Houff, Haws Winners on a Hot, Wild Night at Tri-County
HUDSON, NC (June 13, 2015) — The CARS Racing Tour reached the halfway point of its inaugural season with fireworks and excitement at Tri-County Motor Speedway on Friday night. A familiar face in Brayton Haws (Late Model Stock) and a first-time winner, Quin Houff (Super Late Model), found their respective ways to Edelbrock victory lane as part of the the LeftTurnsAndSunBurns.com 200 presented by CCC&TI.
Super Late Model Recap:
After a brief rain shower cancelled qualifying, the lineup was determined by the rulebook (driver points) and that put Cole Timm and Kyle Grissom on the front row to begin the 100 lap contest.
Grissom grabbed the lead on the start from Timm, but fast-moving Steve Wallace, who started 9th, began a quick charge through the field. By lap 16, when the first caution flew for an oil down from Stephen Leicht’s broken rear end, Wallace had made his way up to second behind rival Grissom.
The pair began a game on restarts that led to both receiving admonishment from race control. Brandon Setzer and Zane Smith tangled on lap 49, and on the ensuing restart Wallace once again stepped over the boundary set by race control for the restart tolerances and was penalized to the rear for jumping the restart.
Following the pivotal penalty, Quin Houff restarted alongside Grissom, and they, along with Jake Crum and Timm, performed a classic, Tri-County style, side-by-side battle for the top four spots.
Chasing down Grissom, Houff was unable to make the pass until a late race yellow on lap 76. Houff muscled his way around Grissom by lap 78 and took command of the race, never relinquishing the top spot.
Houff drove his LFR Chassis Chevrolet to the win over Grissom, Crum, Wallace and Timm. It was the first career Late Model or Super Late Model victory of any kind for the development driver out of Weyers Cave, VA.
“I would’ve never thought I’d be this good at a track I’ve never seen before in my life,” said Houff after climbing from the car in victory lane. “I can’t thank LFR enough, my dad and my family for standing behind me, this is great. I can’t believe we’re here!
“I never doubted those guys, they’re all great racer and I respect them all and race them clean,” he continued. “I ran my butt off until the last lap and never gave them an inch. They never gave me an inch and I never gave them an inch, but I never doubted and never slowed down. It hasn’t sunk in yet, this is unreal.”
Late Model Stock Recap:
The .400-mile Tri-County Motor Speedway has earned a reputation for great Late Model Stock races over the years, and the first CARS Tour LMSC event was no exception. Just like the SLM Tour, qualifying was cancelled due to weather and curfew restraints at the facility. Brayton Haws, already a two-time winner this season, and Deac McCaskill, winner of the last event at Southern National, consequently started on the front row for their 100 lap affair.
Haws shot out into the lead for the first 32 before the first of many caution flags flew, the first for an incident with Chris Hudspeth and Black Stallings in turn three.
After the restart, McCaskill and Myatt Snider moved around Haws for the top two spots and fought each other hard for the lead. When the field again restarted after another yellow on lap 55, Snider overdrove turn 3 and 4 and slid into McCaskill, nearly crashing both cars, and cutting down a tire on the No. 08 Ford. McCaskill’s stopped machine warranted yet another caution, and Snider fell to midpack after the near-disaster in turn three.
The largest and most spectacular incident of the night occurred in turn three on lap 58. While battling for third, Tyler Ankrum touched tires with Todd Gilliland, sending the Ankrum automobile on top of Gilliland’s car in a shower of sparks. No less than eight drivers received damage and a number of top contenders were eliminated from contention.
Haws clung to the lead and did not relinquish it, despite heated attempts by veteran Jamey Caudill to bypass the No. 41 Rheem Ford on a plethora of late-race restarts. Haws survived to pick up his third win in just five CARS Tour starts in 2015. R.D. Smith finished second ahead of Caudill, Snider, and Garrett Campbell who charged from 22nd starting position.
“In the beginning of the race, I was riding the inside and I was kinda pulling away a bit until that caution came out,” Haws explained after climbing from the car in Edelbrock Victory Lane. “I gave Deac the outside and that’s when he and Myatt got around me. So I tried the outside and my car just felt amazing on the outside. It was insane. I moved to the outside with about 50 to go and made it work.”
When Snider and McCaskill tangled on a restart, “I knew it wasn’t over, it couldn’t be over when you’ve got the guys I do working on this car. We went into three and all I saw was hard racing. It was just a racing deal and we came out of it. I couldn’t do this without all my sponsors and my family, even those from Iowa who made a 16-hour drive to come watch me race.”
“Hopefully this win will start another win streak like we had a couple races ago. I can almost promise you that we will be a very hard contender throughout the rest of the season,” Haws concluded.
THE FINISHES
Super Late Model Tour
POS DRIVER/CAR # LAPS
1 Quin Houff (17) 100
2 Kyle Grissom (31) 100
3 Jake Crum (01) 100
4 Steve Wallace (66) 100
5 Cole Timm (57) 100
6 Tyler Church (7) 100
7 Zane Smith (77) 100
8 Clay Jones (67) 100
9 Chris Davidson (14D) 100
10 Joey Mucciacciaro (45) 100
11 Spencer Wauters (5W) 100
12 Stephen Nasse (51N) 100
13 Lucas Jones (16) 100
14 Vinnie Miller (5M) 100
15 Matthew Craig (54) 100
16 Dave Mader III (118) 100
17 Lucas Ransone (00) 92
18 Richard Gould (24) 76
19 Roger Lee Newton (33) 75
20 Brandon Setzer (6) 49
21 Stephen Leicht (25) 16
Late Model Stock Tour
POS DRIVER/CAR # LAPS
1 Brayton Haws (41) 100
2 R.D. Smith (16S) 100
3 Jamey Caudill (50) 100
4 Myatt Snider (2) 100
5 Garrett Campbell (12C) 100
6 Deac McCaskill (08) 100
7 Chad McCumbee (21M) 100
8 Tommy Lemons, Jr. (27) 100
9 Austin McDaniel (12M) 100
10 Clint King (07) 100
11 Robert Tyler (88T) 100
12 Thomas Beane (31) 100
13 Justin Crider (7) 100
14 Craig Stallard (42) 100
15 Jeff Oakley (16) 87
16 Payton Ryan (23R) 80
17 Christian PaHud (63) 74
18 Tyler Ankrum (58) 58
19 Todd Gilliland (98G) 58
20 Roddy Sterling (59) 58
21 Michael Fose (54) 58
22 Stefan Parsons (98) 58
23 Chris Davis (88) 58
24 Shane Lee (00) 55
25 Mike Darne (99) 55
26 Blake Stallings (77) 32
27 Chris Hudspeth (28) 32
Sources: Chris Ragle/CARS Tour PR
Photos by Sherri Stearns Photography