RIDGEWAY, Va. — The one major thing missing from Carson Kvapil‘s Late Model Stock Car resume was a win at Martinsville Speedway — until Saturday night (Sept. 28).
Kvapil took the lead from Mike Looney on lap 137 of the 200-lap feature and controlled the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 the rest of the way. Despite several late restarts, no one else in the 40-car field had anything for the JR Motorsports driver.
Winner of the past two zMAX CARS Tour titles, Kvapil has seen victory lane at many different tracks across the Southeast. But the Martinsville grandfather clock had eluded him until this point in his career. And Saturday night may have been his last opportunity to win the 300 at Martinsville, pending what he ends up doing in the NASCAR national series next year.
“It’s awesome,” Kvapil told Frontstretch. “Obviously, this is a crown jewel late model stock race. 80 people came this year to try to win that clock. That’s obviously the most car count we get of any race out of the year.
“It’s just such a big deal. This race is so prestigious. It’s been going on for so long that so many great racers have won it. To be able to add to that list … it hasn’t sunk in yet, but it’s awesome.”
Looney finished second, with Treyten Lapcevich, Casey Kelley and Bobby McCarty rounding out the top five. Jake Crum, Brent Crews, Ronnie Bassett Jr., Peyton Sellers and Sam Yarbrough completed the top 10.
With the ninth-place finish, Sellers passed Connor Hall in average finish to win the Virginia Triple Crown championship.
Kyle Dudley started the race from the pole after winning the first of four heat races. Sellers soon passed Dudley for the lead, while Kvapil got around them both for the top spot mere laps later.
The first caution came out for Buddy Isles Jr. stopping on the track with brakes on fire just prior to the one-quarter mark of the race. The ensuing restart is when Looney shot out of a cannon.
The 2016 Martinsville winner got up to second and began reeling in Kvapil. He got to Kvapil’s inside and was about to make the pass when Dudley and Matt Waltz wrecked to bring out another yellow flag.
On the next restart, Looney fired off on the outside to grab the lead from Kvapil. He held the lead through the halfway break, earning Looney a $1,000 bonus.
But Looney didn’t seem to have the same speed in the second half.
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