Rain had the final say on Saturday evening at Caraway Speedway, forcing organizers to postpone the zMAX CARS Tour TCPS Plumbing 250 until Sunday afternoon. What began as an inconvenience turned into a showcase of persistence and precision, with Landen Lewis and Kaden Honeycutt each claiming victory in the rescheduled program. One does not often witness such straightforward demonstrations of character on a short track, yet here they were, delivered without fanfare or excuse.
Lewis produced a comeback worthy of recollection in the Late Model Stock feature. After committing a commitment zone violation while preparing for a restart, he surrendered the lead and dropped to the rear of the field. The North Carolina driver then methodically carved his way forward through 125 laps, securing the win by more than two seconds.
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“First off, I want to thank all my guys for giving me a car where I can go and do that,” said Lewis. “I want to apologize, for making a mistake that I’m far from making, I shouldn’t make those mistakes where we’re at in racing. I guess I’ll never hit the orange cone again.
“I’m sure [car owner] Kevin [Harvick]’s pretty pumped about that one. He would have been proud of me there. Discipline is what it took to get back to the front. Just pick them off one at a time, make up for their mistakes, just try to capitalize on them.”
While Lewis navigated the field with notable resolve, he directed genuine appreciation toward his Kevin Harvick, Inc. team for providing machinery equal to the task.
“I give this one to my team at the end of the day. They’re the ones that work their butts off every day, and I’m there with them. At the end of the day, without them, I wouldn’t be here. I think this is a group effort, but it’s probably one of my favorite wins I’ve ever, ever raced. To come from the back, back to the front, just taught us all the discipline and not to give up. It just never ended, and keep fighting.”
Conner Jones crossed the line in second, having led the most laps only to watch Lewis charge through. The effort evidently extracted a toll on his tires.
“I feel like we led the most laps,” said Jones. “It’s tough to go out like that. It was hard racing the whole time. I feel like I probably used and abused my rear tires a little too much there towards the end and just gave them the advantage on the restart.”
Caden Kvapil advanced from the 11th starting spot to finish third, advancing his championship aspirations despite an afternoon that demanded adjustments.
“It was definitely pretty hectic,” said Kvapil. “We didn’t have the best car, by no means. We started 11th, but I thought it was going to be fine. I thought we had a really good race-run car in practice, and qualified a little better than we were expecting, honestly.
“I guess, just being in the daytime, rather than night, we were too free everywhere from the start. I thought we were going to be way too loose by the end of it and not really have a good finish. We did really good on restarts and were able to get a lot of spots, made moves when I needed to and put ourselves in a decent position at the end.”
In the 100-lap Pro Late Model feature, Honeycutt seized the lead shortly before halfway and defended it through a series of late cautions that tested both patience and execution. Those yellow flags required flawless restarts, yet he maintained composure while the field sorted itself behind.
“I just hate that we had yellows there,” said Honeycutt. “I just needed to take control on the restart. It’s really difficult here to choose the bottom or the top. I feel like, as the leader, you can go either way. I just wanted to make the right decision there, and thankfully, we did.
“I love the Late Model stuff, man. The Pro Late Model stuff and the CARS Tour is as hard as it gets right now. A lot of the CARS Tour guys went to the Derby last year for the Flake, and we put on a really good race and we were all up front. This series is no joke. Across the Pro Late Model scale and the Late Model Stock scale, it’s really awesome to be able to win with this series.”
Rodney Dowless, Jr. emerged from the chaos with a runner-up result—his first podium with the CARS Pro Late Model Tour.
“I was extremely happy, very happy,” said Dowless. “First podium of the year, and the first with the CARS Tour, so I’m ecstatic.
“I think Kaden Honeycutt did a really good job. I don’t think I could have gotten him. He had a pretty big lead. I just tried to stay consistent, stay clean and stay out of it.”
Conner Jones, a four-time Late Model Stock winner with the series including a triumph this season at Wake County Speedway, continues his pursuit of a first Pro Late Model victory here. He took third after a spirited exchange with Brody Monahan.
“It was fun. He got me back from what I did to him earlier in the race. I crossed him back over, and I was able to pull away a little bit. We’ve struggled with this car all weekend, so hats off to my guys on coming down [pit road] early in the race, making an adjustment and getting this thing where I can at least drive it.”
The zMAX CARS Tour now turns its attention to Ace Speedway on May 9, where both the Late Model Stock Cars and Pro Late Models will resume their unyielding contest. In racing, as in most endeavors worth pursuing, delays sometimes reveal what truly endures.
Featured image by Daniel Vining
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