Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway 7/25/26 | Highlights

Tighten the belts. We're just about set to begin leg two of the Virginia Triple Crown. Cole Bruce squirts out the lead by about four car lengths. They're still stacked up two by two behind him. We see dialing up the high lane is Woody Howard, Peyton Sellers on the bottom of the racetrack, but Cole Bruce out with a nice lead early on. And again, as you see Chase Burrow there, that double zero into Matt Waltz, and Waltz is going to spin off in turn two and take Chase Burrow with him. A two-car spin to the inside in the opening laps. And last year's winner is going to have to come from a little deeper in the field to try and pull off that feat again. Here they come through turns three and four. We're set for the restart. Brandon Willard waves that green flag, our chief starter, high atop the flag stand, and all of our late-model stock cars take off. Back to turns one and two. It's a dead heat for the top spot. Digging hard is Woody Howard from Chesapeake. He is trying to pick up his second Hampton Heat 200 win, but fighting down on the inside is Cole Bruce. Two by two behind him, but it looks like Woody Howard is going to make that high line work. High, wide, and handsome, indeed, for car number 41. New race leader coming off of turn number four, Woody Howard, now solidly in command of this event. But accomplishing that is a little bit different than saying that you want to do it as Millette and Connor Hall. Almost some contact going down into one, but again, I think a veteran move here for Connor Hall. He's going to say, okay, you know what, Aiden? If you want it that badly, I'll make you work for it. I'm not just going to give it to you, but at least going to give you some space here in the early going. Yep, and he's going to lift there, get back down a line before Peyton Sellers. So I think a veteran move there for Connor Hall, who feels like Millette, maybe charging a little too hard, using up a little bit too much of that race car right now. The nose of that number nine Toyota, the driver from Yorktown, was all in the back of Connor Hall here on the front stretch. He has made that pass. Now he's going to get the second spot, this time from Cole Bruce. Aiden Millette has logged many laps here at Langley Speedway over the years, trying to get it done here tonight. And indeed, here he goes, side by side to the top spot, the number nine on the bottom of the racetrack, Toyota versus the Chevrolet. Now we see another new race leader, the third here early on this evening. Now it's Aiden Millette at the head of the wheel. Contact! Bumgarner into the outside wall. And that was after the caution had come out. Bobby McCarty has some pretty significant damage on the right front of his race car. And they got together afterwards. And oh, man, is that Chase Burrow and Matt Waltz. Wow. Second time. We're back under the green flag. Aiden Millette on the bottom of the racetrack. Here comes Woody Howard, topside. Remember the last time Woody Howard made hay on the top side of the racetrack? He's going to try it again. But Millette just stuffs it down to the turn number three. And Woody Howard follows in his tire tracks as we put lap 32 on the scoreboard. At Connor Hall, you can see a lot of sparks coming out from that number 77 car. He's finally able to get back down. But yeah, that car looking really low. He's hitting the racetrack pretty hard. You can see he's having to check up to try and hold off Carson Lofton right now. Yeah, something's dragging on the right front of that 77 car. He is muscling through it right now. But yeah, he's yeah. Connor Hall off the pace as he goes high in one and two. Something going to miss there with a bump coming out of turn number four. That would be a classic short track move behind them. We see Brendan Queen puts the nose of the car on the inside this time. That's Peyton Sellers as they're racing for position number four. And what I was expecting out of this second pack is we have just 23 laps to go until this halfway break. You can see a lot of fans waving their hands and waving Butterbean on by Peyton Sellers right there in the Clarence Steakhouse number 26 for the Danville Toyota driver. So Queen moves up into fourth. And now we will get that third caution flag here. This is the planned yellow flag. And it's going to come as the scoreboard is showing 98 on the board. And we're seeing Craig Eastup may have a little smoke coming from the back of that race car as he takes it back to turns three and four. And indeed, smoke coming from Craig Eastup. Well, and I think, again, they were going to let this play out. I imagine and I'm sure we'll get a call from race control here if this will be the halfway break. It's right to settle it here this evening. Brandon Willard, the chief starter, waves the green flag. We're back underway here in Hampton. Oh, and Brendan Queen just a little slow getting through the gears. The rest of the field's able to react, but it stacks up the outside line a little bit, allows Cole Bruce and that 31 to make that move on the inside. Move up a row. Lee Pulliam behind was able to get down to the bottom. Oh, look at the car in the fence. That's going to be at least hard contact here in turns three and four. Green flag is in the air. We're back underway here at Langley Speedway. Two by two at a high rate of speed. But this time, Woody Howard may make a don't count out Cole Bruce. He is there, but then striking distance. The two leaders make contact. Aiden Millett, Woody Howard washes up the speedway. Will hold on to the lead. Now Howard's fighting to keep second. Oh, and Howard, that's an aggressive cut down, but he is able to get there just before Peyton Sellers is able to stay to his inside. Brendan Queen on the outside of this restart. You can see the cars fighting the ride height and those those tires with the air pressure low after these restarts hitting the ground and trying to make up spots can be really difficult as Brendan Queen, not deterred at all. Staying on the outside of Woody Howard to form a big time problems behind them. Cars stacking up through turns three and four. Everybody's moving. But Lee Pulliam catches a piece of that action. Keeping my eye on the double zero in the eight car. And there he goes. Chase Burrow in turn to get spun out by Lee Pulliam. Again, this this was an incident. We saw it a couple or I saw it a couple of laps ago. You can look at the eight car and you see a ton of left rear damage. That was Burrow getting into the back of Lee Pulliam a couple of laps ago as they go back after the Hampton. He continues here in Hampton. How about it? Top side of the racetrack. Would this be a good restart for Woody Howard? How about a little lad? He's going to put it back down on the bottom of the racetrack and try to defend and hold on to his lead. But Woody Howard is muscling his way to the top side of the track. Howard looking strong. Aiden Millett trying to fend him off. But it looks like Howard's going to be able to do it. And the fans here, they appreciate the driver that's been here for so long trying to fight it out. They're cheering him along to try and push him by that nine car. And they're able to do it. Eighty five to go. New leader of the Hampton Heat. It's Woody Howard. But for how long? It's a hornet's nest behind him. They're almost three wide for position number four. Aiden Millett drives it in hard. He missed the corner. Woody Howard has to back up. That allows Butterbean to go to the inside to try and take the second position away. Oh, we got problems here in turn number two. One car is going to go around. It's going to be the 51 of Michael Bumgarner. Pace Truck is behind pit lane wall. The green flag is back out. We're running once more. The leader Aiden Millett sideways. It turns one and two. It collects Brendan Queen. Queen goes for a spin. Greg Edwards gets in the driver's side of Queen with Edwards having nowhere to go. A major stack up here on this race. Restart for another favorite who has problems. And that's going to quickly put us under now our ninth caution flag of the night. Woody Howard along the front row with the 88 of Caden Guapel. They're going to go side by side. And as quickly as I say that, Woody Howard squirts out in the lead. The 88 of Guapel is going to try to make hay now as they go back to three. My goodness. Trey Cruz just made an incredibly aggressive move in the middle three wide, but it worked. He was able to move up about a row. Guys like Trey Cruz that we just mentioned up into fifth. Matthews up into sixth. Here we go. Battle for the lead. Guapel to the inside of Woody Howard, who's not going to put up much of a fight. Caden Guapel leading here in the Hampton. He staying out of some issues is Brendan Queen. My goodness, he's putting those left side tires nearly on the grass trying to make those moves. Brendan Queen is on a mission. He was not happy getting caught up in that incident a few laps ago. He is on a charge fighting to get around as many cars as he possibly can. And he's not wasting any time. He needs to go. He says he is pushing the go button as the car gets out of shape down the backstretch, but he's not lifting. He's on the inside of Trey Cruz now for sixth spot. Man, the fans here are going crazy. They know exactly what he's trying to put together here with 55 to go as he's able to get up into sixth. The problem is he's probably going to need some help to try and chase down some of those cars in front of him. He has one of the fastest cars on the racetrack, despite the fact that he's had to deal with some of the traffic that he's been going through. One more time around, trying to get his first Hampton Heat win in start number one in this prestigious event. Midway down the backstretch comes back to turns three and four. Caden Quapel will become the first driver in five years to win in his first start in the Hampton Heat 200. And oh, by the way, we had a family member, Carson Quapel, picked up the win at Indianapolis.