Team Owner Denied Victory Lane Ride; Late Model Star Lashes Out on Pit-Road as Drama Engulfs Dale Jr’s CARS Tour

Those not watching the zMAX CARS Tour during this two-week Olympics break are missing out on a lot of fun. Only last week at Hickory Speedway, Landon Huffman and Andrew Grady’s teams made headlines for brawling post-race.

But this week, the CARS Tour was back at North Wilkesboro, a racing property very close to series owner Dale Earnhardt Jr’s heart. After all, the man helped nurse this former ghost track in the heart of Wilkes County back to full health. And now, it’s part of the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. 

In fact, the Window World 125 CARS Tour race would’ve taken place only days before the North Wilkesboro All-Star event earlier in May. But incessant rains at the time pushed the CARS Tour date forward to August 3rd. And from a Canadian rookie claiming the chequered to a decisive favorite losing his cool, all the action that transpired on Saturday was every bit as thrilling on a reschedule.

Butterbean gets hot under the collar at North Wilkesboro CARS Tour race

When the green finally waved off the Late Model Stock Car race at North Wilkesboro, Brenden ‘Butterbean’ Queen & Mini Tyrrell started on the front row. The #03 of Queen and the #81 of Tyrrell traded paint and battled for real estate right from Lap 1 until the very last circuit of the originally scheduled 125-lap showdown. But in the end, 20-year-old Treyten Lapcevich of Grimsby, Ontario held off both, runners-up Corey Heim, and P4 finisher Carson Kvapil for his debut CARS Tour win.

Ironically, Lapcevich almost ended his chances as early as Lap 10. While Butterbean & Tyrrell battled for the lead early, the #77 car, restarting fourth after the race’s first caution for a flat tire on Tyler Gregory’s car, checked up on the outside to cause the biggest wreck of the race. Lapcevich escaped narrowly, but some notable names like Connor Mosack, and Sammy Smith, alongside series points frontrunners, Brent Crews (2nd), and Connor Hall (1st) picked up significant damage from this incident. Facing a disadvantage, only Crews salvaged a top-10 finish when the dust settled.

But if anyone were to consider themselves lucky after the Window World 125, it has to be Butterbean and his closest rival for the day, Mini Tyrrell. Queen looked like the car to beat at North Wilkesboro and held the lead for a significant amount of time, until Lap 57. Lapcevich took the lead away from Butterbean to keep it, although his battles would culminate in the end against a certain Corey Heim. As for Brenden Queen? His biggest trouble was Tyrrell with only 4 laps to go.

After the final caution of the race was called right after Lapcevich almost crashed into the stalled car of Brandon Pierce leaking oil on the racetrack, Butterbean and Tyrrell lined up 2nd and 3rd respectively behind the #77.

The emotions were noticeable. Neither of those guys wished to give up their precious track position. Lapcevich cleared the other two. But scrambling for grip on the slippery surface, now Butterbean went wide on Turn 4. At the moment, Tyrell was right behind him, and Butterbean must have felt some contact because after he fell back from his P2 running position to finish fifth, he confronted Queen with an unusual demeanor after the race.

In a video shared by Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut, Butterbean, appearing frustrated, approached third-place finisher Tyrrell to talk it out. 20-year-old Tyrrell held his ground to clarify, “I barely touched you. Go back and watch it. I barely touched your left rear.” Regardless, both drivers found their respective places inside the top 5. But the drama wouldn’t end there. Next up, it was the race-winner himself and his team owner who faced problems while trying to enter victory lane together at North Wilkesboro.

Security throws off Chad Bryant’s victory lane celebrations

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After winning the 2023 NASCAR Canada title, Treyten Lapcevich joined Chad Bryant Racing to run a full-time schedule in CARS Tour’s Late Model Stock Car division. The team competed in the ARCA Menards Series earlier and won a bunch of races with 2024 Truck Series championship-aspirant Ty Majeski and Joe Graf Jr. Running the #77 for Lapcevich in Dale Jr’s series, Chad Bryant potentially has NASCAR’s next great international star on the roster of his race team.

Therefore, when security asked him not to join Lapcevich in his car while entering victory lane, many heads turned. Matt Weaver shared another video update on Twitter, capturing a track official denying Bryant access as he attempts to approach the driver in the car he owns. Weaver captioned the post for better measure, writing, “Treyten Lapcevich takes the ride up to Victory Lane They don’t let Chad Bryant take the ride with him.”

It sure will be a moment they will both never forget in their respective stock-car racing careers. At the end of it all, Gio Ruggiero, Mason Diaz, Ronnie Bassett Jr, Ryan Millington, and Brent Crews rounded off the top 10, respectively. The Closer, Kevin Harvick, barely missed that honor and finished P11.

On August 9, the CARS Tour returns to see through the championship battles unfold at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC. You can stream all the action live on FloRacing’s official website.