Landen Lewis wins back-to-back CARS races; first at Wilkesboro - Short Track Scene

This was just the third time Landen Lewis had won in CARS Tour competition but this one was different and special.

You could hear it in his voice as he crossed the line, and again upon climbing out of the car, or during his post-race interviews too.

“It’s North Wilkesboro,” Lewis said, while also citing the pride in winning for those who contribute to his Kevin Harvick Inc. program.

Lewis won from the pole, having led every lap, and took the championship lead all in front of a nationally televised audience on FOX Sports 1 too.

“I mean, this place is so awesome,” Lewis said. “Man, the atmosphere of this place is unreal. I’ve been telling everybody (that) I remember when I saw a Facebook post of Dale Jr. with a weed eater out here just to get it cleaned p for iRacing and I decided I really wish I could have raced here really freaking bad.

“Then, we didn’t have the chance to run this race last year so I helped KHI and Brent (Crews) run it, learned the race track, so now this place has treated me well for this being my only attempt here.”

Lewis led wire-to-wire, mostly fending off 14-year-old Tristan McKee in the latter stages of the race, the latter simply not having enough to catch and complete a pass.

“We were pretty good so I don’t know where we could have been better, its hard to say,” McKee said. “You know, we were a little snug in the middle of 1 and 2 and pretty good in 3 and 4. They were just a little faster, maybe some clean air but my Matt Piercy Racing guys brought me a great car. We executed well all day, went from eight to second, so it was a good day.”’

In a distant third was Mini Tyrrell.

“Those things were flying,” he said of the the leaders. “We were just a little too tight. Started the race a tick free. Had a really good car on entry, could drive it deep into the center well and stay with them off the corner but I kept getting my right front hot and just too tight.”

There were two notable incidents and they occurred on consecutive cautions on Lap 1 and 4 respectively with both taking place within the battle for second place.

The first occurred when Lanie Buice broke traction under Jake Bollman and a dozen cars piled in.

Bollman simply said that was a case study of impatience.

Buice was incredibly emotional afterwards.

“I can’t thank these Lee Pulliam Performance team, so supportive, Folsom Fence, and I’m super sorry for causing a problem early on,” she said. “I hate it for everyone. I need to take a look at a replay but I think we were just racing really hard there into 1 and maybe I shouldn’t have at the beginning of the race. I feel like I had a lot to prove and that was fueling me a little bit but it is what it is. We’ll come back in two weeks at Langley and will do better.”

Then a similar incident happened between Kaden Honeycutt and Carson Kvapil, one that eliminated the latter from contention. Honeycutt went on to finish fourth.

Kvapil came over to Honeycutt’s pit area and leaned into the car during a competition caution. Honeycutt said he bottomed out on low pressure and apologized.

“I feel so bad for wrecking Carson,” Honeycutt said. “We had a miscommunication on air pressure and I was into the race track so bad that I was hitting the lead box, the cross member, battery box and I just flat out ran into it and there was nothing I could do about it. I lifted early, I turned and I feel bad about it. I can’t make it up to them and he definitely owes me one after that.”

Meanwhile, the Lewis victory in addition to a misfortune riddled 10th place finish for Connor Hall resulted in a change atop the championship standings.

“I mean, you know, people were asking me, what do you think about the championship? What do you think about that,” said Lewis. “And I said, honestly, we’re thinking about the championship. Yes, we’re here to win races. Yes, winning races takes care of it but we need to keep going out there and making the most of our day, not get in wrecks, and we’re doing a lot of that right now.

“I think we’re so good right now because we’re not wrecking cars and having to rebuild them. We keep making our cars better. We just put new body panels of it. My dad always told me when we started racing that we can’t make a wrecked car any better and that’s stuck with me since I was four years old and that’s my championship approach too.”

CARS Tour Window World 100
North Wilkesboro Speedway
May 17 2025