Deac McCaskill was in the right place at the right time as leaders Bobby McCarty and Layne Riggs collided while going for a win in the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car series inaugural stop at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA.
For the second race in a row, a caution waved after the field took the white flag. Last time out at Motor Mile Speedway, Josh Berry had dominated the race for 124 and 3/4 laps before a last lap caution waved. On the ensuing restart, McCarty and Berry made contact while racing for the lead. Berry spun and McCarty drove off to victory. This week the shoe was on the other foot for McCarty. He led much of the second half of this race after getting the lead from Justin T. Carroll, who took the lead early in the race on a daring three-wide pass of McCarty and Riggs.
As the laps clicked off it appeared the finish might be a rematch between McCarty and Berry with McCarty being out front this time. However with 20 laps to go in the 125 lap race, Berry’s chance at winning was lost as his car went around after contact with pole winner Layne Riggs while battling for second. Riggs was not penalized for the contact between the two.
As the laps clicked off McCarty looked to be the car to beat but Brandon Pierce would spin on the final lap to bring out the caution. The CARS Tour doesn’t finish under caution and this would set up a green, white, checkered finish with McCarty and Riggs on the front row. Riggs got a good restart and stayed alongside McCarty for the first lap and into turns one and two on the final lap. Exiting turn two and on to the backstretch, he was able to get behind and then inside of McCarty making contact.
McCarty’s car would slide up the track with Riggs getting the lead into three but Riggs would slide up and the two would make contact again. Riggs car would get sideways, but while all of this is going on, Deac McCaskill slipped under both drivers and drove off turn four to the win. McCarty was able to come home second with Riggs slipping to fifth at the finish behind rookies Sammy Smith and Adam Lemke.
For McCaskill, the win came as a surprise.
“Unbelievable man,” McCaskill told RACE22.com. “I was just kinda content with third place. We had a good long run car and that caution came out and I got all upset. Then I was like wait, God always has a plan. I just stuck with his faith and here we are in victory lane here.”
McCaskill knew that the two leaders were going to race each other really hard on the green, white, checkered.
“I couldn’t believe it. I knew Layne and Bobby was going to race pretty hard and I was thinking maybe I’ll get a second place out of this. When they got together I just went to the apron and I just knew a caution would come out but evidently, they saved it. We crossed the line and I was like we won. I couldn’t believe it.”
McCaskill qualified 10th and fell back as far as 12th before pushing the button to make a run at a good finish at the end.
“We got up on the wheel and like I said we had a really good long run car,” McCaskill continued. “I could kill a lot of them guys up off of two, get under them and we got to third and I was like I can probably get by Layne and get second but Bobby looked pretty tough. We’re standing here in victory lane, it’s never over until the checkered flag, man. It’s unreal.”
McCaskill just repeated over and over his disbelief of winning at Langley Speedway.
“This is one of the most shocking wins,” McCaskill stated. “I remember Josh Berry getting a win at Tri-County a few years ago with that four-wide to the finish. I know how in shock he was and that’s how I am. I can’t believe it. I thought we’d come away with a top-three finish and I was going to be just as happy and here we are in victory lane. This is cool.”
Cover photo by Andy Newsome.
Brandon White contributed to this article.
Unofficial Results:
- #08 Deac McCaskill; 125
- #22 Bobby McCarty; 125
- #12 Sammy Smith; 125
- #98 Adam Lemke; 125
- #99 Layne Riggs; 125
- #57 Justin T Carroll; 125
- #19 Cameron Bowen; 125
- #17p Stacy Puryear; 125
- #88 Josh Berry; 125
- #63 Tyler Matthews; 125
- #90 Terry Carroll; 125
- #1 Jonathan Findley; 125
- #07 Camden Gullie; 125
- #2 Brandon Pierce; 125
- # 81 Mini Tyrrell; 125
- #19c Jessica Cann; 125
- # 78 Corey Heim; 125
- #03 Brenden Queen; 105
- #17 Taylor Gray; 88
- #77 Trevor Ward; 86
- #91 Justin S Carroll; 76
- #54 Drew Dollar; 74
- #14 Ryan Repko; 71
- #74 Ronald Hill; 66
- #25 Zack St. Onge; 33
