Chevrolet driven by 21-year-old Honeyman. Also from Mooresville, N.C., Honeyman is in a two-race deal with DGM that will continue into next weekend’s race at Nashville Superspeedway.

With only two races, Honeyman is looking to make a lasting impression on the team to try to secure more starts. After being away from a car for seven months, combined with no practice, that might seem like a tall order.

However, despite an impressive top-15 result, he believes it was right where he expected to be.

“I expect to be there,” Honeyman told Frontstretch. “Like, I don’t want to not give myself the top 20 or top 15, whatever it is, and if I go out there and I finish 25th, you know, I’m going to be upset with myself. I want to come to these things and win. That’s always my goal, but we just kept getting better and better all night, and there were some cars in front of us I think we could have picked off.”

It’s nothing to sneeze at. For a driver that’s been outside of the car for the whole season, climbing into a team you’re not familiar with is no easy task. That said, Honeyman, despite not piloting any race cars in that time, was still making sure to do his homework.

“I’ve been at a couple of the races this year just keeping my, I guess my knowledge, up with everything and how everything’s changing,” Honeyman said. “And not a lot’s changed, but it’s just important to be there and when you’re there you know everything when you have a headset on you’re more focused on everything that’s going on around you, … but if you’re there every single weekend you’ll be good to go, so biggest thing is seat time, right?

“My first laps in seven months were the first that was the start of the race. I know seven months isn’t a really long time. Some people might say it is, some people might say it’s not, but, to me, I’m a race car driver. I’m doing it at a very high level, considered, a professional, I guess, top 1%, right? I should be able to get in these cars and do that.”

Despite their gripes about wishing they had more, it was a night that still ended with DGM’s second top-10 of the season and perhaps the best combined result this year overall.

And if it weren’t for those efforts that make the underdog teams work a little harder, promising drivers such as Honeyman and Kvapil wouldn’t have the chance to show their true mettle.

“They’re some of the most real racers in the garage,” Kvapil said of the DGM team. “They’re usually the ones here until they get kicked out on practice days and stuff so it’s just cool.

I like Mario and this whole group, and I really look forward to the next time I go with them.”