It’s now been more than 570 days since anybody not named Carson Kvapil has gone to CARS Tour victory lane at Ace Speedway. When the CARS Tour goes back to Ace Speedway later this year in August, it will have been 672 days since anyone other than Carson Kvapil had won a CARS Tour Late Model Stock car race at Ace. 

In other words, Carson Kvapil is the “Ace at Ace” if you will. On Friday night, Kvapil completed the zMAX CARS Tour hat trick at Ace, winning his third in a row at the 4/10-mile oval in Altamahaw, North Carolina. Although, he had to work a lot harder for this one than his prior two victories here.

Kvapil started the race from the eighth position, which was a letdown after he posted the fastest lap in practice on his mock qualifying run. But the two-time and defending series champion slowly and methodically worked his way through the field. When he got to third on the race’s long run, he just rode to conserve his equipment in case a late restart was needed.

Fortunately for him and his JR Motorsports team, that late restart did come, and Kvapil was able to pounce on second-place driver Brenden Queen, and race leader Ryan Millington on successive restarts with less than 20 laps to go.

“Honestly, I just messed up in qualifying. I missed the paint there in three and four. It put us in a bit of a hole starting eighth, and I knew we had a better car than that,” explained Kvapil in victory lane. “I knew we were going to be fine in the race, but this place is tough to pass at, especially with this new tire. We were able to ride there before that one restart. Those guys up there were slipping and sliding and we still had some grip there at the end.”

With the victory, and some of the misfortune that drivers like Connor Hall and Mini Tyrrell and Brent Crews experienced, Kvapil was able to put himself right back into the thick of the championship battle. Unofficially, Kvapil is now in a three-way tie for third in points with Tyrrell and rookie Treyten Lapcevich 16 points back of Hall for the lead in the standings. 

Even though it’s only May and the season is only five races old, it’s never too early to talk about points for Kvapil, who has run one less race than the rest of the field. Kvapil missed April’s race at Hickory Motor Speedway so he could make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Martinsville Speedway. 

“It’s huge. Having nights like these where you lead some laps and come home with a good finish or even a win, it really just boosts your points. Obviously that’s something that we are thinking about down the road, but right now we’re just trying to go out there and win races week in and week out.”

🏁 The battle for the win was 🔥 at Ace Speedway! @CarsonKvapil gets 3rd @CARSTour win in a row pic.twitter.com/PRUtL68MMi

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) May 4, 2024

Friday night was also a big night for last year’s runner-up in the championship battle, Brenden Queen. Queen finished second for the second time this season and is now 18 points behind Hall for the championship lead in seventh in the standings.

Ryan Millington finished third after leading the most laps of anybody all race. Bobby McCarty finished fourth and is now second in points, 14 back of Hall. Chad McCumbee completed the top five.

Points leader Hall was caught up in a stack-up on an early-race restart and received some heavy nose damage. His Nelson Motorsports team got his No. 22 machine bandaged up as much as possible and he was able to fight back to a 12th-place finish.

The next race for the CARS Tour is the one that everyone has had circled on their calendars since the schedule was released in the offseason. The CARS Tour heads back to the track they helped bring back from the weeds, the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway, for a two-day doubleheader between the Pro Late Models and Late Model Stock Cars on Tuesday, May 14 and Wednesday, May 15.

 
CARS Tour LMSC at Ace Speedway Unofficial Results