rewrite this title ‘Better late than never’: Carson Kvapil’s first NASCAR win comes on hallowed Indianapolis ground

There may not be a better racetrack in the world to win your first race at than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

Carson Kvapil lived out that dream on Saturday, scoring his first career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win in the Pennzoil 250 at IMS. 

Kvapil passed Ross Chastain for the lead with 22 laps to go and held off series points leader Justin Allgaier in the closing laps to earn his first win in his 64th career start.

The 23-year-old driver for JR Motorsports clearly made car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., who shed a few tears following the checkered flag, very proud.

“It comes from working hard with Carson over the years and trying to help him realize his dream,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Watching his family sacrifice for Caden and for Carson to have the opportunities to race, knowing what they’re putting into it, knowing that Travis would love to be here for this.”

Carson Kvapil’s father, 2003 NASCAR Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil, was at Langley Speedway in Virginia on Saturday helping Carson’s brother, Caden. 

Earnhardt, like Kvapil, comes from a family where racing is everything. He clearly saw something in Kvapil, who drove a JRM Chevrolet to the O’Reilly Series championship race last year and had to piece together a full-time NOAPS season this year.

“You get to working with these guys, you become family,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Like brothers, or father and son… they are as important to you as your own kin. I feel a lot of pressure to provide him a race car that I think’s capable of his talent. I just was really happy to see him get one. 

“Last race at Atlanta, he was disappointed with how that landed. We talked about it. We had a good points day that night even though we didn’t get the win we wanted. Came here, focused, got the job done, and now we’re even better off in the points.”

Kvapil not only won the race and clinched a Chase berth on Saturday but also moved up to second in the series standings behind his JRM teammate in Allgaier. With two races left in the regular season, JRM has a chance to take the top two spots in the regular season, and Kvapil has an opportunity to be the No. 2 seed when the Chase begins.

For once, Lady Luck smiled on Carson Kvapil

“Dale reminded me of our first talks, and that’s the reason I’m here; it was about Carson,” said crew chief Rodney Childers, who joined JRM prior to the start of the season. “It was about getting Carson in victory lane. It was about racing with Carson and to fight for a championship eventually.”

Carson Kvapil has had chances to win in the series before and has occasionally had bad luck take away chances at victory. He was waiting for that to occur again on Saturday.

“I was just waiting for that yellow that I thought was going to come out, to be honest,” Carson Kvapil said. “Just tried to keep the gap and not big mistakes. I knew the 7 was going to get to me at some point, or he was going to get close or at least gain on me. Luckily, we had a good enough car, a fast enough car I could back off enough to make sure I wasn’t going to make any big mistakes.”

Kvapil didn’t make any big mistakes, and he was rewarded with the spoils of winning at Indy, including kissing the yard of bricks at the start-finish line that he mistakenly did a burnout over during his celebration. 

The Mooresville, North Carolina, native said no victory in his career so far is comparable.

“I got nothing,” Kvapil said. “I feel like it should’ve happened a year-and-a-half, two years ago, right? But better late than never.”

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.