Quin Houff claimed his first career Super Late Model victory in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour race at Tri-County Motor Speedway, ironically, aided by a penalty against Steven Wallace.
Houff passed Kyle Grissom on lap 77 and led the rest of the way, taking the victory in Hudson, North Carolina as the CARS Tour reaches its halfway mark of the season.
“It’s unbelievable,” Houff said of his first Late Model win of any kind. “I’m with the greatest team out here. Great field, best field in America. I never doubted any of these guys, just such an unreal feeling to win here. It’s a great track. I’ve never seen so much racing in my life. Man, it’s so crazy. I’m blessed… This is unbelievable beyond words.”
Houff felt he had the best car in the race in spite of Wallace’s penalty but the victory aided by the penalty is ironic because Houff was in contention for a win at Orange County Speedway back in April before being sent to the rear of the field for … jumping the restart.
Steve Wallace appeared to have the dominant car of the evening, racing his way from a ninth-place starting spot to the lead in the first 27 laps. However, he was penalized on lap 49 for restart violations and forced to the rear of the field by CARS officials.
Wallace rebounded from the penalty to finish in fourth place, charging through the field over the second half of the event.
“I’ve raced my whole entire life, since I was seven years old and I’ve never, in my life, had a series where it has a starting line,” Wallace explained. “That’s the only series in the world that starts by a line and not a starting box. It’s just upsetting because I haven’t run good in five races now. I got hooked with LFR and Robbie Fuller. They gave me just a hellacious car tonight. It was the best car here clearly. If you don’t think it was, you’re blind. I got screwed so bad it’s retarded… I might regret some of the stuff I said. I’m really frustrated tonight. These guys worked so hard and gave me a great car. It’s just, I’m frustrated because, I’ve known Kyle Grissom my whole life and he jumped the start four times and I was on the receiving end of it. I don’t know, I’m just stupid, all it is.”
Grissom inherited the lead following Wallace’s penalty, and briefly ran away from the field. However, Houff worked his way towards second, giving himself a shot at the lead on a lap 76 restart after Roger Lee Newton crashed in turn three.
Houff capitalized, taking the lead from Grissom en route to the win.
Like Wallace, another hard charger in the race was Jake Crum. With qualifying cancelled due to rain, the field was set on CARS Super Late Model Tour points. Crum was one of three drivers making his CARS debut in the field, and thus had to start 19th out of 21 cars. He was able to fight through the pack to finish third in the 100-lap event, claiming a podium finish in his first CARS Super Late Model event.
RACE22.com’s Zach Evans contributed to this report.
Race Results
- Quin Houff
- Kyle Grissom
- Jake Crum
- Steve Wallace
- Cole Timm
- Tyler Church
- Zane Smith
- Clay Jones
- Chris Davidson
- Joey Mucciacciaro
- Spencer Wauters
- Stephen Nasse
- Lucas Jones
- Vinnie Miller
- Matt Craig
- Dave Mader, III
- Lucas Ransone
- Richard Gould
- Roger Lee Newton
- Brandon Setzer
- Stephen Leicht
