MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 30, 2024) – Carson Kvapil entered Saturday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 having finished second and third in his two previous starts.
At the checkered flag, Kvapil’s No. 8 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats & ATVs Chevrolet crossed the finish line first, earning a legacy-making victory and making a rather large addition to his trophy room in the process.
“This race has been one that we’ve been chasing the last three years here at JR Motorsports,” Kvapil said in Victory Lane. “We came close last year and the year before, finishing second and third. I was pretty worried coming in here that we weren’t going to have the speed, but fortunately we had a really good car here all weekend. Bryan (team manager Bryan Shaffer) did a really good job with changes and bringing a really fast race car here. We did what we needed to do in the heat race, we qualified good and we just did everything we needed to do to bring the Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats & ATVs Chevrolet to Victory Lane.”
The 21-year-old second-generation racer started second after winning his heat race earlier in the day and settled into the top three, running hard but saving his car for the end of the 200-lap event. Kvapil led portions of the race in the early going, but fell back to second just shy of the halfway break at lap 100.
On pit road, Shaffer and the Bass Pro Shops crew made some changes that would help Kvapil stay at the front of the field. Once the second segment began, Kvapil bided his time in the top three before assuming the top spot again at lap 137.
Staying in front and saving what he could, Kvapil led into the chaotic last 25 laps, which saw multiple restarts due to action throughout the field.
“That was tough, the restarts, but we had a really good Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet that could jump to a good lead in the first laps of a run,” Kvapil said. “The adjustments we made at the break held up and that made us a winning car at the end.”
That was especially true on the final green-white-checkered restart in overtime. Battling with 2016 Martinsville 300 winner Mike Looney, Kvapil got the jump and drove away to a $30,000 winner’s check and the iconic grandfather clock trophy.
“I wasn’t really sure about the guys behind me, if they were riding or going hard or what the deal was. I was just trying to keep them behind me.,” Kvapil said. “I was nervous. There was no way we were going to finish under green, so I was expecting the caution. When I saw that we had a green-white-checkered, I was like, ‘this is not good.’
“After four or five laps, we could get out ahead of everybody, but you know how it goes on those. We were able to get a really good start in the zone and get out front. I always enjoy racing with Mike (Looney) and he’s really good. We raced hard at the beginning of the race and again at the end.”
For Kvapil, it was the culmination of a journey that began in 2021, when he was selected to replace 2019 Martinsville winner and 2020 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series champion Josh Berry behind the wheel of the No. 8 Chevrolet.
“It’s awesome, just to be racing with this JR Motorsports group, being able to win races is awesome and bringing home one of these clocks is even better. This is really special to me.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “We’ve been working at this for so long. In 2022, we finished second and I thought I had a car that could win the race. I just made a mistake coming to the white and finished third the next year. Coming into this year, I was super confident. We were so good all weekend, had a good qualifying run and won our heat race to start on the front row.”
“This place has been good to me, but I felt like we just couldn’t seal the deal. There was a car that always just a little bit better than we were.”
Behind Kvapil and Looney came zMAX CARS Tour rookie Treyten Lapcevich, Casey Kelly and Bobby McCarty.
Next action for the JRM Late Model team will be Oct. 12 in the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car event at Tri-County (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
