Brenden Queen Wins CARS Tour At North Wilkesboro; Augie Grill Adds Names To Track History With Pro LM Win
Story By: CARS TOUR – NORTH WILKESBORO, NC – The Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour’s second trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway on Wednesday night once again produced plenty of thrills for Wilkes County’s loyal auto racing fanbase.
With a combined total of 78 cars starting between the Late Model Stock Car and Pro Late Model Tour features respectively, drivers relentlessly battled over the limited amount of space around North Wilkesboro, resulting in races dominated by strategy and close racing.
Once the dust settled on an eventful evening, Carson Kvapil’s three-race win streak in the LMSC Tour came to an end at the hands of Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen, while short track veteran Augie Grill had to fend off a challenge from series alumnus Corey Heim to win the PLM Tour race.
Queen ultimately played the tire strategy better than anyone else in the 38-car LMSC Tour field.
The day began with Queen obliterating the track record with a blistering time of 19.125. He briefly surrendered the lead to Kvapil, but ultimately found his way back to the front of the field at the halfway point, passing Layne Riggs who had stayed out under the first controlled caution.
Queen and most of the field made another pit stop at the final controlled caution with 35 laps remaining. It would not take long for Queen to carve his way through the slower traffic and pull away for a prestigious LMSC Tour victory at one of the southeast’s most cherished tracks.
Prior to Wednesday, Queen’s lone LMSC Tour triumph occurred at his home track of Langley Speedway after he passed Kvapil in the closing laps. An emotional Queen found himself in disbelief over his second victory; one that he intends to cherish until the end of his career.
In the Pro Late Model Tour, the Crossroads Harley-Davidson 75 proved to be a two-man race between Grill and Heim.
After setting the track record with a time of 19.248, Grill pulled out to an early lead until Heim quickly chased him down to take control. Grill’s experience proved to be the deciding factor in the battle between the two, as he methodically conserved his tires before making the race-winning pass on Heim shortly after a Lap 34 start.
Grill’s victory came in just his third appearance across the CARS Tour platform. The two-time Snowball Derby champion failed to qualify at Bristol Motor Speedway with the defunct Super Late Model Tour in 2017 and ended up suffering a suspension failure in the same event two years later.
Now with a PLM Tour victory on his resume, Grill becomes the third different driver to win in the series in 2023, joining Mike Hopkins and Connor Zilisch.
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The CARS Tour moves from one historic milestone to another next week with both divisions heading to Tri-County Motor Speedway, which will not only serve as the $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals for the LMSC Tour, but also the division’s 100th overall race.
LMSC Results:
- 03 Brenden Queen
- 15 Ryan Millington
- 14 Jared Fryar
- 77 Connor Hall
- 10 Kaden Honeycutt
- 99 Layne Riggs
- 16 Chad McCumbee
- 8 Carson Kvapil
- 32 Zack Miracle
- 5 Chase Briscoe
- 62 Kevin Harvick
- 6K Brad Keselowski
- 24 Mason Diaz
- 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr.
- 99S Daniel Suarez
- 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- 44 Conner Jones
- 2 Brandon Pierce
- 28C Ross Chastain
- 67 Cameron Bolin
- 22 Landon Huffman
- 42 Carson Brown
- 87 Tate Fogleman
- 98 Tyler Ankrum -1
- 97A Jason Kitzmiller -1
- 4 Dylon Wilson -3
- 5B Bryant Barnhill -3
- 6 Bobby McCarty – OUT
- 20 Josh Dickens – OUT
- 95 Jacob Heafner – OUT
- 43 William Sawalich – OUT
- 81 Mini Tyrrell – OUT
- 8B Chase Burrow – OUT
- 0 Landon Pembelton – OUT
- 08 Deac McCaskill – OUT
- 57 Connor Zilisch – OUT
- 1 Andrew Grady – OUT
PLM Results:
- 43 Augie Grill
- 28H Corey Heim
- 25 Connor Zilisch
- 7 Tristan McKee
- 81 Katie Hettinger
- 24 Brent Crews
- 27B Jeb Burton
- 96 Caden Kvapil
- 44S Trevor Sanborn
- 15H Mike Hopkins
- 11 Dylan Cappello
- 7B Jackson Boone
- 2 John Bolen
- 9 Ashton Higgins
- 35 Seth Christensen
- 9H Bret Holmes
- 14 Carson Hocevar
- 7T Tyler Church
- 6 George Phillips -1
- 1 Rodney Sandstorm -1
- 7G Tyler Gregory -1
- 03 Kyle Campbell -1
- 44L Michael Lichtfeld -1
- 15B Luke Baldwin -1
- 33 Dustin Smith -1
- 88 T.J. DeCaire -1
- 27 Lee Tissot -1
- 49M Luke Morey -1
- 43H Joshua Horniman -1
- 8 Rusty Skewes -2
- 54 Matt Craig -4
- 4 Garrett Smithley – OUT
- 15 Brett Suggs – OUT
- 44 Justin Whitaker – OUT
- 63 Josh Lowder – OUT
- 77 Logan Jones – OUT
- 43 Nick Loden – OUT
- 13 Austin MacDonald – OUT
- 26 Dawson Sutton – OUT
- 19 Bryan Kruczek – OUT
