ELON, N.C. — Friday’s zMAX CARS Tour AcceleratedGFX.com 285 at Ace Speedway saw competitors race themselves, the track and the weather.
With rain gradually surrounding the facility, CARS LMSC Tour drivers could not waste any time and spent every lap frantically battling for track position. The anticipated shower never arrived, resulting in a thrilling finish that created plenty of hurt feelings and left spectators amazed.
Several late race incidents eliminated many of the top contenders either due to crash damage or from being under penalty. When the dust settled, Brent Crews would be the one on top of the scoring pylon, earning his third victory of the season and keeping his LMSC Tour championship hopes alive.
The 100-lap Pro Late Model feature was almost equally as intense. Several drivers took turns out in the front of the field, but it would be Caden Kvapil overcoming early adversity to complete a clean sweep of the season at Ace for the PLM Tour.
CARS LMSC Event
Crews was prepared to settle for a solid outing at Ace Speedway with ten laps remaining in the CARS LMSC Tour feature.
When the checkered flag waved, Crews was in victory lane.
Potential winners in Brenden Queen, Ryan Millington, Connor Hall, Conner Jones and others all fell by the wayside during a chaotic sprint to the finish. Crews utilized the circumstances presented to him by fending off Mini Tyrrell through two late restarts to continue a stellar rookie LMSC Tour campaign.
“It means everything to win,” Crews said. “Everybody races to win and if you’re not, then what are you doing? I have to thank the Lord above for getting us here, but I wouldn’t want to do this with any other group. We’ve spent so many hours working on my craft and getting into different cars so I could better myself, not just in this series but for my career.”
A versatile competitor with success on both dirt tracks and road courses, Crews has seamlessly adapted to the grueling, competitive LMSC Tour environment. Two victories in 11 starts had Crews within reach of the championship lead heading into Ace.
Finishing 15th at the end of his first trip to Ace back in May left Crews and Kevin Harvick Inc. with plenty of work in front of them if they hoped to be competitive on Friday evening. Crews admitted his No. 29 Toyota Camry likely would not have prevailed without the onslaught of cautions, but was more than satisfied to have luck favor him in the closing stages.
Queen and Hall rebounding from separate on-track issues for top five finishes prevented Crews from erasing a significant portion of his points deficit. Making a championship push will require tremendous effort from Crews over the final five races, but he takes comfort in knowing he will have race-winning speed every week.
“I’m thankful to have everybody around me,” Crews said. “[That includes] everybody at Toyota Racing and Mobil 1. I put a lot of my success into their hands. Shannon [Rusch] and all those guys at KHI have done a great job. You can’t win races without a great race car, so I’m super fortunate to put this fast Toyota Mobil 1 Camry into victory lane.”