Takeaways From Hickory Motor Speedway's 2022 Opening Night
Takeaways From Hickory Motor Speedway's 2022 Opening Night
Connor Hall’s dominance Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway was extreme enough for one to assume he was a regular at the .363-mile paved oval.
NEWTON, N.C. — Connor Hall’s dominance Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway was extreme enough for one to assume he was a regular at the .363-mile paved oval. He broke the track record (14.390 seconds) in qualifying and won both 40-lap Late Model races.
Yet this was Hall’s first run at the famed NASCAR Home Track.
Wheeling a new car for 2022, the Hampton, Virginia, native dominated the first of the twin 40-lappers on Hickory’s opening night for this year’s NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. He had to fight his way to the front in the second race after an inversion of the top eight to start the event, but that wasn’t an issue.
RELATED: Watch Weekly Series action all season on FloRacing
“We definitely had a very blessed night,” Hall said. “It takes so much to make this happen, whether it’s the dollars or the effort, the hours, the people. Most important, more than anything, I have the people.”
Hall plans to run in the CARS Tour this season, which will bring him back to Hickory on March 26.
Beyond the Late Models, two other NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series points-paying divisions were in action Saturday night at Hickory: the Heritage Finance Street Stocks and the Renegades.
Gary Ledbetter took the checkered flag in the Street Stocks race with a dominating performance.
Charlie Neill won the Renegades event.
One of the most storied tracks in stock car racing, Hickory in 2022 will continue to host weekly racing through October as part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. The track’s “Big 10” events, the first of which took place Saturday night, conclude with the Weekly Series championship night — with double points for all divisions — in September.
Fans can watch the Weekly Series action at Hickory all season live on FloRacing.