ASHEBORO, N.C. — Renowned for his clean, consistent nature as a competitor, one accomplishment Jared Fryar had yet to reach in the zMAX CARS Tour was a multi-win season in either platform.
The 2020 CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour champion finally reached that milestone on Wednesday evening at his home track of Caraway Speedway. Fryar took advantage of a late crash between leaders Landen Lewis and Mini Tyrrell in the Firecracker 265 to claim his third Caraway LMSC Tour victory.
While Fryar celebrated his sixth LMSC Tour win, Brandon Lopez pulled into Cook Out Victory Lane for the first time in his CARS Pro Late Model Tour career. Like Fryar, circumstances played out in Lopez’ favor, who had to survive a chaotic PLM Tour feature to bring home a checkered flag.
When Jared Fryar last prevailed at Caraway Speedway in 2023, he did not get the chance to enjoy the moment in Cook Out Victory Lane, as he inherited the win after Layne Riggs was disqualified.
There was no such wait for Fryar on Wednesday evening, who eagerly climbed out of his No. 14 Ford to celebrate with his crew.
“It’s awesome to win two in a year, that’s a first for me,” Fryar said. “We’ve won them and lost a lot of them, so to win two in one year is awesome. Things are clicking so good right now for me and my team. I’m super lucky to have opportunities at wins like this. They get special every time and it’s so cool to keep winning these races.”
Caraway has always been a special track to Fryar, as the facility is located less than 30 minutes from his hometown of Trinity, North Carolina.
Fryar utilized all his prior Caraway experience to knock out a third-place lap in qualifying, but he quickly found himself at the mercy of Mini Tyrrell and Landen Lewis. Despite initially being able to pressure Tyrrell for the lead, Fryar eventually faded to third while Lewis took control of the race in the closing laps.
Once Lewis and Tyrrell were eliminated from contention following a restart crash, nothing impeded Fryar from visiting victory lane.
“We got lucky when [Lewis and Tyrrell] slipped out of turn two and got together in what I thought was a racing deal,” Fryar said. “I feel like their cars were definitely better than [mine]. I squeezed by, had a good restart and kept it out front. With all the rain, we only got like 12 laps of practice, so to do it like this was pretty cool too.
Another strong night for Kaden Honeycutt ends with second-place run
The lone midweek race on the 2025 CARS LMSC Tour calendar provided Kaden Honeycutt an opportunity to return to his Late Model Stock roots.
“This is my family,” Honeycutt said. “I love everybody that gives me the chance to do what I love to do. We just want to win races. I’m definitely disappointed being in second, but it’s been March since we’ve ran together as a group, so I’m very happy with [everything].”
Tristan McKee, Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Doug Barnes Jr. completed the top five.
Pro Late Models
After starting in 10th, Lopez took advantage of several yellow flags to methodically work his way forward and earn a breakthrough victory that he admitted required tremendous patience to pull off.
“I can’t thank [Bryson Lopez Racing] enough for sticking behind me,” Lopez said. “It’s been a long two years and never really knew anything about car racing until my stepbrother convinced me to get into it. I didn’t think my first win would come in the CARS Tour, but we’re winners.”
Brody Gunter finished second, followed by Tyler Reif, Mason Walters and Cody Ware.
The finish:
Jared Fryar, Kaden Honeycutt, Tristan McKee, Ronnie Bassett Jr., Doug Barnes Jr., Chase Burrow, Donovan Strauss, Kade Brown, Carson Loftin, Brandon Ward, Chad McCumbee, Connor Hall, Landen Lewis, Ryan Wilson, Dylan Ward, Parker Eatmon, Andrew Grady, Lanie Buice, Brandon Pierce, Landon Huffman, Trevor Ward, Zack Wells, Conner Jones, Mini Tyrrell, Max Reaves, Grant Davidson.
