Kvapil Hangs Tough in VA Late Model Triple Crown Opener; Pulliam Caught Up in Crash

June 29, 2026

Caden Kvapil battled for the lead during much of Saturday night’s opening round of the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown at South Boston Speedway, but a late surge left him in sixth at the checkered flag. Late Model legend Lee Pulliam was on the move up the standings when a crash in front of him left him no room to avoid and he finished 36th.

Kvapil, driving the No. 88 Jerky Boys Chevrolet, started from the outside of the front row for the kickoff race in the annual series, just four thousandths of a second off the pole. That boded well for a strong run.

When the race began, the young driver had to deal with a loose condition entering and exiting the corners but held strong in the top three over the first 100 laps until the halfway break. During the break, crew chief Bryan Shaffer tightened up the handling to give his driver a better platform. As the race went back under green, Kvapil had to deal with a growing tight condition and dropped to fifth.

Getting his rhythm back, the Jerky Boys No. 88 Chevrolet began to come to life. While passing Connor Hall for fourth, the two cars made slight contact and Kvapil headed for the inside wall. After barely clipping the barrier, Kvapil’s Chevrolet lost a lot of its front turn, and he fell to sixth at the finish.

“I’m a little disappointed with our sixth-place finish, knowing we had a really good car all race long,” Kvapil said. “My dad (Travis) and all the guys at JR Motorsports worked really hard all weekend to give me a super-fast Jerky Boys/CorvetteParts.net/LKN Mechanical/Roto-Rooter Chevrolet. Thanks to Dale, Kelley, LW, and Bryan for making this all possible.”

Pulliam, driving the No. 8 NASCAR Channel Chevrolet from the JRM stable, was moving forward from his 22nd starting spot and racing among the lead pack at lap 43 when Peyton Sellers spun off the nose of another car in Turn 3.

Pulliam came into the turn in the middle groove and dived down the track to miss it but was unable to avoid contact. The damage to the No. 8 Chevrolet was too heavy to fix and he retired from the race with a 36th-place finish.

“Everyone on this JRM/NASCAR Channel Chevrolet worked hard all weekend,” Pulliam said of his first start for the team. “We had good long-run balance all weekend but just lacked overall speed on the short run. We got ourselves around some good cars early in the race and had started moving forward when Peyton Sellers was spun directly in front of us. I was working middle of 3 and tried turning left to avoid but wasn’t able to avoid contact and ended our day early.”

Despite the premature ending to his night, Pulliam was upbeat about the upcoming second round of the Triple Crown at Langley Speedway on July 25.

“As disappointing as it was to fall out, it was a honor to be able to race together with the entire No. 8 team,” Pulliam said. “We will be ready for the Hampton Heat and just use this as motivation to try and win the next two races. Big thank-you to everyone at JR Motorsports and NASCAR Channel for their support in making this possible.”