EASLEY, S.C. — Youthful drivers have dominated both the CARS Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model Tour through the first two races of the season.
Three of the four winners in those events were born during the 21st Century, with the two respective poins leaders of the CARS Tour in Carson Kvapil and William Sawalich possessing a combined age of 33, which is still four years younger than the most recent Late Model Stock winner in Chad McCumbee, who won round two at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
Will the youth movement continue when the CARS Tour visits Greenville-Pickens Speedway for Saturday night’s Puryear Tank Lines 225?
Find out by catching all the action produced by SPEED SPORT affiliate, CARSTourTV.
• One of the biggest surprises to open the CARS Tour season has been the consistency displayed by Chase Burrow.
The King William, Va., driver finds himself third in the CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour standings behind Carson Kvapil and Kaden Honeycutt following strong finishes of sixth and fifth at Caraway Speedway and Hickory Speedway, respectively.
“We had our expectations but not much to base them off of,” Burrow said. “This is a new team, new car and new tracks for me. I’m just showing up and trying to be competitive. We’ve only worried about us during these first two races and that’s worked out pretty good so far.”
Veteran Rusty Skewes was initially set to pilot the No. 8 Edwards Racing Enterprises Chevrolet, but Burrow stepped into the car while Skewes continued to recover from offseason surgery.
Burrow has made the most of the opportunity by keeping his car clean and completing every single lap in the first two races.
Greenville-Pickens Speedway is another track in which Burrow has no prior experience but he plans to actively study past CARS Tour events at the facility and lean on his knowledge from the opening stretch so he can improve upon his career-best finish of fifth.
“A lot of these long CARS Tour races at low-grip tracks involves tire management,” Burrow said. “I’ve never been to Greenville but from what I’ve seen, it looks racy with very little grip. There’s a lot I’m not sure about heading into the weekend but we’ll get a gameplan together once we show up on Friday.”
• Saturday’s event will see one of the most successful drivers of the former CARS Super Late Model Tour return to the driver’s seat.
Brandon Setzer, who tallied six victories in the CARS Super Late Model Tour between 2015 and ’18, is set to pilot his familiar No. 6 Jewelry Exchange Ford with current CARS Pro Late Model Tour points leader William Sawalich running with Donnie Wilson Motorsports at Five Flags Speedway on the same night.
“I’ve been driving quite a bit but mostly when it comes to testing,” Setzer said. “I don’t think I’ll be too shabby in the seat but there might be some rust on race day. Hopefully it all comes back, and we’ll have a good weekend.”
Setzer added that Sawalich’s maturity at a young age has made him a very valuable part of the family-owned program, which in turn has provided Setzer knowledge on how to improve upon his own driving style.
With momentum on his team’s side, Setzer is eagerly looking forward to adding a CARS Pro Late Model Tour win to his résumé at Greenville-Pickens.
“The competition is pretty strong,” Setzer said. “We just need to have the car right and make sure the driver doesn’t make any mistakes. If we can do both of those things, we’ll have a pretty good shot at the win.”
• The inaugural CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour season for rookie Zack Miracle has not started the way he intended.
Despite showing speed at Caraway Speedway and Hickory Motor Speedway, Miracle saw potentially strong runs at both tracks get derailed by accidents outside of his control.
“These first two races have been very difficult,” Miracle said. “This is definitely not the way we wanted to start the season, but my guys have been working hard to keep bringing fast cars to the track every weekend and we’re looking forward to Greenville.”
Miracle heads to Greenville-Pickens Speedway having never turned a lap there, yet he believes the track suits his driving style due to the long straightaways and overall lack of grip that is prevalent at other facilities he has raced at in South Carolina like Florence Motor Speedway.
“When the schedule was released, [Greenville-Pickens] was one of the tracks I was really looking forward to,” Miracle said. “I’m really looking forward to this race because I think we’ll have good speed. I would like to win but a top five would be good. We want to build momentum and make this bad luck go away.”
• Previous CARS Tour late model stock winners at Greenville-Pickens are Josh Berry and Tommy Lemons Jr. Berry, who will race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Friday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, is among the 29 entries for Saturday’s late model stock portion of the program at Greenville-Pickens.
Sixteen Pro Late Model cars are set for duty at the historic half-mile track.