Ryan Millington, Spencer Davis Score Elusive Wins in CARS Tour at Florence

Before the Cook Out Southern 500 weekend gets underway at Darlington Raceway, the zMAX CARS Tour visited nearby Florence Motor Speedway for the Cook Out 225. The event saw two new additions to the list of CARS Tour winners in 2024, as Ryan Millington and Spencer Davis both took checkered flags.

Ryan Millington Snags Elusive CARS Tour Late Model Stock Victory

After several close calls, Ryan Millington finally scored his first zMAX CARS Tour victory of the season Friday night at Florence Motor Speedway.

Millington took the lead from Mini Tyrrell on lap 81 and held on for the victory, finishing ahead of Brenden Queen and Matt Cox.

Millington had been close to wins multiple times this season. The Statesville, North Carolina driver led 176 laps across two visits to Ace Speedway and 121 of 125 laps in the Throwback 276 at Hickory Motor Speedway. However, he had finishes of third, 14th and 14th across those three races to show for his efforts.

He was less dominant on Friday night at Florence, but had enough muscle to power his way to victory lane.

“I’m going to be honest, I didn’t think we had a shot tonight. We changed a lot yesterday in practice. I thought we had a decent car, but I didn’t realize we had all that.”

As is often the case at Florence Motor Speedway, strategy and tire management played a huge role in the outcome of the race. While many drivers elected to ride near the back of the field, saving for a late race push, Millington wanted track position.

He quickly worked his way into the top three, where he stayed for most of the race. Eventually, he took the lead from Mini Tyrrell and didn’t look back.

“I just knew right off the bat, I had to get some track position,” said Millington. “When I was there with Mini, I just knew I had to get around him, get out front and run my own race. I did it and it worked out for me.”

While Millington distanced himself from the field in the closing laps, Brenden Queen and Matt Cox waged a side-by-side battle for the second spot. When the checkered flag fell, Queen outraced Cox to the line by just over two tenths of a second.

“Matt [Cox] and I had a great race and didn’t wreck nobody, so that was cool,” said Queen. “Hats off to them for racing us like that.

“This Lee Pulliam team, they never quit. We want to win, we hate running second, but we have to shift our focus to the points deal. Seconds ain’t bad, top threes can win championships. We just have to capitalize on the 22 on nights like this, try to gain what we can and get the bonus points out there.”

Cox isn’t certain he had enough speed to chase down Millington if he were able to get in front of Queen for the second position, but their battle prevented him from getting enough clean race track to find out.

“We had a really good race car. We had to race the 03 [of Queen] there really hard at the end,” said Cox. “I don’t know if we could have done anything with the 15. He was really good, too. I would have liked to clear the 03, get the whole race track and some clean air and see what we could have done. He was really good, so hats off to them and congratulations to them.”

Unofficially, Connor Hall’s fourth-place finish allowed him to maintain a three-point advantage over Queen in the Late Model Stock points standings. While Queen finished two spots better, Hall received two bonus points for qualifying on the pole for the Late Model Stock portion of the Cook Out 225. Both drivers led laps in the early stages of the race, each earning one bonus point accordingly.

With the win, Ryan Millington also earned the pole position for the South Carolina 400 at Florence on November 22-23.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished 10th in the race, his second CARS Tour appearance of 2024.

Spencer Davis Takes Pro Late Model Points Lead With First Win

Spencer Davis used some veteran savvy to score his first career CARS Tour Pro Late Model victory.

Davis didn’t take the lead until lap 81 of the 100-lap Pro Late Model feature at Florence Motor Speedway on Friday. However, that was all part of the plan for the racer who had done battle many times on abrasive surfaces like the one at Florence.

“We knew we needed to manage the race,” said Davis. “There’s comers and there’s goers. There’s kids who just want to go out there and win. All them years racing Myrtle Beach and rough tracks up north, I knew I needed to run my pace. When it’s time to go, front row is king.

Davis briefly led in the early stages, taking the top spot from Tristan McKee before turning the advantage over to Jake Bollman at lap 20. Bollman started to stretch out his lead just before a competition caution, where Davis took advantage and jumped back out front.

“Bollman gave me a good, clean race for the lead,” said Davis. “We got it, never checked back. With five to go, I said hell, might as well stretch it out and show them what I’ve got.”

Bollman tipped his cap to Davis on his tire management, still pleased with a runner-up finish.

“It’s always good to be top three here in the CARS Tour,” said Bollman. “I’m still happy with it. It’s the first year in the CARS Tour for me, a podium is a podium. Definitely experience, Spencer probably got me on the experience side as far as saving. I feel like we did a pretty good job with it, but next time when we come back I’ll be better.”

Kaden Honeycutt scored another podium finish in his second race with Bryson Lopez Racing, backing up a runner-up finish at Ace Speedway two weeks ago.

“I undermined the tire saving,” said Honeycutt. “I felt like I could have beat the 24 if I had just started in front of him. I don’t know if I had anything for Spencer, but definitely had a little bit of work to do to catch him. All in all, second outing with the team, so it’s a good relationship that we’re building and we’re getting better each time.”

With the win, Davis unofficially moves into the points lead for the zMAX CARS Pro Late Model series. He entered the race tied with Honeycutt for the lead in the series standings. Caden Kvapil sat nine points behind the duo in third, but suffered an early exit from the race and finished 14th.

Kevin Harvick finished seventh in his zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model debut. Harvick previously competed in two Late Model Stock events under the CARS Tour banner, but Friday’s race was his first with the Pro Late Model in conjunction with Rackley W.A.R.

-Photo credit: CARS Tour

Cook Out 225 Unofficial Results
Late Model Stock Cars

Pro Late Models