MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Sept. 2, 2025) – Connor Hall drove to a fine second-place finish on Friday night at Florence (S.C.) Motor Speedway, trailing Landen Lewis to the checkered flag. As a result, the Virginia driver finds himself in second place in the zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car point standings with just three races remaining in the season.
Lewis, who has outpointed Hall by 13 markers over the past two races, took a slim lead in the overall standings with just those three races remaining in the season.
Hall started second for the 125-lap race and was a fixture at the front of the field all night long, racing with his title rival in close quarters.
As the race went on, Hall and Lewis seemed stuck together on the track, battling not only for the race win but for primacy in the points. The two stayed together all race long, and it came down to lane choice at the end.
Hall found himself on the top, which is traditionally the fast way around the racy Florence oval, but was forced back to the lower line late in the race and chased his title rival over the finish line.
Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced to 18th place in his Bass Pro Shops No. 8 Chevrolet, overcoming damage to the left rear of his machine and the resulting tire wear from Florence’s unique layout. After a solid start, Earnhardt Jr. diced in the pack for much of the race and ended up with a solid finish.
The last time Earnhardt Jr. raced at Florence was at the end of the season last year, and he was leading in the closing stages when a fuel pump let go on his Chevrolet.
Lewis won the race over Hall, Casey Kelley, Cody Kelley and Ryan Glenski.
Next action for Hall and the JRM Late Model squad will be Sept. 13 at Virginia’s South Boston Speedway, a track at which Hall won earlier this season in the Virginia Triple Crown series.
Connor Hall, driver, No. 88 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Chevrolet:
“Last year, I was like three points or something behind, so that’s obviously in the back of my head. I don’t want history to repeat itself and it just seems like this CARS Tour thing has just eluded me. I just want to right my wrongs and go and win races and the championship. I just overdrove trying to run the top. The higher I went, the faster I was going, so I just kept moving up, moving up, moving up, and I got to the point where if I overdrove it a foot or two. I was probably going to go over the top. It was either risk going over the top, or slow down enough to where I wouldn’t go over the top. I conceded at that point, got my stuff back together, moved back down to the bottom and was a touch faster than [Lewis]. I tried running there the rest of the race, but Turn 2 was an error on my part. We’re heading to South Boston next with this Johnny Morris Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Chevrolet and we’ll have something for them there.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver, No. 8 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Chevrolet:
“It was a blast. I burned the rear tires off my car, and we weren’t good when the race started. I was a little concerned. It was a pretty good Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet in practice, but it didn’t net out the way I wanted it to in the race. I had a good time working on my car and running laps and getting to race. It’s hard to get in there and be real competitive when you don’t do this every week. It was a good little race on a great race track.”