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Treyten Lapcevich expected to feel something upon turning his first ever lap at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway … just not the Turn 1 wall.
“I blew up into Turn 1; it locked up on me and turned me right into the fence,” Lapcevich told Short Track Scene at the end of the day.
Team owner and crew chief Chad Bryant said he knows what happened and they have another car on the way from North Carolina. On one hand, this isn’t the way Chad Bryant Racing wanted to approach an inaugural event but Lapcevich gets to drive his favorite car instead.
It’s the one they took to victory lane at North Wilkesboro and the South Carolina 400 in 2024. He also spent most of the day turning laps in the Rette Jones Racing Pro Late Model so he has his driving feel too.
When he climbed out of the car, Lapcevich initially told Bryant he was convinced he had almost kept it off the wall, but upon further review both of them agreed he had not.
“Well, in the car, I thought I was close and then I watched the video of it, and I was not close at all,” Lapcevich said with a laugh.
Directly behind him was Ronnie Bassett Jr. who called it ‘big’ and also laughed playfully when told Lapcevich thought he was saving it. ‘He wasn’t saving it.’
With that said, Bassett didn’t have a very enjoyable day either. Like most everyone in the Late Model Stock pit area, a new track challenged their family-owned No. 04 team tremendously.
“We’re just looking for drivability, man,” Bassett said. “As rough as this place is down across the bumps, if we can get our car driving good across those, you’ll be pretty fast. We just didn’t get a lot of that reeled in today so we’ll keep working on that and get some speed in our car.”
There were no transponders on cars on Thursday but three teams were consistently mentioned as the fastest on the stop watch or otherwise the most impressive based on the eye test during the unofficial test session.
Brown had the benefit of recent Super Late Model experience at The Fairgrounds with Anthony Campi Racing but also praised team owner Lee Pulliam with having a good plan of attack on Thursday.
“We learned this is a big track, high load, in a Late Model Stock,” Brown said. “But we expected that. Didn’t know what to expect but felt we were pretty decent. We fired off a little bit better than where we ended but I think it’s hard to read anything from the times with everyone on different tires and no RaceMonitor doesn’t help that either.
“We’re going to be alright; just got to keep working on it.”
As for Pembelton, his R&S Race Cars has a couple of cheat codes, figuratively speaking. In addition to co-owner and crew chief Marcus Richmon, he and Sam Butler also have All American 400 winner Matt Craig making a rare Late Model Stock appearance at his favorite track.
Pembelton credited the Super Late veteran for helping the Late Model Stock regulars get a quicker feel for the Nashville Fairgrounds.
“I can tell you it’s been great so far,” Pembelton said of Craig. “When we first got here this morning, we took the bikes and rode the racetrack and he showed me the line with Pro and Super just to get started and we’ve been working hand-in-hand since we got here, and it’s been great so far.”
And yeah, he thinks they have unloaded close to where they need to be on Saturday night.
“I feel like we’re in the ballpark,” Pembelton said. “I think tomorrow will tell us a little better. We’ve been keeping up with the track and the other cars and feel like we’re pretty competitive here. That’s all you can ask for at a CARS Tour event.”
Defending series champion Landen Lewis of Kevin Harvick Inc. gave similar credit to Rackley WAR co-owner Willie Allen Racing, which has a partnership with KHI, for a pre-session track walk.
“Really, I feel like I do better being thrown into a track with no expectations,” Lewis said. “It’s up to me to just figure it out. I want to thank the Rackley guys because they’ve helped a ton.
“Willie and Michael House have helped a ton. We made gains all day and feel like we should have a good car this Saturday.”
JR Motorsports drivers Caden Kvapil and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed to struggle to find what they were looking for and indicated it after the racing talking to the Kvapils and program manager Bryan Shaffer.
“Man, I don’t know,” Kvapil said. “We kind of struggled today. We started off on old tires and was super loose everywhere. We couldn’t get it to hook up to the race track at all. We figured it was the tires so we bolted on stickers and mocked up, and got really tight, and after how many laps, we ended up going free again.
“So we think the track went through some changes. It’s new to everyone. It’s hard to get a read on balance so far. We made it better by the end of the night but still just felt too loose overall.
“The last run was our best run and we have a lot more practice tomorrow and on Saturday morning. We’ll figure it out. This place is super fun and working with Dale has been a lot of fun.”
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is one of the most historic venues in Stock Car racing and has hosted motor racing events for the better part of eight decades including a storied NASCAR run.
What is now called the Late Model Stock Car traces its roots back to Nashville Fairgrounds but the modern version of the platform has never turned laps in Music City and the CARS Tour racers relished the moment.
“Well, it’s funny because on my way here I did a lot of research about the place. Obviously, I’ve never raced here so I was looking back on when it was built and its like the second oldest race track in the country and I just thought that was so cool. So to be able to walk in here and see all the history … and obviously, you have all the housing development crowding it now, but I fell in love with it. I don’t want to see it go. It’s so dang cool. I’m just super thankful to be here.”
-Landen Lewis
“I one hundred percent realize how special it is. I’ve heard a lot of cool stories about this place and I want to win a guitar. I kind of want to smash it like Kyle Busch did. That was a pretty iconic moment.”
-Carson Loftin
“I think for sure it’s really cool. It’s one of those tracks that’s really historic, obviously. I watched my brother win here a couple years ago in the Super and I thought that was awesome having a guitar. That’s a tradition and I want one really bad myself.”
-Caden Kvapil
“I can tell you it’s everything it’s lived up to. It’s awesome. Like for me, I compare it to Martinsville with the straightaways but then like a Dominion’s Turn 3 and 4 is like a Nashville 1 and 2. The backstretch is like Motor Mile for me. This place is a blast and a ton of fun.”
-Landon Pemelton
“I actually joked with my guys after our first run. I ran about 10 laps and about lap four or five, I was up to speed, and when I came in, the first thing I told them, ‘hey, this is really cool.’ I tried to take it all in on that first run. You’re ripping around here pretty good. And with our cars being heavier, you really feel the transition and the bumps. It’s not that the Pros and Supers don’t, because of course they do, but you really feel it with these cars and I wish we had a lot more of these fast tracks with a lot of character.”
-Brandon Pierce
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
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