The season-ending AutosByNelson.com 250 for the CARS Late Model Stock Car and Super Late Model Tours at South Boston Speedway on Saturday afternoon will feature two drivers looking to become the first to sweep both races in the same weekend.
One of those drivers is Trinity, North Carolina resident Jared Fryar, who will be driving his usual #14 Sterling Building Group Chevrolet for Brandin Wrisley in the Super Late Model division, while also piloting Jimmy Mooring’s #17 Solid Rock Carriers/Asphalt Services Chevrolet during the Late Model Stock Car feature.
Fryar, who clinched his first CARS SLM Tour championship at South Boston in 2018, is looking forward to his opportunity to compete in both 125-lap features on Saturday afternoon and is confident that he can bring home two solid runs to end his 2019 season on a positive note.
“We were originally planning on just doing the Super race and sticking to our plan of running full-time in the series,” Fryar said. “I ended up getting a call from Jimmy Mooring, who asked if I wanted to drive his car this weekend, and I figured there was no better time to get behind the wheel of a Late Model than the last race of the season.”
Fryar carried over the consistency from his stellar championship run into the 2019 CARS SLM Tour campaign by registering three Top 5s and completing every single lap this year, with his worst finish coming during the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway, in which he finished 13th.
Although Fryar has predominantly been a regular for the Super Late Model side of the CARS Tour, his first full season with the series came in the Late Model division in 2017, where he finished tied for seventh in the standings with Chris Hudspeth and managed to pick up his first and only victory to date across both series in the second of two QDMA Duels at Dominion Raceway.
With experience in both Late Models and Super Late Models, Fryar has grown to understand the differences of each car and what is necessary to win in both divisions, but he stated that regardless of what kind of car he is driving, patience, speed, and smart decisions will always imperative when it comes to winning races.
“Weight and power are what separate the two from each other,” Fryar said. “The biggest goal is to obviously finish the race and be there at the end. Whether you have the best car or an ill-handling car, you have to do the best you can with what you got and you have to take care of your equipment as well.”
While Fryar will be in familiar territory with Wrisley’s Super Late Model, he will be driving a Late Model for Jimmy Mooring that Late Model veteran Stacy Puryear has only driven to an eighth-place finish twice at Southern National Motorsports Park and Langley Speedway during the 2019 season.
After Puryear left the team following the Solid Rock Carriers Crystal Coast 125 at Carteret County Speedway, Sarah Cornett-Ching also struggled to find success in the Late Model with finishes of 20th and 15th in two starts, while Brandon Clements narrowly missed out on making the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 with the car by finishing 11th in the first heat.
Despite those issues, Fryar plans to put all of his attention into winning the AutosByNelson.com 250 with Matt Craig expected to lock up the CARS SLM Tour title, and knows that he will have to make the most out of both Mooring’s and Wrisley’s equipment to hold on for a win against drivers like Josh Berry, Bobby McCarty, and Corey Heim, the latter of which is also competing in both races.
“It’d be huge if we won both,” Fryar said. “That’s always our intention, but if we could pull a win in both races off, it would be amazing and just a special moment in my career.”
Fryar has not ruled out running more Late Model Stock Car races before the season concludes in November, but the AutosByNelson.com 250 is tentatively scheduled to be the last race on his calendar, which will officially get going at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Cover photo by Jaden Austin.
