FRYAR SIZZLES IN HAMPTON HEAT 200
Wertz is pleased with taking 2nd behind NC driver
HAMPTON — When Jared Fryar’s late grandfather was winning Late Model races in the Southeast during the 1970s and ’80s, he was known as the “Beaumont Flyer.”
Following Fryar’s run to victory in the Hampton Heat 200 on Saturday at Langley Speedway, perhaps a nickname like the “Jacksonville Jet” is in order.
Fryar, 28, from Jacksonville, North Carolina, dominated the race-ending 37-lap green-flag run to become the 12th winner in the 14-year history of the Heat. He finished more than 1.4 seconds ahead of two-time Langley Late Model champion Mark Wertz as Carson Kvapil, Mason Diaz and Justin S. Carroll rounded out the top five.
Fryar, whose grandfather Freddy Fryar competed in six NASCAR Cup Series races — finishing sixth once at Talladega and 15th in a Daytona 500 — earned $10,000 for the win. Fryar is cutting an impressive path of his own as the only driver to win Late Model Stock and Super Late Model division championships in the prestigious CARS Tour.
Neither of those accomplishments was bigger for Fryar than his win at Langley.
“To finally get a 10-grand win, in the Hampton Heat at that, is super special,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to soak in [because] it’s my biggest win.
“It means so much to me and my guys.”
Fryar’s car was the class of the field when it counted because those final 37 laps under green were the only sustained period of competitive racing the event produced. The lack of available tires that has plagued weekly stock car racing for years limited drivers to only four tires by race rules.
So, as expected, virtually everyone in the 33-car field cruised for the first 101 laps, when there was little passing or side-by-side racing. The drivers came out ready to race following the intermission, but caution after caution — eight of them in all — yielded few laps of greenflag racing prior to the restart on Lap 164.
While no one challenged Fryar those final 37 laps, Wertz made two passes to get into second. Wertz did not make any adjustments during the intermission because he was so happy with the balance of his car and lack of tire wear.
Wertz was as happy with his second-place finish as any runner-up in his career.
“Second is a win for us,” he said. “For our team to be made up of shipyard workers and a couple of Navy guys, and outrun the professional Late Model teams at JR Motorsports [owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr.] and Nelson Motorsports, feels good.
“Jared Fryar is a heck of a driver. He’s a CARS Tour champ, which means he’s racing against the best of the best, and my hat’s off to him and his team.”
Other than some late tightness in the car, Wertz felt he executed his game plan perfectly. He predicted qualifying times would be under 16 seconds — and 13 drivers, led by pole winner Bobby McCarty (15.892 seconds), proved him right — and that many would run 19-second laps for the first half of the race to save their tires.
It was a tactic Brenden “Butterbean” Queen popularized in winning the 2020 Hampton Heat.
He repeated it Saturday, as did 2019 Heat winner Connor Hall, but both were slowed by alternator problems. Queen finished 13th and Hall 25th — one place behind Craig Eastep, who was making his return to Langley following bladder removal surgery in April because of cancer.
Former Langley Speedway champion Matt Waltz finished ninth after leading at he halfway point. He was joined in the top 10 by six-time Langley champion Greg Edwards, whose brother Danny Edwards Jr., also a six-time track champ, finished 31st after wrecking.
Wertz and Diaz moved to the top of the Virginia Triple Crown standings. The Triple Crown combines the results of the premier summer Late Model races at Langley and South Boston, with the fall race in Martinsville to decide a state champion.