Carson and Caden Kvapil Both Win With CARS Tour at Ace

It was a family affair at Ace Speedway Friday night, as Carson and Caden Kvapil swept the zMAX CARS Tour’s visit to the Altamahaw, North Carolina facility.

However, the two brothers’ paths to victory lane contrasted sharply.

Carson Kvapil needed a late-race charge to score his win, taking the lead with 23 laps to go from Ryan Millington. Carson qualified eighth out of a field of 25 competitors, and had to work his way forward over the first 100 laps of the event.

“That was a race that was pretty difficult for us, honestly,” said Carson Kvapil in victory lane. “I felt like I messed up a little bit in qualifying. I felt like we had a better car than eighth place. We just made up track position as we could throughout the race.

“I didn’t think at the beginning of the race, we were all that great. As the race went on, it seemed like the car came to us, and we just got better and better.”

Regardless, he is now a three-time winner in CARS Tour competition at Ace after sweeping the series’ races there in 2023.

“I don’t really know why, but this place has been really good to us last year and obviously tonight. This is one of our favorite tracks for this team. It seems like we always have good speed here.”

Brenden Queen finished second, a critical bounce-back effort as he hopes to rally from a sluggish start to the year that had him seventh in series points entering Friday’s race at Ace.

“I was super happy it was real competitive,” said Queen. “I had no doubt, with Lee Pulliam turning the wrenches on this thing. This whole organization works harder than anybody I’ve ever seen. They might have laughed at us the last couple of weeks, but we’re going to keep fighting and get back in this.

“No waffles for us tonight, but seeing that right there fuels me to get the next one at Wilkesboro and kick it off like last year when we got our first win.”

Millington settled for a third-place finish with a car that handled poorly over the finishing stretch due to a track bar issue.

“Overall, it was a great night to come here and be fast all weekend, to qualify on the pole like we did,” said Millington. “I can’t complain a bit. As soon as we got down here, I told them there’s a problem in the back. We started shaking the car and found that the left-side track bar came loose and dropped all the way down. That ended up screwing us, because we had a really good piece.

“Lap 70 or 80, man, I was still riding, biding my time. Stuff happens, right? Mistakes are made, you’ve just got to learn from them. That’s all you can do. Solid P3 tonight. Just got to go back to the shop, regroup, try to build off this for Wilkesboro.”

Meanwhile, Caden Kvapil dominated the 100-lap Pro Late Model feature, leading every lap from the pole to take the checkered flag.

Kvapil, who won last year’s zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship, now has his first series win in 2024 and the sixth of his career.

“We had a dominant car here tonight,” said Kvapil in victory lane. “When we started on pole, I knew we were going to be pretty good. That’s exactly how it was. The car never really fell off at all throughout the whole race.

“I was able to manage a good gap from me to second place. Just had to get good restarts. We were able to do that and get one lap clear and start to drive away.”

Spencer Davis finished second after qualifying eighth, another strong points night in what is shaping up to be a fierce championship battle with Kaden Honeycutt and Kyle Campbell.

However, Davis is hungry for his first win with the series.

“We’ve got a sixth, second, third and second so far, so we’ve been the bridesmaids twice,” said Davis. “We rode around there at the beginning, just got beat around with some inexperience. We did the choose cone and got our way up. We actually had a really good car after that lap 40 competition caution.

“We just didn’t have enough for that 35 [of Kvapil]. I went too hard too early and burned off the front tires. I wish we came back. I love this race track. I did a lot of testing here when I was very, very little in Pro Trucks and stuff, ran some Modifieds. I’m thankful for the CARS Tour, that we go here and the series they put on. It’s been real good. Bridesmaid again, though.”

Honeycutt finished third, with William Sawalich and Conner Jones rounding out the top five.

The next stop for the zMAX CARS Tour is historic North Wilkesboro Speedway. The Pro Late Models compete on Tuesday, May 14, with the Late Model Stock Cars racing on Wednesday, May 15. The events are part of the build-up to the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro on Sunday, May 19.

-Photo credit: zMAX CARS Tour

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