Landen Lewis Earns First CARS LMSC Tour Victory at Wake County

A quiet rookie year for Landen Lewis on the zMAX CARS LMSC Tour got a much-needed jolt in Saturday’s Drive for Puryear 125 at Wake County Speedway.

Entering the weekend with only two top 10s through seven starts, Lewis utilized his experience in Legends car at Wake County to put together the best Late Model Stock race of his career to date. After methodically saving his tires, Lewis capitalized on a late restart to take control of the lead and secure a cathartic win.

Lewis’ triumph capped off a stellar end to August for Kevin Harvick Inc. His teammate Brent Crews was just one week removed from picking up his third victory of 2024 at the end of a wild outing at Ace Speedway

Composure, maturity pay dividends for Landen Lewis

Getting into the right state of mind ahead of the Drive for Puryear 125 required Lewis to lean heavily into the guidance provided by car owner Kevin Harvick and long-time mentor Ron Hornaday Jr.

With years of racing experience in his ear all week, Lewis felt everything was lining up for Wake County to be his best CARS LMSC Tour race of the year. That confidence proved to be well-founded for Lewis, who was also elated to have Hornaday in attendance watching him fend off the field for the checkered flag.

“We worked so hard this week,” Lewis said. “We’re coming off a rough couple of weeks. Last week was really rough for me because I felt like I hit everything but the pace car. This week we regrouped, had a bunch of talks at the shop. Ron came down this weekend and made sure I was feeling the car correctly, now we’re here.”

One aspect Hornaday has instilled into Lewis while developing him is mastering restarts, which the four-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion was renowned for during his Hall of Fame career.

A perfect restart made all the difference for Lewis, but it came at the expense of his teammate in Crews. The dominant car of the evening, a slight bump from Lewis caused Crews to lose control of the lead before his chances of a victory faded shortly afterwards after Isabella Robusto turned him around in turn 3.

Lewis wished he and Crews could have swept the top two spots for KHI and expressed remorse over the circumstances that caused Crews to end the evening with a damaged car. Despite this, spirits in Cook Out Victory Lane remained high for Lewis, who intends to carry over the momentum from Wake County into his remaining LMSC Tour starts.

“My apologies go out to [Brent],” Lewis said. “I told these guys that when I’ve been [to Wake County] before, the fans always show out and they did tonight. I have to thank Kevin and DeLana [Harvick] as well. Kevin had a serious conversation with me in the shop this week and that was a big part of my success [tonight].”

Read full article as it appears on RacingAmerica.com, HERE.