By: Ashley McCubbin

After finding success in Late Models including a pair of CARS Tour Championships, Carson Kvapil will make the next step of his racing career in tackling the full 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports. The second generation racer recently his thoughts entering the season with NEWS FROM THE PITS. 

What are your thoughts as you look ahead to Daytona?

I guess I don’t really have any set expectations. I’m just going to try and go out there and obviously we want to run good but I think first things first, we just need to survive and be there at the end of the race. We’ll be in a good spot to capitalize, but it’s just about staying clean the whole race to get to that point.

What are your thoughts going into the season?

I’m really excited honestly. I feel like last year, when we ran part-time races, we ran really good with the team we had and some top-three finishes, top-five finishes. Really just looking to keep that momentum going into this year. Now that we’re full-time, it’s going to be a little bit easier rather than going back and forth with the late model. Hopefully we continue the success and bring some fast racecars and keep executing.

You mentioned getting to run some races last year. What’s the biggest thing that you learned during those?

Really, the biggest thing was track dependent, the biggest thing was aerodynamics that I was able to learn that I haven’t experienced before. Just a big difference in mile per hour, and track sizes, was definitely a big curveball thrown to me. But once we ran a few races like Indianapolis and Michigan, we were able to get settled in and knew what we were to expect.

What track are you most looking forward to getting back to?

It’s tough one, honestly. I would say Bristol or Dover are one of the ones that I have circled. Last year, we ran Dover and led a few some laps in the last 20 and came up just short in second. I feel like that one we have something to prove and we can go back out with what we’ve had and contend for a win.

You’re making the jump after having a lot of success in late models. What was the most memorable moment for you from that experience?

Obviously, just starting there in late 2021, obviously a big deal moving from my dad’s family late model team to JR Motorsports late model team. One of the biggest key moments was winning the ValleyStar 300 at Martinsville (Speedway). The last two years we’d run second and third; I guess you could say that’s a marquee event there. I really wanted to win one with those guys and last year, everything went our way and we were able to take home the Grandfather clock.

What would it mean to you if you were able to get your first Xfinity win this year and put yourself in playoff contention?

It’d be huge. I feel like last year, we had a few races that we were contending for the win and right there. I feel like this year we can contend with what we have and if we get one, I’ll be super excited as it’ll be a big for me and the whole team. There’s high hopes for this year.

You’ve got a talented squad of teammates. What are your thoughts on being able to lean on them for advice?

I’m super excited really. Obviously (Justin) Allgaier has been the veteran of the team for awhile. Having him to lean on will be huge. But really, Sammy (Smith) has been doing this the last few years and it’ll be nice to work with him throughout the year. Connor (Zilisch) and I, we’re the rookies, I guess you could say we have something to prove and we’re going to try to work together to figure things out and learn as much as we can off each other.

1 on 1, any NASCAR driver you want, any track you want. Where are you going and with whom?

Oh man, that’d be tough. I feel like if we could go back in time, it’d be racing with my dad (Travis Kvapil), but he’s been out of it for a few years now. I’d probably say like Bristol. That’d be a one fun for me to race at. I guess I never thought of it that way. All of the guys that are racing there are great, and it’d be awesome to race with any of them.

I gotta say it’s pretty cool watching both you and your brother Caden come up after watching all the success your dad had.

It’s been great to be in here watching it all here. Obviously I grew up at the race track watching my dad race. I was a little too young to remember the early years, but as I got older, I grew up at the track, it was the normal weekend thing. There was nothing special about going to the track – it was just the normal. Now that I’m moving up to Xfinity Series, my brother gets the JR Motorsports late model full-time this year so super excited to help with that and prolong his career.