Houston leads DER champions at Bristol Dragway

BRISTOL — The DER Bracket Series wrapped up its 2026 season at Bristol Dragway on Sunday after a massive turnout for the weekend. There were a record 409 entries in Saturday's races which ended in the third round. The number was 347 for Sunday's eliminations. Lil' Vance Houston from Newland, N.C., wrapped up the championship for the Super Pro class. His dragster made it to Sunday's final round and posted an almost perfect .001 reaction time. But, it was Church Hill driver Jesse Ray who captured the win. He had a solid .007 time at the start and finished the run in his 1969 Chevy Nova in 5.860 seconds at 116.31 mph to claim the victory. Randall Bolden from Morristown drove his 1967 Camaro to the Pro win over Jake Ball from Newport. Ball had a slightly better reaction time, but Bolden posted a 6.199-second run at 110.10 mph for a winning pass. North Carolina driver Dennis Coffey was the season champion and also won the run-off for King of the Track. Last year's Super Pro champion Jesse Edens from Elizabethton won the 2025 King of the Track title. Chris Colley from Bluff City capped off his Sportsman championship in style. His 1995 Pontiac Trans Am went down the drag strip in 9.673 seconds at 135.37 mph to best Virginia racer Michael Cordill. Tyler Arrington from Candler, N.C., drove his Corvette to the final round in Trophy and won the season title. Hampton driver Jimmy Vines beat Arrington on a hole shot to win Sunday's race. There was another double dip in the Motorcycle class as Russell Justus from Whitesburg won both the race and season championship. He was better at the tree than Randy Hatley from Piney Flats in the final, and then sped down the eighth-mile in 5.816 seconds at 115.80 mph. Jayden Johnson from Elizabethton led the contingent of younger racers, driving his 1996 Ford Ranger pickup to the win in Junior Street. He beat Virginia driver Dylan Blevins in the final, while Forrest Radford captured the season crown. Radford was also the winner of Sunday's Junior Dragster Division 3 race over Payton Thomas. Troy Barton from Gray, who has raced the bigger dragsters in some national events, was the DER champion Another Carter County racer had success in Junior Dragster, Division 2 as Hampton's Luke Hutchinson won on a holeshot over 2026 season champion Hunter Street in the final round. Huck Horton from Rogersville was the Division 1 winner over Kaiser Eastridge from Bluff City in the final. Carter McGuire won the points for the Division 1 class. Bristol Dragway is hosting the RAD Fall Fling through Saturday. Some of the best big money bracket racers are competing on the Thunder Valley track. Jon Corbin drove his 1968 Pontiac Firebird to the $75,000 victory over fellow Virginian Austin Johnson in a dragster in last year's Saturday final. DALE JR. RACING IN NEWPORT Newport Speedway is hosting the ZMax Cars Tour on Saturday with NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and his son, Keelan Harvick, among the entries. It's the first ever visit for the Cars Tour to the high-banked, 4/10-mile asphalt oval with the Pro Late Model race scheduled for 7 p.m. and the Late Model Stock race at 8:30 p.m. There is a practice Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with $10 cash only entry. Caden Kvapil, the younger brother of NASCAR O'Reilly Series driver Carson Kvapil, leads the Late Model Stock standings in a No. 88 Chevrolet owned by Earnhardt. He has three wins in 12 races and leads second-place Conner Jones by 50 points. Mason Walters has one win in nine Pro Late Model races and leads Jones by is points in that class. Trackside parking for the event sold out minutes after going on sale. There are some special rules for fans including no chairs with legs due to the expected large crowd. Stadium seats are allowed, but no outside drinks or food is allowed. No pit passes are available and tickets must be purchased from the track's website. BLISTERING PACE FOR LARSON Kyle Larson and his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports team have taken their performance to an elite level the first four weeks of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship. He started off with a fifth-place at Darlington, but since then has two wins and a second-place finish. Larson broke a 51-race winless streak at Gateway, finished runner-up at Bristol and won all three stages at Kansas in a maximum points day. He holds a 26-point lead over Denny Hamlin, the leader coming into the Chase in the Cup Series standings. Unless Larson falters, it appears no more than six drivers still have a true shot at the title. Christopher Bell is 50 points behind Larson, and Bass Pro Shops Night Race winner Joey Logano is trailing by 67 points. Ryan Blaney is hanging on 91 points down, while Ty Gibbs is next, three points behind Blaney. Tyler Reddick, who made NASCAR history by winning the first three Cup Series races of the season, appears to be too far back at 111 points outside the lead. While Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric were strong at Kansas, they haven't shown the consistency to make up so much ground. The rest of the Chase field from Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, William Byron and Chase Elliott on back are in position to worry more about winning a race than chasing points.