On the third stop of the tour the truck made their way to Charlotte Motor Speedway on the legends course to see just how chaotic a race possibly could be and well, lets just say the trends continued and Tom Jones knows how to be patient. On the opening lap on the outside Douglas (21) immediately lost the back end while Hughes (7) took off on the low side. Connor (29) and Thomas (6) went bumper to bumper early in the race as well.

Handling issues plagued the drivers on the near 0 degree banking track as Ryujin Industries 6 truck was fighting rear end lock ups with his aggressive corner entries trying to stay with the Chunks 29. Ben ultimately ended up retiring early from the race with handling woes.

Immediately the field gunned it for track position leaving Jones (46) vulnerable on the single restart. The 29 of Mire saw what the 21 was doing and moved up on the outside in preparation to capitalize on a pass. On the drop of the green Brad headed into turn 1 seeing 3 trucks go to toe to toe on entry. Fighting cold tires and with the preferred line the 21 shot down to the inside!

Aaron Douglas got the lead on the side off the 7, passing two trucks in one corner for the lead, which he would then maintain for 27 laps (we'll get to that in a moment). Connor fighting the dirty outside lane found himself side by side with Pritchard (44) heading into the next corner. This is where the issues began and the man of Jones was the only one who took it seriously.

Brett spun on the inside of Connor after cooking the corners a bit too much, fighting the rear end of his ebay Motors Chevy. This just a mere omen to what was to come with the rest of the field. Tom Jones got by Hughes and went door to door with Aaron making a mistake in 3/4 only for Aaron to use his cross skills and out brake the 46 to resume his lead until the end portion of the race.

    Choke City!! The 21 truck of Douglas spins from the lead and hands it over to the 7 of Hughes who then ALSO loses the lead from missing the corner and over driving the exit of 2, handing the lead to.. DA DA DA DA... TOM JONES! Who sailed away from 7, 21 & 29 truck to cruise to his first FARCA win, in just 3 starts. A feat no driver has accomplished that soon into their career in this sport. Connor fell back after tire issues and Brett retired the 44 machine. Brad with late race penalty handed 2nd over to Douglas and Jones W'd.

Thus ends the 3rd race of season and it delivered with the 3rd different winner, no repeats to start off the 2023 season. Next week we head to Concord Speedway for a 77 lap race on the short track. The points lead for Brad has shrunk with the late race penalty down to just 3 points over Aaron Douglas. With the win to his name, Jones is now 4th in points just behind Connor Mire.

The Chunks 29 of Connor Mire saw a lot of contact at the lady in black that night as he tango's with outside retaining wall and ran into issues on track once again with long time rival Benjamin Thomas in the 6 machine. Hard blocks and bumper tag played trivial to the truck of Thomas, once he finally got to the inside of the 29, his truck unloaded on the apron and spun ending the battle for this race as Connor finished 5th.

The competition yellow saw the closest battle off pit road in FARCA history as the P1 pit stall paid off for Deluso, allowing him to take the lead on pit road by a splitter, likely thanks to cone placement at the end of pit road put in place by the officials. Definitely was an exciting moment for what was just a routine portion of the race.

Final Restart

Jones (46) passes Douglas (21)

Hughes taking the Checkered

Brad walked away with Jimmie Johnson style burnout to cap off the win at Darlington in style! The #7 Budweiser machine burned it down on the front stretch to a roaring crowd after he successfully managed his tires on the final restart and pulled away from the Exide Machine.

Brad now takes the points lead with Aaron behind him as next week we head to Charlotte Motor Speedway to race on the front stretch legends oval.

*click the links below for detailed results*

The majority of the race was led by Deluso (99) and Douglas (21) until the final 25 laps with a late race yellow saw the leaders pit while half the field stayed out. The only driver to benefit from the gamble was Herman (15). Laying down his fastest two laps on the final GWC finish to hold of Hughes (7) and Douglas who charged from 6th to 3rd on the final restart. Herman wins on his first outing in FARCA at the North Carolinian historic short track.

On one particular restart, Hughes, cautioned himself of the battle between Gentry and Soukup (45), that they could end up getting him caught up in a wreck. Distracted, Hughes then spun out of Turn 4 completely on his own. Ryan up to this point had maintained a solid lead, totally 44 laps before his stint came to end. The 21 truck of Douglas had been slowly moving his way up the field and soon had found himself in the 2nd spot behind Deluso.

While the majority of the field was focused on crashing, Douglas and Deluso were in a tense battle for the lead across multiple laps and restarts. The slower 99 Exide machine was cautioned of the 21 truck who could fire out of the corners a lot faster than he could. Seeing that Aaron could exit low on the corners but not work the high side, Ryan would be smart to drive in deep and keep the bottom maintained in order to hold off the lead as long as he could. With excellent restart fire off the 99 kept the lead for another 15 laps on the 21 before 1 bad cold tire restart let the 99 drive up high and the 21 ducked underneath for the pass on the back stretch and secured the lead from the ill-handling Deluso. Aaron then went on to lead 22 laps before giving up the lead for a late race yellow flag pit cycle, giving the lead to the eventual winner, Herman (15).

          It's not an official FARCA race without these two finding their way into each other, the career long rivalry of Mire (29) vs Thomas (6) continues. On the final GWC restart of the race, Connor squeezed his Chunks Silverado into the R.I. truck of Thomas out of two, forcing contact with the wall. Additionally on the entry of 4 the 6 swung wide to avoid contact, but Mire hopped the curb and slid into the 6 creating the wonderful image we have next to us. The 29 ultimately stole a top 5 from the  6 of Thomas. Despite the situation, it was all laughs from the two ole' rival, laughing that of course they managed to find each other on a battle of the final restart. It'll be fun to see the eventual tempers flare between these two...because it will.

It was a great race to start off the local Carolina series. Following the race it was announced that Darlington would be the next race with a fixed setup. The final restart saw drivers gamble entire race old tires and the 29 went from 2nd to 5th. The Douglas machine went from 6th to 3rd finishing behind Hughes #7 Bud truck. Herman taking the checkered flag after his 24 lap leading stint of the race. The first race now complete!