Jeffrey Peterson scores second CARS Tour West Limited Late Model win of season in Vegas
- Mar 29
- 4 min read
by Rence Brown
Jeffrey Peterson won his second CARS Tour West Limited Late Model race of the season Saturday night, holding off the field on a late-race restart to take the Terrible Herbst Showdown at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Running part-time in CARS Tour West competition while focusing on a track championship effort, Peterson, the 2024 CARS Tour West Limited Late Model champion, started third and took the lead on Lap 19, leading the rest of the 100 lap feature. The win is also his fifth consecutive victory at the track in 2026 and his second straight CARS Tour West win after his last start in February.
“The car was a rocket ship, Linny White worked his tail off on this thing,” Peterson said. “We kind of struggled in practice finding the balance, but once it cooled off it was really good again. I just rode behind her early, saving tires, and once I got a shot at the lead I was able to take it and set sail from there.”
With a car as dominant as Peterson’s, the last thing he wanted to see was a late race caution.
“I hate those late-race restarts, especially when I’m coming off Turn 4 expecting to see the checkered and I see yellow,” Peterson said. “After having a dominant car all night, all you’re thinking about is getting cleaned out on the restart. I just had to execute, get a good launch and make sure I was clear into Turn 1 so nobody could take a shot at me. We just kept doing what we’d been doing all race and it worked out.”
Points leader Kenna Mitchell, coming off her first career LLM win at Kern, earned the pole earlier in the day and led the field to green.
The first caution flew on Lap 18 when Chris Jackson spun in Turn 2 just as Peterson was closing in on Mitchell for the lead. Mitchell led the field back to green, but Peterson took the top spot one lap later.
A string of cautions through the middle portion of the race kept the field bunched up, including an incident on Lap 36 involving Kellen Keller and a separate engine failure for Amilleo Thomson that ended his night. The race slowed again shortly after for Nash Youngren, who spun from seventh following contact.
The fourth caution came on Lap 45 when Johnny Spilorto cut a right-front tire entering Turn 1 and hit the outside wall, ending his night before halfway.
On the ensuing restart, Tanner Huddleston, who entered the night just three points behind Mitchell in the standings, chose the outside lane on the front row, but his engine began to misfire as the field took green, stacking up the pack behind him. He later finished 18th as the issue persisted, costing him ground in the championship battle.
Moments later, Keller was involved in a heavier incident in Turn 3, sliding into the outside wall and collecting Brenden Ruzbarsky, bringing out a red flag for cleanup. Keller’s night ended there, while Ruzbarsky continued on. Following the incident, series officials elected to begin counting caution laps.
From there, Peterson controlled the race on each restart, while Mitchell and Skyler Schoppe battled for second as the laps wound down.
A Lap 86 spin by Jackson set up a 10-lap shootout to the finish. Mitchell eventually cleared Schoppe for second before a three-wide battle between Schoppe, Nash Youngren and Sheldon Cooper on Lap 98 sent Schoppe around, erasing Peterson’s advantage and setting up a two-lap dash.
Peterson got the restart he needed and drove away for the win. Cody Brown slipped past Mitchell late to finish second.
Cody Brown, the 2025 Pro Late Model track champion, restarted on the outside for the final restart and slipped past Mitchell to finish second after rebounding from his February race at Las Vegas, where he spun from fourth mid-race and recovered to finish inside the top five.
“I was kind of battling the car most of the race, but we made a few adjustments and got it a lot better,” Brown said. “I learned a lot tonight just saving the car and not overdriving it, and I think that’s what helped us come away with second.”
For the pole sitter, Mitchell felt something begin to fade on longer runs and finished in third place.
“We started pretty good and led early,” MItchell said. “I felt like something might’ve been going away because it was bogging off the corners a couple times. We struggled a little bit on the long runs, but we were still solid and able to come away with a third.”
Mitchell stayed inside the top five for most of the race and added she felt competitive early on, but knew something wasn’t right in the closing laps while trying to run down Peterson.
Early in the race I felt like we had something for him, but the last 20 laps I knew something wasn’t right,” Mitchell said. “I was full throttle off the corners and not staying with him, so we’ll have to look at it.”
Mitchell the points leader, gained ground in the standings following Huddleston’s engine issues and said it’s been a solid start but it’s still early in the season.
“It’s a good start to the year,” she said. “We’re only three races in. We’ll see how it goes.”
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