- Name
- Carson Kvapil
- Birth Date
- May 22, 2003
- Hometown
- Mooresville, NC
Carson Kvapil, son of 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis, returns for a second season as driver of the No. 8 JR Motorsports Late Model for 2023 after having earned a pair of CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car championships in his debut season last year. This season, Kvapil will seek to back up his dual championships with Bass Pro Shops as his primary sponsor.
The 19-year-old driver enters 2023 with 23 career starts at JRM, including three in 2021 that resulted in finishes of fourth, third and second. In 2022, Kvapil logged four wins, 17 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 20 starts, earning both the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car driver and owner championships. The titles were the fourth and fifth for JRM’s legacy Late Model team, with Josh Berry earning a driver crown and two owner championships in previous seasons.
Perhaps the biggest of those victories came at the revitalized North Wilkesboro Speedway, when he qualified on the pole for the Racetrack Revival 200 on the .625-mile oval in a race which saw team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. make his return to Late Model racing for the first time since 1997. The young driver led much of the event and was strong at the end, driving away on a restart with two laps remaining to earn the victory.
Kvapil opened the 2022 season with a splash, leading the final 60 laps to take the $30,000-to-win Old North State Nationals at Caraway (N.C.) Speedway. Team manager Bryan Shaffer and Berry, who had competed for JRM the day before in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Phoenix Raceway, set the strategy and the young driver played it to perfection for the triumph.
Kvapil also won CARS Tour events at Franklin County (Va.) Speedway and at South Boston Speedway in the same state, the latter triumph essentially locking up both CARS Tour titles.
In his first attempt at the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, the biggest, richest and most important LMSC race in the Southeast, Kvapil finished a strong second to multi-time NASCAR Weekly Series national champion Payton Sellers in the 200-lap event at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
In 2021, Kvapil campaigned his family-owned Super Late Model in the CARS Racing Tour, winning the season finale at South Boston Speedway to top year-long point leader Matt Craig by a single marker in the final standings. Kvapil had to have a perfect weekend, and he did: earning the pole, leading the most laps and securing the bonuses for most poles and victories to pull off the come-from-behind triumph.
The young driver’s career began in 2013 in the U.S. Legend Car Bandolero division, the traditional starting point for drivers who want to climb the ladder of NASCAR racing. In 2016, Kvapil moved up to the U.S. Legend Cars for a single season before moving to dirt-track racing in Outlaw Karts at nearby Millbridge Speedway, where he won several championships in the open-wheel classes.
Soon after, Kvapil spent a couple of seasons in Limited Late Model competition in North Carolina before starting Super Late Models for his family-owned team there and in Wisconsin. He competed in the rugged weekly series of the upper Midwest while in Wisconsin, where his father first started his career, including the annual Fox River Racing Club’s Red, White and Blue Series, where he won the Red race. He also showed well in the annual Slinger Nationals, the marquee race event at the legendary short track.
Moving back to the Carolinas, Kvapil focused on the Super Late Model ranks which led him to the CARS Tour title in 2021.
The young driver counts his father Travis as the person who has influenced his career the most, adding the volunteer crewmen from his early racing efforts and Shaffer to that list.