ROUGEMONT, N.C- The zMAX CARS Tour made its much-anticipated return to Orange County Speedway this past Saturday (April 20) night – and “America’s Fastest 3/8 Mile Oval” lived up to the occasion. Both the Late Model Stock Cars and Pro Late Models were in action on the night, with plenty of excitement to go around.
The CARS Tour hadn’t been to the Orange County high banks since April 2021, making this an exciting revisit for the field, with a strong lineup of 31 Late Model Stock cars on the entry list.
From an aging track surface coming up to physical racing throughout the night, there was certainly no shortage of talking points from the series’ return to Rougemont.
Kaden Honeycutt outlasted the Pro Late Model field for his first triumph of the season. Later in the night, it was 16-year old rookie sensation Brent Crews picking up his first CARS Tour win with Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI).
Here are three takeaways from the Orange Blossom 250.
Orange County on Crews Control
Just two weeks after 17-year old Connor Zilisch picked up his first CARS Late Model Stock win at Hickory Motor Speedway, the 16-year old Crews joined him as a CARS Tour winner.
Crews and the KHI team had a rough start to the weekend, with an engine failure on Friday afternoon putting them behind the 8-ball before the main event on Saturday. The team continued to struggle early Saturday afternoon, clocking in 20th and 27th during the day’s practice sessions.
But the tide began to turn for the No. 29 team during qualifying. Crews laid down a blistering lap to score the outside pole for the night’s 125-lap feature. He clocked in just 0.025 seconds behind polesitter Bobby McCarty.
McCarty held the lead from the drop of the green, retaining it through a few early cautions. Crews held onto second from lap one until lap 74, giving up the runner-up position to Mini Tyrrell after taking the bottom on a restart. Following another yellow for Isabella Robusto, Crews was able to wrestle the second position back from Tyrrell.
The caution flag flew once again with 39 laps to go, giving Crews a key opportunity. He elected to take the bottom like he had all night long on the ensuing restart, but this time it paid off. Crews got a great jump, drawing even with McCarty down the back straightaway.
Crews gave McCarty a shoulder as the two battled into turn one on the next lap, pushing the No. 6 slightly up the track and clearing…
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