Quin Houff scored his first career win in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model race at Tri-County Motor Speedway but it could have come at Orange County Speedway back in April if not for a penalty.
After recovering from an early spin, Houff was engaged in an epic battle for the lead with Kyle Busch Motorsports standout Christopher Bell in the middle stages of the Orange Blossom 300 back in April but a lap 92 penalty for jumping a restart derailed his effort. Houff ended up finishing 13th.
“We started on the front, spun out, went to the back and raced back to the front,” the 17-year-old recalled. “We were racing up front against Christopher Bell. It was between me and him that night. One of the cautions came out. He was beating me n the restarts by lagging back and jumping at the last second. I talked to Jeff Fultz on the radio and he gave me some pointers. Next restart, I played Bell’s game, hit it perfectly, he spun his tires and made it look like I jumped. He spun his tires but CARS Tour didn’t see it that way.”
His performance at Hickory wasn’t much better. In fact, it wasn’t until the tour’s second race at Southern National Motorsports Park that he turned things around, scoring his first top-five finish. Two weeks later, at Tri-County, he ironically capitalized on a penalty Steven Wallace received for jumping a restart and went on to score the win.
“That was the first race [Wallace] ran with an LFR car,” Houff, who drives an LFR Chassis racecar, said. “It was going to be a great race between us. I was sad he got black flagged. I thought we had the fastest car there and I wanted to race him. It played in my favor. I got the bad end, came around and got the good end. A lot of people felt like we fell into that win.”
While Houff struggled at Motor Mile Speedway on July 11th, he returns to Orange County with momentum and confidence.
“Last time at Orange County was the first race I felt like, I didn’t expect it,” Houff remarked. “We had one of the fastest cars there. It went really well then really bad. This weekend we’re looking for a solid race where we’re not going to have a shocker win. We want a best car all around win the race.”
Houff sits fourth in series points, 40 markers behind points leader Cole Timm. However, the Virginia driver is not thinking about points or championships. He just wants to win more races.
“All in all, with this season, I go to the track, try not to worry about points, looking for a win,” Houff explained. “If we go with that mindset as a team, the points play themselves out. Cole Timm and Kyle Grissom have been consistent and are great racers and it’s an honor to be in the mix with them. It will be interesting to see how the last four races run. Depends on who has good luck and bad luck. At the end of the day, we’re just there to win races.”
The CARS Tour race at Orange County Speedway will be held on Saturday night. RACE22.com will have live updates on Twitter and RACEFEEDX.com will have live streaming pay-per-view video coverage of the race.
