Landen Lewis Dominates In CARS Tour’s FS1 Debut

Landen Lewis celebrates his Window World 100 win at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. – Landen Lewis dominated Friday night’s Window World 100 at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, which was broadcast to a national audience live on FS1.

Lewis started from the pole and led every lap of the race. Tristan McKee was his closest competition, but McKee could never get close enough to Lewis to challenge Lewis for the lead.

Friday’s primetime spectacular marked the first time the series was broadcast live on cable television, making the race even more prestigious.

“It means a lot,” Lewis said in victory lane of his $10,000 victory. “We said last year ‘We want to win this race really bad,’ and I was supposed to race this race [but] it got taken off my schedule. This is one of the racetracks I’ve never been to, and Kevin [Harvick, team owner] was a big help pointing me in the right direction.

“All the Hornaday family has been a huge help, and that got me to the next step helping Keelan [Harvick], and then that led to helping Kevin with his late model stock deal,” Lewis added. “To be able to put the work in at the shop with these guys, and then come to the race track and win with these guys makes it even more special.”

Lewis took the lead in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour point standings with his win, the third of his career in the series and second in a row. He earned two points for winning the pole, a point for leading a lap, and a point for the most laps led, helping add even further to his season tally.

“Yes and no,” Lewis said after being asked if it’s too early to think about the championship. “At some point you’ve got to start thinking about it. Our goal is to win races, obviously that helps with the points, but we’ve got to have consistency, and that’s been the key for us lately. Finishing the races, putting laps together, and when we don’t have the greatest of days just making the best of it.

“Three weeks ago we were qualifying pretty much dead last and having to drive through the field,” Lewis continued. “It’s special for me and special for my guys.”

All the drivers were filled with anticipation for the race with FS1 broadcasting all the action live. Lewis fired from the front of the 36-car field, but as he entered turn one on lap two, chaos erupted behind him.

Lanie Buice and Jake Bollman were battling for second when they made contact, sending both drivers into the wall, and many others piled amid all the checking up throughout the field.

A red/yellow condition came out (a rule that allows drivers to come to the pits under red to repair their cars in certain situations) to clean up the major pileup.

Lewis again held steady on the restart, but the caution came back out on lap five when Kaden Honeycutt made contact with Carson Kvapil, sending Kvapil into the outside wall.

With no change up front on the next restart, Lewis led until the competition caution on lap 25.

The field restarted cleanly and got five more laps in until another caution for Donovan Strauss, who spun in turn four after contact from Buddy Isles Jr. while they were three-wide. The restart stayed the same once more, with Lewis leading McKee, and Mini Tyrell further back in third.

Caden Kvapil blew an engine on lap 45, but surprisingly, it did not draw a caution. The field stayed green until lap 74 when the competition caution came out for running 45 laps straight under green.

The restart saw everything stay the same, and two laps were completed before the next yellow. Mason Diaz and Conner Jones made contact in turn one, and they both came back down the track, collecting Ryan Millington and Jonathan Shafer.

The final restart came with 24 laps to go, and Lewis pulled away .918 seconds to win over McKee, Tyrell, and Honeycutt, who won the pro late model race Thursday night.

The best thing of note late in the race was the fierce battle for fifth between Carson Loftin, Landon Huffman and Jones.

Huffman made the move to the inside of Loftin a few times throughout the final 20 laps, and Jones even made it three-wide at certain points, but Loftin held onto fifth, with Huffman getting sixth and Jones crossing seventh.

The next CARS Late Model Stock Tour event is Saturday, May 31 at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.

The finish:

1. 29-Landen Lewis; 2. 7-Tristan McKee; 3. 81-Mini Tyrrell; 4. 5-Kaden Honeycutt; 5. 22-Carson Loftin; 6. 57-Landon Huffman; 7. 44-Conner Jones; 8. 8F-Tate Fogleman; 9. 09-Riley Gentry; 10. 88-Connor Hall; 11. 2-Brandon Pierce; 12. 11-Buddy Isles Jr.; 13. 1-Andrew Grady; 14. 4-Kade Brown; 15. 4S-Donovan Strauss; 16. 71-Parker Eatmon; 17. 16-Alex Meggs; 18. 04-Ronnie Bassett Jr.; 19. 32-Dylon Wilson; 20. 88B-Doug Barnes Jr.; 21. 01-Camden Gullie; 22. 00-Chase Burrow; 23. 41-Mason Diaz; 24. 15-Ryan Millington; 25. 12S-Jonathan Shafer; 26. 97-Michael Bumgarner; 27. 8-Caden Kvapil; 28. 12-Corey LaJoie; 29. 32K-Carson Kvapil; 30. 28S-Dustin Storm; 31. 71B-Jake Bollman; 32. 03-Lanie Buice; 33. 28-Landon S. Huffman; 34. 14-Sam Butler; 35. 2W-Ryan Wilson; 36. 17-Daniel Silvestri.