JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - Brenden Queen extended his record at New River All-American Speedway in Jacksonville, North Carolina to 2-0 on Saturday evening.
After earning a victory at New River in March, Queen executed the tire conservation strategy flawlessly in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car feature to secure his second victory in his rookie season with the series.
Bringing home that win was far from a smooth experience for Queen, who had to survive a late-race restart and a valiant charge by veteran Ronnie Bassett, Jr. to celebrate with his crew once again.
Queen was worried another CARS LMSC Tour victory would elude him when he saw Bassett, Jr. dive underneath him in turn 3 on the last lap. Despite getting knocked out of the groove by Bassett, Queen held onto his car and still came across the start-finish line in first.
“I knew it was coming,” Queen said of Bassett’s move. “(Bassett) was just a little bit better than us at the end. It felt like I went a little hard early, but I knew track position was going to be so big tonight. We’ve had so many of these races slip away and I wasn’t going to let them take it away from me that time. We’ve been hungry and I wanted it bad.”
The last time Queen visited victory lane in the LMSC Tour came at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May, where he led 67 of 125 laps.
Conner Jones finished in second, with Bassett in third, Mason Diaz in fourth, and Carson Kvapil in fifth.
Kaden Honeycutt, Chad McCumbee, Deac McCaskill, Ryan Millington, and Jacob Heafner rounded out the top 10.
The CARS LMSC Tour will be off for the next month as teams prepare to tackle the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway on September 23. South Boston Speedway is the next race up for both the LMSC and PLM Tour, which will take place on October 7. For more info, visit CARSRacingTour.com.
CARS Racing Tour
New River All-American Speedway – Jacksonville, NC
Carolina 125 – September 9, 2023
Late Model Stock Cars
1. 03 Brenden Queen
2. 44 Conner Jones
3. 04 Ronnie Bassett, Jr.
4. 24 Mason Diaz
5. 8 Carson Kvapil
6. 10 Kaden Honeycutt
7. 16 Chad McCumbee
8. 08 Deac McCaskill
9. 15 Ryan Millington
10. 95 Jacob Heafner
11. 2 Brandon Pierce
12. 6 Bobby McCarty
13. 81 Mini Tyrrell
14. 8B Chase Burrow
15. 1 Andrew Grady
16. 22 Landon Huffman
17. 4 Dylon Wilson
18. 15C Logan Clark
19. 67 Cameron Bolin
20. 19B Chris Burns
