18-Year-Old Racer Navigates Live Pit Stops and Green-White-Checkered at Iowa
Date: Aug. 8, 2026
Event: HyVee Perks 250
Series: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Location: Iowa Speedway in Newton (.875-mile oval)
Length: 250 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/130 laps)
Start/Finish: 20th/15th (Running, completed 260 of 260 laps)
Note: Race extended 10 laps past its scheduled 250-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Overview:
Carson Brown finished 15th in his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut Saturday at Iowa Speedway in Newton. It was a respectable result for the 18-year-old from New London, North Carolina, as Brown competed in a deep 37-car field and experienced a first – live pit stops – before delivering a scrappy drive in an elbows-out green-white-checkered finish.
Brown started 20th and ran among the top-20 through the first stage. Navigating a live pit stop for the first time put him 29th for the Stage 2 restart, but Brown methodically worked his way forward, rising to 26th by lap 75 and then ending the stage 23rd. The final stage saw Brown quickly enter the top-25, and he was holding steady in 18th toward the end of the race when another car’s spin set up a green-white-checkered finish.
Shortly after the green flag waved, a bevy of drivers were collected in a multicar accident in turn one, including Brown and his No. 32 Distributor Wire & Cable Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport. A composed Brown brought his car to pit road for service during the caution period and he rejoined the field in 26th. When the green flag waved for the final time on lap 259, Brown placed his No. 32 machine firmly on the inside lane of the .875-mile oval. He successfully defended his position on the restart and swept underneath a host of other drivers on the final lap to secure 15th when the checkered flag fell.
Carson Brown, driver of the No. 32 Distributor Wire & Cable Chevrolet for Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport:
“Live pit stops were definitely interesting, and just feeling out the restarts in the O’Reilly Series was a lot different from what I’m used to. It definitely got a little more hectic than what I wanted it to on that last green-white-checkered, but it was a lot of fun. I think I made it from 26th to 15th in a green-white-checkered. I just tried to recover from my mistakes early and get this thing back where it needed to be after we got in that wreck with only a few to go.
“I felt good out on the racetrack. I think the biggest issue was just the pit stops, getting down pit road, just making sure nothing would happen there. Some of the restart stuff involved a lot of dirty air, and just trying to figure that piece out was a new experience, but I felt like the last stage I really started to be able to move around and get really comfortable overall. I felt like everything just came alive. The car came alive. I felt like I was the best I was all day, and I just tried to make something happen at the end.
“That green-white-checkered was challenging, but we came in and got some colder tires with pumped-up air pressure and just made something happen. I felt like we were able to move around. I jumped all the way to the bottom, we were four-wide, three-wide, just bouncing off each other and, man, for a debut, this one was pretty fun.”
Notes:
● Brown qualified 20th for the HyVee Perks 250 with a time of 24.309 seconds at 129.582 mph.
● Carson Kvapil won the HyVee Perks 250 to score his second career O’Reilly Series victory, his second of the season and his first at Iowa. His margin over second-place Rajah Caruth was .343 of a second.
● There were 12 caution periods for a total of 72 laps.
● Twenty-five of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Next Up:
Brown returns to his Late Model roots for the Aug. 22 zMAX CARS Tour event at Anderson Motor Speedway in Williamston, South Carolina, where he will drive the No. 5 Chevrolet in the Late Model Stock feature for Lee Pulliam Performance. Following that race, it’s a quick turn to Springfield, Illinois, for the Aug. 23 Calypso 100 ARCA Menards Series race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Brown will drive the No. 28 Chevrolet for Pinnacle Racing Group in what will be his 13th career ARCA start, but first on dirt. On Aug. 26, Brown is back in a Super Late Model on the ASA STARS National Tour, driving the No. 81 Chevrolet for Anthony Campi Racing. He leads the ASA STARS National Tour championship standings by an impressive 130 points thanks to four wins and two second-place finishes through six races. Across NASCAR, ARCA, ASA, the CARS Tour and select Late Model races, Brown is scheduled to compete in more than 50 pavement races in 2026.
