04/27/2026
Post race recap; Caraway Speedway.
Until pulling into the track Thursday afternoon, I had never even seen the place in person. Our fastest lap on the first run out of the trailer was a 17.5. We quickly went to work to make minor changes, and our second run, times sped up. We continued to do this same tactic all evening Thursday, and into Friday and Saturday practice sessions. Every time we would go on the track we improved our times and the car had a better feel. Saturday in qualifying my fast lap was a 16.508, and put us rolling off p15 out of 34, missing the top 5 by only a few hundredths of a second. We made a one second gain in times by making the right adjustments and Kres getting me comfortable with the track and helping me with better placement of the car on the track. Rain followed driver introductions and the race was postponed until Sunday afternoon. A few laps into the race I got hung on the outside, a groove you do not want to be in there. I then got stuffed in the outside wall on two separate occasions early in the race. We lost a lap to the leaders because the handling of the car was off after making contact with the wall. We decided to pit to check damage and make some adjustments. We made a mistake on pit road and got a 2 lap penalty which then would have put us 3 laps down if not 4 by the time we got back up to speed. So, I made the decision to protect the motor and the car from further damage to just park the car, ending our night early, and finishing 29th out of the 30 car field. I really have to thank my dad, A.C. Blevins Trucking, and Kres and Erin with VanDyke Racing Performance for giving me this opportunity. I cannot express how walking out onto the frontstretch in driver introductions made me feel making my first CARS Tour in my first attempt. Although we did not get the finish we hoped for this weekend, we all left the track holding our heads high. We made positive adjustments all weekend, we made major gains, I made the starting grid in one of toughest Late Model Stock series there is, and we learned a lot. We may have even figured out a few things to help down the road. We made a mistake and we learned from it. Everything we took away from this weekend is a positive and gives us tools to better ourselves for the future events. If you tuned in and watched live on flo, or you came in person and supported me, thank you! And, thanks again to everyone who made this weekend possible for me.