PUSHING THROUGH – zMAX CARS Tour SoundGear Throwback 276 At Hickory

As a true stock car racing fan, sometimes you can just feel when a big moment is right before you. If you’re reading or listening to this right now, I know you know what I’m talking about. You can just sense it. You can feel it in the air. Hickory Motor Speedway this past Saturday night was one of those moments. It wasn’t just that the zMAX CARS Tour season was at the halfway point with North Wilkesboro right around the corner. It wasn’t just that at that moment the tour happened to be at one of the most historic short tracks in the country. It was more than all of that. It was a moment that’s been building since the tour took the green in the season opener at Southern National Motorsports Park. And it was a moment that had been building on every lap since then. And it was a moment that will shape what happens through the rest of the season. What I’m talking about is a point in time that people will look back on as a game changer for the 2024 CARS Tour season as a whole. It may not be evident to most for a very long time, but what happened this Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway as the zMAX CARS Tour came to town for the 2024 SoundGear Throwback 276 is one of the rarest moments in all of stock car racing. Ironic really as the tour came to Hickory on it’s annual undertaking to pay tribute to stock car racing’s historic past, in the end making some significant history of it’s own in the process. But before I can fully break it all down for those that missed the true significance of this past weekend’s CARS Tour outing, we have to take a closer look at all the on track action from this event. From the pre race activities to the moments after the cars rolled down pit road after all the laps had been completed, the 2024 SoundGear Throwback 276 was a game changing event.

zMAX CARS TOUR PRO LATE MODELS

With a time of 14.371 seconds, multi-time winner at Hickory Caden Kvapil in the # 35 qualifies on the pole for tonight’s Pro Late Model Throwback festivities. Rolling off second will be the # 29D of Spencer Davis followed by # 6H Hudson Bulger, # 44 Conner Jones, and the # 1X of Michael Toner Jr, who rounds out the top five. zMAX CARS Tour flagman Brandon Willard looks over the old school field, approves the formation, and we’re green at Hickory! Kvapil gets the advantage off of turn two as Jones will trap Bulger on the outside for third. Bulger gets passed by both Jimmy Renfrew Jr in the # 00 and Tristan McKee in the # 6 and continues to fall until he finally slots into twelfth position. Back up front, Davis is all over Kvapil but Kvapil holds serve for the time being. Right when I say that though, Davis puts the bumper to Kvapil and moves him up the track, taking the lead in the process. That leaves Kvapil to deal with Jones, losing yet another spot with Jones setting his sights on Davis. McKee finds his way around Renfrew Jr as the top five begin to tackle lap traffic. The field will get to take a deep breath though as the Shiti Coolers Caution flies for competition purposes. That will also set up our first choose of the night, seeing Davis, Jones, Kvapil, McKee, and Renfrew Jr make up the top five.

Davis and Jones are deadlocked for the top spot but it’s Davis who barely clears after a few laps. Kvapil pounces on Jones, but isn’t able to be make it work. He’ll get another chance however as trouble strikes on the front stretch. Toner Jr, Joshua Horniman in the # 43H and Aiden King in the # 5 all get tangled together, causing minimal damage but just enough to unfortunately end Horniman’s night. Davis will prevail again on the restart with McKee and Renfrew Jr dueling hard for fourth. Renfrew Jr wins that fight as Jones begins to dance in Davis’ mirror. He peeks under Davis’ left rear quarter panel and gets just enough of his nose inside to eventually take over the lead. The fight for fourth ramps back up, this time with McKee sliding by Renfrew Jr in the # 00. Renfrew Jr’s bleeding continues in the form of a hard charging # 46 of Jonathan Shafer. That battle will be broken up though as Nick Loden in the # 29 spins on the backstretch. Jones gets a near perfect restart as a dogfight ensues behind! Kvapil gets a door to Davis, moving him up, but Davis is right back on him and uses the bumper, allowing Renfrew Jr to emerge! Kvapil and Renfrew Jr fight for second while Davis becomes a pinball behind, somehow saving his machine multiple times from spinning. He’ll fall outside of the top five, moving Jake Bollman in the # 24 to fifth while Renfrew Jr locks up second. None of that matters to Jones though as he’s opened up a fantastic gap over the pack. But around goes Loden in four! That will set up a sprint to the finish!

Kvapil takes the outside front row for the restart alongside Jones, with Renfrew Jr, McKee, and Bollman all lurking behind. Jones and Kvapil get near even restarts as neither one looks to have an advantage. They wash up the track a bit, allowing Renfrew Jr to make it three wide down the backstretch! Renfrew Jr prevails for a split second before Jones nudges him up and out of the way! All of the chaos allows McKee to show some muscle, but he’ll go around on the back with some help from Davis! Caution flies and the top five will be mixed up even further with just three laps to go. Jones. Kvapil. Renfrew Jr. Shafer. Bollman. Who will take the big Throwback win? Willard anxiously gazes over the competitors, likes what he sees, and we’re off! Jones executes a better launch, but Kvapil will cross over and give him a bump. Kvapil then clears slightly but Jones is still there, causing Kvapil to get sideways and once again allowing Renfrew Jr to go three wide! Smoke flies between all three but it’s Renfrew Jr who breaks through and pulls away for his first career zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model win! Jones hangs onto second followed by a spirited effort from Shafer, Kvapil guts out a fourth amidst the chaos, and Bollman gets a quiet fifth.

zMAX CARS TOUR LATE MODEL STOCKS

Points leader # 17 Connor Hall puts his Nelson Motorsports machine on the pole with a time of 14.843 seconds. Starting alongside on the front row in a phenomenal effort is the # 71 of Katie Hettinger followed by # 15 Ryan Millington, # 95 Jacob Heafner, and Ronnie Bassett Jr in the # 14. The field is in the hands of flagman Brandon Willard, who gives them the thumbs up and the green flies for 125 laps! Hall will clear himself but here comes Millington! Millington looks to the inside and Hettinger slots her machine on the outside, making it three wide for the lead on lap two! Millington rises above with Hettinger washing up the track. Bassett Jr and Hall battle hard for second in an absolute hornet’s nest of a field. Hall hangs on while Josh Berry in the # 62 Kevin Harvick Incorporated machine moves into fourth ahead of Heafner. The first Shiti Coolers Caution will fly because of an issue with the # 72 of Treyten Lapcevich, who stops in turn four. He’ll be penalized for three laps for intentionally bringing out the caution as Millington will get a flawless restart. Bassett Jr takes over second while Mini Tyrrell in the # 81 shows some strength in fifth. We’ll rerack and restack them again however as a piece of debris from the already beat up # 40 of Conner Jones finds its way on the racetrack. It will be the same song and dance for Millington who’s been absolutely brilliant on restarts. Trying to cut his way into fifth on the outside is Heafner but it won’t be enough for Tyrrell at this time. Hall’s handling doesn’t seem to be all there as he’ll lose a spot to Berry and is now under fire from Tyrrell. But we’ve got a huge crash coming out of four as Jones and Hettinger make contact, causing Jones to spin and impact the pit entry tire hard! Hettinger somehow saves her machine, but the same can’t be said for Landon Huffman in the # 37 and the # 08 of Deac McCaskill. Huffman drives away with little to no damage while McCaskill’s machine is destroyed, cutting his night short before it ever really began. The # 29 of Brent Crews, the # 28 of Connor Zilisch, and the # 8 of Carson Kvapil also suffer minor damage but will continue. Thankfully, everyone is okay as the red flag comes out.

Bassett Jr gets a great jump when we get back going, but Millington is still the man to beat. Hall will retake third as the field jockeys behind. # 6 Bobby McCarty makes his first appearance in the top five as the middle of the field looks like a heavyweight boxing match. All of the pushing and shoving catches up to them as Andrew Grady in the # 1 spins into the inside backstretch wall hard after some contact with Huffman. Grady is none too happy as he chucks his HANS Device at Huffman in furious fashion. There’s a bit of a cleanup but it’ll be completed in no time as, to no one’s surprise, Millington clears on the restart over Bassett Jr in the # 14. McCarty and Berry become entrenched in a fight with McCarty dicing his way by the multi-time Hickory winner. But we’ve got more trouble as Lapcevich has a right front tire go down going into turn three and the # 2 of Brandon Pierce has nowhere to go but the outside and gets hit, sending him around and into the wall hard. His night will be over as the field is already doubled up and ready for the restart. Another fantastic jolt from Millington as Hall gets sideways off of two! He’ll save it while the # 23 of Kade Brown jumps ahead of Berry and into the top five. And into the wall and up in flames goes Buddy Isles Jr in the # 3! It comes after contact with Kvapil, causing Isles Jr to signal his frustration. The red flag makes another appearance but after all is said and done, Millington will once again lead the field to green.

Brown moves into fourth on the restart by McCarty with Tyrrell hot on McCarty’s tail in sixth. Knowing it’s go time, Hall turns the wick up and motors under Bassett Jr’s Late Model Stock. Hall makes the pass as Lapcevich is somehow making his way through the field after a bevy of issues. Slowly, but surely, Hall is starting to eat into the gap. Millington finds the tire tracks of the wounded Crews car, whose cockpit is starting billow with smoke. Millington can’t find a way around as other lap cars are there as well, causing him to dive onto the apron and make contact with Crews! That allows Hall to catch up even more with under ten to go! Before you know it, Hall is there! He looks under but Millington slams the door. That won’t deter Hall though as they door slam coming to the white! Hall looks to get away but Millington dives into turn three and spins Hall! Millington crosses the line in first but CARS Tour officials don’t agree with his last lap move, giving the win to Ronnie Bassett Jr, his first career zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock victory!

MY TAKE

Every racing fan has their favorite driver, team, track, and/or tour. But for a moment, just for a moment, if you can find it possible, set it all aside. In 1979, the NASCAR Cup series had a moment that changed the trajectory of it’s very existence. It didn’t change thew sport per se, but it did change how fans looked at it. As Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough came down to deciding the race on the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500, they both refused to lose the race, getting into each other to the point that they took each other out, giving the win to Richard Petty, who honestly had no chance to win the race up until that point. Fortunately for the NASCAR organization, the east coast of the United States was snowed in and an enormous amount of people with nothing better to do tuned in to see it all play out. What today might have been seen as overly aggressive racing was then looked upon as what it truly was. A passion to win that took the sport to another level of popularity. Everyone that saw that race could see how bad these guys wanted it. And for the next several years, the fanbase grew substantially.

Now in 2024, after we told you before the zMAX CARS Tour season even began that it would be as close to war as you can get in a stock car, we are hearing rumblings that the tour is becoming too aggressive. I even had an official anonymously tell me that it may be time for tour management to have a talk with their competitors. Really? I don’t know how many times we’ve had to remind a good portion of the stock car racing community of it’s beginnings. And so I’ll say this one more time for those who’ll listen – This is not IndyCar or Formula One. And while NASCAR itself is seemingly pursuing a polished, elitist form of stock car racing, I would ask any true stock car racing fan to remember where it came from. Now while it’s true that you can’t just set out to wreck your competition, a passion to win each and every race is for us to be expected from racers who are capable of it. Now with that said, if you were able to put your racing preferences and biases aside and take a good close look at what happened at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 27, you may be able to start to see it for the extremely rare and historically important moment it truly was.

First off is the obvious history that was made with two first time winners on the tour. Both of them were due. zMAX CARS Tour rookie Jimmy Renfrew Jr and veteran Late Model Stock racer Ronnie Bassett Jr have shown they were capable of winning, but on this tour, nothing is a given. That’s the first point. Looking at short track racing, how many tours or local divisions can you say that ninety percent of the field has a real chance at victory at any given race? And I’m not talking just about the present, but through history. I’ve studied it extensively and I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that it hasn’t been many. Of course you have your stars of the sport. But it is almost never that you have a contingent where you can say that the majority of the field has the talent, means, and ability to win in every race. Truth is that the CARS Tour is the most competitive short track racing entity of my lifetime. There’s a reason that when these competitors step on to the big stages of NASCAR’s premier series, they are contenders and make their presence known.

So, if you have a huge percentage of the field with the talent and means to win, what do you expect will come of it? In Indy or Formula One, if the field is even, most of the time it’s stay in line and hope your competition makes a mistake. It’s, as they say, the classy way to race. Fine if you like that style of racing, and truth known, I myself enjoy every aspect of auto racing. But my favorite moments come when drivers truly challenge each other. Not just with their talents alone, but with their will. Their desire to win. Their passion! In those moments, things will happen, that’s true. But with that kind of talent, it does work itself out on the track. In 1979 Donnie and Cale took each other out and were left with where to go from there. Richard Petty won that race and the championship. But also in that race, fans were on their feet as they watched Donnie and Cale take each other to the limit. On Saturday, Hall and Millington took each other out of the win and Bassett Jr got his first win. Now Hall and Millington are left with where they go from here. But what you may not know is after talking to Hall, although disappointed with how things went over the last few weeks, he said he thought it was just a racing deal, and surprisingly, had the zMAX CARS Tour let Millington’s win stand, he not only would’ve understood it, but he would’ve been happy for Millington and his crew.

Now of course he wanted the win. He did all he could to get it. But he also understands the game. You see, at Hickory Motor Speedway this weekend, what has been building all year came to a head. And what you had was an amazing, sometimes three wide battle for the win in the Pro Late Models that saw Renfrew Jr prevail. And in the Late Model Stocks, you saw a field of talent go to battle just to see who could come out in the end with a chance. In the end it was Bassett Jr that kept himself in position throughout the entire race, coming away with his much needed first win on the tour. After the smoke cleared, the tour is still to this time trying to sort out the final finishing order, and we’ll post it up as soon as it’s available. But what is clear, at least in my eyes, is that in the history of short track stock car racing, where stock car racing began mind you, there has never been a more competitive era. In fact, I’ll just come out and say it. There is no better short track stock car racing in the world than what you see on the CARS Tour right now, and there may have never been. Historically every era has it’s markers. The daredevils that started it all, the era that took the sport to it’s glory days, and now the most competitive short track racing era in the history of the sport. For history’s sake, let these guys do what they do and watch the fans leave their seats and roar louder than even the sound of the engines of these powerful machines. If this is the future of the sport of stock car racing, then I’m all in and have no qualms about it! Until next time, as always, See You At The Track!

(Race write ups by Joshua Weatherman. Intro and My Take written by Billy Weatherman. Copyright 2024 SHORT TRACK REPORT)