NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — As the leaves begin to turn across the North Carolina foothills, the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway will once again come alive with the sound of roaring engines.
On Saturday, Oct. 18, fans of short-track racing will gather at the unique .625-mile short track with so much NASCAR history to enjoy a titan tripleheader where Late Model and Modified champions will be crowned as the zMAX CARS Tour and the SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic bring their 2025 seasons to a dramatic close.
The zMAX CARS Tour will headline the fall finale with a double feature, the Crossroads Harley-Davidson 125 for the Late Model Stock Cars and the Northwest Automotive 100 for the Pro Late Models, while the SMART Modified Tour will settle its championship in the Frontier Natural Gas 99, the last stop in its three-round playoff series.
This event has plenty of star power as rising star Keelan Harvick will renew his rivalry with his famous retired Cup Series driving father Kevin Harvick in the zMAX Cars Tour Pro Late Model class. In Late Model Stock, Landen Lewis and Connor Hall are atop the points standings, but Mini Tyrrell and Jared Fryar are bringing multi-winning resumes to the party.
Former Cup Series racer Ryan Newman leads the SMART Modifieds as one of three drivers pursuing championship glory.
The zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car championship will come down to a fierce duel between Landen Lewis and Connor Hall, separated by just 12 points after tempers flared in the penultimate round at Tri-County Speedway.
During the SoundGear 225, Fryar took his third win of the season after a spirited fight with Landon S. Huffman, but all eyes were on the championship contenders when Lewis and Hall made contact while racing for position inside the top five. Lewis dropped to ninth, while Hall recovered to finish third — tightening the title race to a razor-thin margin heading into North Wilkesboro.
Both Lewis, a four-time winner this season, and Hall, with two victories to his credit, know it all comes down to one last crisp October afternoon to grab the trophy in the Crossroads Harley-Davidson 125. Each driver will need to be on top of their game with drivers like Tyrrell and Fryar lurking to spoil the proceedings.
In the thrilling Pro Late Model division, Ben Maier holds the championship lead over Brandon Lopez, Dylan Garner and 18-year-old young gun Keelan Harvick, who’s captured three wins on the season, despite running a part-time schedule. One of those victories for Keelan came at North Wilkesboro earlier this year.
At Tri-County, T.J. DeCaire broke through for his first career zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model victory, edging out a competitive 19-car field to take the checkered flag over Bayley Currey, Isaac Kitzmiller, Maier and T.J. Duke.
With cooler temperatures and high stakes, the Northwest Automotive 100 promises to be a fitting cap to a season of breakout performances and future stars finding their footing.
The SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic will also bring its season to a close at North Wilkesboro, with the Frontier Natural Gas 99 serving as the final round of its playoff series.
In the tour’s most recent race, Carson Loftin held off a very determined Burt Myers for the win at Tri-County on Oct. 10. There was a brief “conversation” in the pits following the race as Myers’ crew confronted Loftin for apparently running Myers wide coming out of turn two on the final two laps. Myers said Loftin was “overdriving” and called the effort a “punk kid move”. Loftin said he was just trying to do whatever he could to hold him off and get the victory.
The trio of Newman, Luke Baldwin and Paulie Hartwig III, thanks to Hartwig’s third-place finish at Tri-County, will battle for the championship crown this weekend at North Wilkesboro. Newman finished 18th and Baldwin finished 23rd. Jake Crum, who entered the race in contention, was eliminated with a 26th place finish.
In a winner-take-all scenario, the highest-finishing driver of that trio at North Wilkesboro this weekend will be crowned the 2025 Champion of the SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic.
The sixth annual Moonshiners & Racer’s Reunion will be available to fans before the racing action gets underway on Saturday at North Wilkesboro, and is expected to be one of the main attractions for fans in attendance.
