Lessard Dominates For CARS SLM Victory At Concord

Raphael Lessard celebrates in victory lane after scoring the Super Late Model victory in Saturday night’s CARS Racing Tour event at Concord Speedway. Photo by Kyle Tretow/CARS Tour

On a night when Mother Nature tried her best to take top honors, Raphael Lessard put a check in the CARS Racing Tour Super Late Model win column at North Carolina’s Concord Speedway on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Josh Berry recorded the win in the Late Model Stock Car portion of the evening.

With a rainout of qualifying earlier in the afternoon, the Super Late Model field was using owners points to line up the starting field. Championship leader Lessard led the field to the green flag for the first time in his CARS Tour career, with Brandon Setzer on the outside.

Lessard quickly jumped to the point on the initial green flag and led the field through the first five circuits. On lap six, Quin Houff bypassed him in turn two, but Lessard slipped and made contact with the outside wall as Houff completed the pass.

A competition caution on lap 25 due to wet weather earlier in the day forced the field to regroup for a restart, and from the outside of the front row, Lessard recaptured the point from Houff. Houff, along with Zane Smith and Matt Craig, followed in Lessard’s tire tracks through the mid stages of the event, looking for a chance to pounce.

Caution flew again on lap 55 when third place driver Zane Smith stopped his car on the backstretch. He exited the machine quickly, removed his helmet, and sat down in the infield grass. He was hurriedly tended to by medical personnel with fluids and oxygen to treat his fatigue but was done racing for the night.

Lessard once again took command of the race on the restart, stretching his advantage over the field by nearly four seconds at times during the final stretch of green flag racing. The French-Canadian teenager cruised to his second career CARS Super Late Mode Tour win by 3.2 seconds over Preston Peltier in second, with Houff in third, Craig in fourth and Tanner Thorson in fifth.

“I thought I may have thrown it away because I thought we may have gotten a flat tire, but we ended up in victory lane, so it was all good,” said Lessard when asked about the lap 6 impact with the backstretch wall. “It actually made the car a little bit worse because it got tight and I was worrying that at the end I wouldn’t be able to be there. But David Gilliland Racing gave me an awesome car and my Toyota Camry was fantastic to drive. I can’t thank my team enough. But we’re not racing for points, we’re looking to win every race.”

Josh Berry scored the win in the Late Model Stock Car portion of Saturday night’s event. Photo by Kyle Tretow/CARS Tour

In the Late Model Stock Car feature, Josh Berry brought the field to green, but it was outside polesitter Myatt Snider taking the lead on the start. But just four laps later, Snider slipped in turn one and opened the door for Berry to take the lead for the first time of the night.

While Berry began to pull away, series points leader Deac McCaskill fought his way forward after an internal engine part failure in qualifying forced him to start last on the field. By the latter portions of the race, McCaskill had fought his way well into the top ten.

The lone caution of the race was displayed on lap 90 when Layne Riggs suffered a blown left rear tire. That sent his Ford spinning in turn three and into the outside retaining wall in turn four with minimal damage, though Riggs did retire from the event.

Berry and Justin Carroll, who ran second for most of the event, dueled for the top spot in turn one on the ensuing restart. Carroll was unable to do anything with Berry’s Chevrolet and was forced to do battle with others including Snider, Christian Eckes and McCaskill.

The final ten laps were all Josh Berry’s for the taking, as he cruised to his sixth career CARS Late Model Stock Tour victory. Snider trailed behind in second with Eckes, McCaskill and Carroll rounding out the top five.

“I heard it change tones with about 50 to go when I was in lapped traffic and at first I thought it was the cars I was around, but then I realized it was mine and I didn’t say anything until after the race because I didn’t want them to start worrying about it,” said Berry. “Luckily, it didn’t hurt us too bad. What a great car we had, just a credit to these guys and they work so hard.”

The CARS Racing Tour returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 3 at Southern National Motorsports Park. For more information, visit CARSRacingTour.com.

CARS Racing Tour
Concord Speedway – Concord, NC
Lead 2 Real Estate 200 – Aug. 28, 2016

Super Late Models
POS NUM DRIVER LAPS REASON OUT
1. 99 Raphael Lessard 100
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3. 17 Quin Houff 100
4. 54 Matt Craig 100
5. 97 Tanner Thorson 100
6. 83 Joey Padgett 100
7. 66 Steve Wallace 100
8. 4 Ali Kern 100
9. 6 Brandon Setzer 100
10. 15 Christian Eckes 99
11. 4p Michael Pilla 99
12. 15f Brad Rogers 99
13. 77 Zane Smith 55 Fatigue
14. 12 Harrison Burton 54 Mechanical
15. 49 Jeff Batten 34 Power Steering
DNS: 16 Lucas Jones 0
DNS: 16m Vinnie Miller 0

Late Model Stock Cars
POS NUM DRIVER LAPS REASON OUT
1. 88b Josh Berry 100
2. 2 Myatt Snider 100
3. 1 Christian Eckes 100
4. 08 Deac McCaskill 100
5. 57 Justin Carroll 100
6. 12m Austin McDaniel 100
7. 5 Stephen Leicht 100
8. 27 Tommy Lemons 100
9. 21 Travis Swaim 100
10. 98 Stefan Parsons 99
11. 28 Chris Hudspeth 99
12. 7 Justin Crider 99
13. 42 Craig Stallard 99
14. 23 Terry Brooks 98
15. 88 Chris Davis 98
16. 31 Thomas Beane 98
17. 99 Layne Riggs 89 Accident
18. 74 Ronald Hill 83 Mechanical
19. 25m Shaun Mangum 48 Mechanical
20. 32 Jerry Miracle 16 Mechanical