THORNBURG, Va. — Up until Saturday’s Mini’s Mission Burn Rubber to Help Another 125, there had not been a repeat winner in the zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour at Dominion Raceway across nine previous visits.
Fittingly, Mini Tyrrell changed that trend. Saturday marked the fourth consecutive year Tyrrell’s charity, Mini’s Mission, sponsored the Dominion CARS Tour event, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that was started by Tyrrell to raise awareness towards childhood cancer following his childhood friend Ella’s own diagnosis.
A lot has changed for Tyrrell since his first CARS LMSC Tour victory at Dominion last year. He is now a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor with Kaulig Racing after winning RAM’s Race For The Seat, but an off weekend gave Tyrrell the opportunity to enjoy an event that has grown into a proud CARS Tour tradition.
It took Tyrrell almost the entirety of Saturday’s 125-lap feature, but he found his way to the lead after a daring three-wide pass on Conner Jones and his Kaulig teammate Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen with five laps left. Perfect execution on the ensuing restart was all Tyrrell needed to earn his second straight Dominion win and his fifth overall in the LMSC Tour.
“I didn’t think we had it,” Tyrrell said. “Carson [Brown] and Conner [Jones] were the two best cars. I thought we were equally as good, we just didn’t have the track position on them. They got to racing down there in [turns] one and two, I saw my opportunity and just knew that was the only way I could win the race. We held on and fought to the end.”
Parker Eatmon finished second, with Queen, Carson Brown and Chad McCumbee completing the top five.
The finish:
Mini Tyrrell, Parker Eatmon, Brenden Queen, Carson Brown, Chad McCumbee, Caden Kvapil, Greyten Lapcevich, London McKenzie, Doug Barnes Jr., Matt Gould, Mason Diaz, Helio Meza, Brandon Pierce, Chase Burrow, Brady Penny, Carson Loftin, Brian Henderson, Conner Jones, Jared Fryar, Landon Huffman, Jace Hale, Landen Lewis, Donovan Strauss, Mason Bailey, Connor Hall.
