HIGH SPEED CHESS – zMAX CARS Tour SoundGear 225 At Tri-County Speedway

If you want to be a master chess player, you first have to know how to move your opponent where you want them. Or at the least, be there when they make a bad move on their own and know when to capitalize. That’s also true in any great short track battle. You have to know when to appear weak when you’re strong, and strong when you’re weak. It’s all just part of the game. And when you’re talking fractions of an inch and thousandths of a second, the mental game does indeed start to become a factor. Especially when it comes to premier short track racing. It’s what we love about the sport. It’s not just man or woman against machine. It’s men and women against machine and each other in an incredibly risky game of high speed chess. Anybody can play. But it takes a special kind of player to master the game. For some, it just comes natural, having the skills needed already seared into them, always seemingly knowing exactly where to be. With others, it’s their hard work and study driven by the determination to be one of the very best.

You can have speed. Check. But what if everyone else around you also has speed? Now it’s true that auto racing is different from any other sport. I mean, let’s be honest…other sports didn’t even consider motorsports a sport for the longest time. Some still don’t. But there’s the one thing stock car racing shares with every other sports that’s undeniable. And that my friends is the competition. And racers? Well, you can’t get a more competitive group than that. In the heat of that competition, that’s where you find the truth of a driver. When it’s neck and neck. Door to door. Bumper to bumper. What would you do to win? To put yourself in position to be a champion? With everything to gain as the CARS Tour came to Tri-County Speedway for the 2025 SoundGear 225 and only 2 races left to decide the 2025 CARS Tour champions, you knew it was going to get real. Let’s take a closer look at the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock features and see where we land going into the season finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway in a few weeks.

PRO LATE MODEL FEATURE

Championship points leader Ben Maier qualifies on the pole but surrenders the lead quickly to Brandon Lopez after a few stackup incidents behind. Lopez is hounded however by teammate TJ DeCaire. DeCaire keeps the fire on as the rest of the pack gets partcicularly chippy, with tempers flaring throughout. This all sets up a late race restart where Lopez gets a little too eager and jumps, relegating him to the rear of the field. DeCaire fends off all challengers in the end to collect his first career zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model win over Bayley Currey! Isaac Kitzmiller comes home third, Maier guts out a fourth, and TJ Duke rounds out the top five.

LATE MODEL STOCK FEATURE

Veteran Chad McCumbee lays down the fastest lap in time trials in search of his second Late Model Stock win on the tour. Reminiscent of the Pro race, tensions rose throughout the field. Back up front, Landon Huffman and McCumbee tangle for the top spot, leaving Huffman on top of McCumbee’s hood. Also near the head of the pack are title contenders Landen Lewis and a hard charging Connor Hall. Hall executes a bump and run on Lewis, kicking Lewis back a handful of spots. But none of that matters to Jared Fryar and Landon S. Huffman. Fryar and Huffman put on a classic Tri-County showdown, racing numerous laps side by side for the lead. After Huffman makes contact with the outside backstretch wall, Fryar begins to pull away en route to another 2025 victory! Landon S. Huffman hangs onto second, Hall claws to third, Parker Eatmon gets a quiet fourth, and Brandon Pierce gets a much needed fifth.

FINAL TAKE

Jared Fryar is just having fun with it. And that makes him a serious threat. He’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain. He’s now put himself in the role of the ringer. Races when and where he wants and knows how to get it done. If he’s there and he’s in the top 3 coming to the end, he’s going to have to be dealt with. Right time right place Saturday night but flawless on the final restarts sealing him the deal. Speaking of restarts…I know at the high end of the spectrum you expect your drivers to be the best and strive to be flawless. But it’s my opinion, especially after watching Brandon Lopez getting sent to the back after a mistake on the restart as the leader in the Pro race, that maybe going back to the 1 warning rule, then to the back if you restart early a second time, may be in order. But hey, it’s just me. Seems fair though in my opinion that they get another shot at it. I understand that the rule is there to cut down on restart games, but when a guy works his way to the front, it just seems a bit unjust to see them go to the rear because of that kind of mistake. I don’t make the rules however, and again, the rule is there for a reason, just hate to see it.

All Ben Maier has to do is start in the Pro Late Model final event at North Wilkesboro to clinch the 2025 zMAX CARS Tour Pro Late Model championship, but the Late Model Stock championship is still undecided. And here in a race that was side by side, door to door, bumper to bumper, Connor Hall took a bit of a mental shot to points leader Landen Lewis. Hall also gained some valuable championship points, able to cut into that lead after the 3rd place finish. I could see the point wasn’t lost on Lewis in his interviews. Not lost on the moment. But he also had the look in his eyes of extreme confidence when North Wilkesboro Speedway was mentioned. In fact I saw a smile come over his face that held his confidence behind it. At the same time, Hall as he often does proclaimed here at Tri-County Speedway his determination to be a factor. It’ll be the first zMAX CARS Tour title for one of them, and you see folks, it means more to both of them than you probably know. They have one more round to decide it. Connor Hall is 12 points out going into the final race of the season. Being the best is what these guys have spent their lives achieving. Young Landon S. Huffman put on the race of his life, and our hats are off to that performance…but then Fryar put him right where he wanted him to be. Connor Hall is going to have a higher hill to climb in the season finale, but he’s got one more round to play in a game of high speed chess against young Landen Lewis. What would you be willing to do to be the best? We’ve learned not to count anything out. Until next time, See you at the track!