Mason Diaz (left) and Cole Butcher (right) scored their first CARS Racing Tour feature victories on Sunday at Hickory Motor Speedway. Photos: CARS Racing Tour/Twitter
For Mason Diaz and Cole Butcher, Sunday’s rain delayed Throwback 225 at North Carolina’s historic Hickory Motor Speedway was historic.
Both drivers made their first trips to victory lane in CARS Racing Tour competition. Diaz took the win in the Late Model Stock Car feature, while Butcher was victorious in the Pro Late Model portion of the event.
In the Late Model Stock Car feature, The Diaz’ had to find a way around polesitter Kade Brown. Through a handful of late restarts, Diaz and Brown engaged in a hard, but clean battle for the win. After Brown got out in front of him on the final restart, Diaz applied steady pressure on the young driver and was able to eventually muscle his way to the lead, which he held onto until the checkered flag was displayed.
“It was a long race,” Diaz said. “I never gave up and this crew never gave up on me. It’s been an up and down season, but we’re getting our roll on here. It started at Caraway and things haven’t stopped since. We stayed up front all day and kept the lead.”
Diaz was confident he could contend on Sunday after sweeping both Late Model Stock events at Hickory last weekend. Despite this, bringing home the win carried a huge sense of catharsis for Diaz, who intends to keep the momentum going with seven races left on the schedule.
“A lot of pressure has been taken off of me now,” Diaz said. “Getting those two wins (at Hickory) last weekend was big for me, but coming out here now and having a dominant performance like we did was amazing. Chad Bryant Racing brought me a fast car and hopefully we’re just getting started.”
Brenden Queen finished in third, with Carson Kvapil in fourth, and Bobby McCarty in fifth.
In the Pro Late Model feature, Cole Butcher easily pulled away from the rest of the field to score his first victory in the series.
“This means a lot,” Butcher said. “I got a phone call from Donnie Wilson about a week ago and he asked me if I wanted to drive the GearWrench Toyota and I said absolutely. Hickory’s one of my favorite racetracks and to get my third win here (at Hickory) this year is awesome.”
Caden Kvapil, Austin MacDonald, Katie Hettinger, and T.J. DeCaire rounded out the top five.
The next event on the CARS Tour calendar will be a Friday night Late Model Stock Car feature at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina on August 11. The Pro Late Model Tour will have an additional week off before hitting the track again at Tri-County Speedway in Granite Falls, North Carolina on August 19.
For more information, visit CARSRacingTour.com.
CARS Racing Tour
Hickory Motor Speedway – Hickory, NC
Throwback 225 – July 30, 2023
Late Model Stock Cars
1. 52S Mason Diaz
2. 44 Kade Brown
3. 55S Brenden Queen
4. 42 Carson Kvapil
5. 6 Bobby McCarty
6. 04 Ronnie Bassett, Jr.
7. 16 Jacob Heafner
8. 88S Brandon Pierce
9. 00 Chad McCumbee
10. 62 Layne Riggs
11. 08 Deac McCaskill
12. 41 Chase Burrow
13. 32 Zack Miracle
14. 15 Ryan Millington
15. 97 D.J. Canipe
16. 98 Connor Zilisch
17. 22 Landon Huffman
18. 4S Connor Hall
19. 56N Mini Tyrrell
20. 67 Cameron Bolin
21. 12 Austin McDaniel
22. 5 Andrew Grady
23. 15C Logan Clark
24. 5C Brent Crews
25. 92 Bryant Barnhill
26. 45 Kaden Honeycutt
27. 09 Riley Gentry
28. 4 Dylon Wilson
Pro Late Models
1. 28 Cole Butcher
2. 96S Caden Kvapil
3. 13 Austin MacDonald
4. 81 Katie Hettinger
5. 88 T.J. DeCaire
6. 25 Connor Zilisch
7. 43 Nick Loden
8. 15B Luke Baldwin
9. 6 George Phillips
10. 53 Logan Jones
11. 49 Jeff Batten
12. 37 Brett Suggs
13. 8 Rusty Skewes
14. 9 Ashton Higgins
15. 27W Kris Wright
16. 7 Tristan McKee
17. 43H Joshua Horniman
18. 7C Justin Crider
19. 03 Kyle Campbell
20. 7T Tyler Church
21. 4 Matt Caprara
22. 55 Charlie Keeven
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.