Saturday night at Langley Speedway, a guy who spends his weekdays getting called "Unc" by twenty-somethings in a race shop went home and won a ballgame.
Connor Hall doesn't run the full CARS Tour Late Model Stock schedule anymore. He's busy — Niece Motorsports handed him a part-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series seat this year, and a chunk of his time now goes to mentoring the next batch of kids coming up through that program. But Saturday was the Visit Hampton Virginia 125 at his home track, the place where he once won eleven straight Late Model features in a single season, and Hall apparently decided the kids needed a reminder.
He held off Landen Lewis — his own Niece teammate, the defending CARS Tour Late Model Stock champion — to take the win.
"I'm tired of all these young kids in the race shop at Niece calling me Unc," Hall said in victory lane, in comments reported by Zach Evans of Racing America. "I had to come show them Unc's still got it a bit."
He did exactly that.
Lewis led early before handing the top spot to Hall, and when the late restarts came — the kind that hand a fast car a free shot at the lead — Lewis didn't take the swing. These two aren't just rivals. They're teammates, and Lewis has Truck Series ambitions of his own.
"At the end of the day, I didn't want to be that guy to wreck ," Lewis told Racing America. "I'm starting to mature at my old age where I'm tired of fixing race cars."
That's a defending series champion deciding a runner-up finish was worth more than a wrecked race car and a wrecked relationship. Smart kid.
Caden Kvapil finished third — and he did it the hard way, again. The JR Motorsports No. 88 qualified 15th and drove to the podium. It was the fourth time this season Kvapil has finished top-three after starting outside the top ten, and it stretched his series points lead.
"All night, we just kind of struggled with the car," Kvapil told Racing America. "Obviously, a third's not bad. I'm a little disappointed, but I guess it's good to be mad at third."
Mad at third. That's the mindset of a kid who expects to win a championship.
Carson Brown — the 17-year-old RCR development driver who won his ARCA debut at Phoenix back in February — finished fourth. Treyten Lapcevich rounded out the top five. This is a deep field, and a lot of it is wired straight into the NASCAR ladder.
Hall's got more in front of him this year. He'll be back at Langley in July for the Hampton Heat, the crown jewel, where the fans split loud between him and Brenden "Butterbean" Queen.
"I think people are starting to realize I'm just a good old boy who wants to do some CARS racing," Hall said. "I just want to win races and drink a little beer after."
Sounds about right.
The CARS Tour Late Model Stock cars run again June 13 at Dominion Raceway. Kvapil's still out front. Hall's still got it. And the kids at Niece have some new material to chew on.
Our colleagues over at Grand National Today have the full race breakdown, restart by restart. Reporting and quotes via Zach Evans, Racing America.