MARTINSVILLE, Va. – The NASCAR Xfinity Series has long carried the slogan “Names are Made Here”, and Saturday (April 6) night at Martinsville Speedway, the NASCAR world very well could have been introduced to a new one that is here to stay.
Carson Kvapil, the son of 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, made his Xfinity Series debut Saturday at Martinsville driving the famed JR Motorsports No. 88. After 250 laps around the paperclip, he found himself with his first career top five in hand, coming home fourth.
For those who don’t know, Kvapil is no stranger to success with the JR Motorsports team. Kvapil has driven for the team’s Late Model Stock car program full-time since 2022, picking up 10 wins and back-to-back zMAX CARS Tour championships to this point. However, the step up to the Xfinity Series is a big one, and Kvapil made sure to prove the lights were not too bright when racing with the big guns.
Kvapil started his weekend strong on Friday (April 5) afternoon with practice and qualifying, making his-first ever laps in an Xfinity Series car around Martinsville. The No. 88 team wound up 18th in practice before Kvapil laid down a solid lap in qualifying that put him outside of row six in 12th for Saturday.
From the drop of the green, Kvapil showed solid speed in the No. 88, never falling below 13th in the opening run of the race.
With a caution on lap 36, the JR Motorsports team elected to go off strategy and bring Kvapil down pit road, and he was joined by his three JR Motorsports teammates in Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, and Brandon Jones, all of which started from the rear of the field.
The team had trouble with the stop as the car fell off the jack, leading to a somewhat costly 34 second pit stop under yellow that led to Kvapil restarting from the tail of the field.
The strategy game worked out for Kvapil and JR Motorsports, as the stage break at lap 60 brough the rest of the field down pit road, putting the JR Motorsports cars one through five to restart stage two thanks to Sam Mayer also staying out on older tires.
Following the restart, Kvapil continued to show great pace at the front of the field, running as high as third in stage two, all while learning more and more about the car lap after lap. By the end of stage two, Kvapil had fallen one spot back to fourth, picking up his first career Xfinity Series stage points.
However, pit road troubles once again…
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