The CARS Tour season is down to just two races, with two drivers vying for the right to call themselves a champion. It’s the showdown everyone has been hoping for with Hampton, Virginia’s Connor Hall battling Chesapeake, Virginia’s Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, with just one point separating these two bitter rivals heading into Saturday’s showdown at Tri-County Speedway.

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s take a look at the “Tale of the Tape” so to speak, and figure out how we’ve gotten to this point after 15 races.

We’ll start with Hall, seeing as he’s the points leader with just two races remaining. It’s been a strong season made up of mostly consistency for Hall, because when you look at his numbers they aren’t exactly eye-popping.

In 15 races, Hall has one victory, which came at his home track of Langley Speedway in a thrilling three-wide photo finish following a wild battle with Queen earlier. In addition to the win, Hall has started from the pole twice this season at Hickory Motor Speedway in July and Florence Motor Speedway in August. He’s finished in the top-five 10 times in 15 races, and in the top-10 11 times. 

Now we’ll transition over to Queen, because his numbers aren’t drastically different. Queen also has 10 top-five finishes. However, he was one less top-10 finish than Hall. But, Queen has also won the pole four times this season, including at Tri-County and North Wilkesboro Speedway where the final two races will take place these next two weeks. Queen also has gone to victory lane twice this season, at Tri-County in dominating fashion back in May, and at Dominion Raceway in dominating fashion. In both wins, Queen led all 125 laps.

Queen also has the edge in laps led over Hall, by a wide margin. Queen has led 366 laps this season to Hall’s 66. Hall has led laps in six races this season, while Queen has led laps in nine. Which means, Queen has scored three more bonus points for leading a lap than Hall has scored. Queen has also accumulated three more bonus points for having the most laps led in a race. He led the most laps at Tri-County in May and Dominion in June, as well as at North Wilkesboro in August when he led 68 laps before finishing fifth.

Queen also has the edge in average starting position over Hall, which might be important at these final two races. Tri-County and North Wilkesboro were both track position races earlier this season, so getting behind at the start might be hard to make up. Queen has an average starting position of 6.40 to Hall’s 9.67.

But while Queen has the edge in average starting spot, there’s a saying in racing that it’s not about where you start, but where you finish. And Hall has the edge over Queen in average finish this season. Hall has a series’ best (among those who have started every race) average finish of 6.53 compared to Queen’s 7.33. Queen also has one DNF, which was a 23rd-place finish at Caraway Speedway in July, while Hall has finished every single race this season. 

Now that we’ve given you an abridged version of their seasons to-date, let’s look more specifically at their respective performances at Tri-County and North Wilkesboro, seeing as that’s where this incredibly tight points battle will be decided.

We’ve already told you what Queen did at Tri-County in May. He had a max points night by winning the pole, leading a lap, leading the most laps, and of course winning the race. Queen led all 125 laps from the pole. In fact, Queen and his Lee Pulliam Performance team have pulled off that exact same feat the last two times the CARS Tour has traveled to Granite Falls, North Carolina. 

Meanwhile, Hall does not have a single top-10 finish at Tri-County in his three CARS Tour starts there. In fact, Hall doesn’t even have a top-15 finish at Tri-County. In three starts at Tri-County, Hall has finishes of 21st, 18th, and 19th. Now, to be fair, Hall led 109 of 125 laps in the fall of 2022 before he was caught up in a crash, which resulted in his 21st-place finish that night. And also, to be fair, Hall was battling just outside the top-five when he spun out Carson Kvapil back in May. Hall was penalized for causing Kvapil to spin, which sent Hall to the rear and caused him to finish 19th.

Let’s now move ahead to North Wilkesboro, where the champion will be crowned on Saturday, October 19, and see what each of Queen and Hall have accomplished there.

Once again, we’ll start with Hall, but it’s fair to say his stats at North Wilkesboro are fairly similar to his stats at Tri-County. Which is to say, they’re a mixed bag. Hall has run three races at the historic track in the North Carolina foothills. He has one finish inside the top 10, which was a fourth-place run in May of 2023. He finished 16th in the “Race Track Revival” race in 2022, and finished 18th in August of this year. In fact, Hall’s only finish off the lead lap the entire season came at North Wilkesboro. He finished three laps down due to extensive damage and repairs suffered in the massive multi-car crash on the ninth lap. It’s actually a minor miracle he finished the race at all. 

But perhaps what might be more worrisome than his finish that night, is where he started. Hall qualified 22nd on the new pavement at North Wilkesboro in August, which was his worst starting position of the season. And at a track where track position is so important, starting that deep in the field again could cost Hall his first championship.

Especially if Queen and LPP do again what they’ve done their last two visits to North Wilkesboro, which is win the pole and lead the most laps. In Queen’s three total Wilkesboro starts, he has an average starting position of 2.33. But in his two starts at North Wilkesboro with LPP, Queen has an average starting position of 1.00. He’s won the pole both times. New pavement, old pavement, it doesn’t matter. Queen qualified at the front of the field, setting a track record in the process each time. 

And the results were pretty similar as well. Queen led 65 laps en route to the win in May of 2023. Queen led 68 laps in August before fading to finish fifth. And the reason why he faded that night was due to a mistake the team found at the halfway break. The two rear shocks were on the wrong side. The right-rear shock and spring was put on the left-rear, while the left-rear shock and spring was put on the right side of the car. 

So how will this all shake out over these next two weeks? We’ll just have to watch and see.

Race fans can watch both of the final two CARS Tour races of 2024 live exclusively on FloRacing with a FloRacing subscription. Fans that are not yet subscribers can become one by clicking here.