Alex Yontz Honors Brother with Late Model Stock Victory at Caraway
Alex Yontz has scored memorable wins in his Late Model Stock Car racing career. He’s won the prestigious Bailey’s 300 at Martinsville Speedway (VA) and a UARA tour race at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. While those and Yontz’s other victories are certainly special, none were as meaningful as Saturday night’s LMSC win at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina.
The win was not only special for Yontz, but also his entire family. Just one week earlier, Donald Gray Tilley, Yontz’s older brother, passed away. Donald (also know as Duck) was one of Alex’s biggest racing supporters and left behind a wife and two kids. So when Alex pulled into victory lane on Saturday night at Caraway Speedway (NC) after winning the Late Model Stock 200 event, the emotional win surpassed any other triumph in his racing career.
“It was by far the most emotional win I have ever had,” said Yontz. “It was really big; not just for me, but for the whole family. The past couple of weeks have been rough on us all. My two other brothers were there watching the race with their kids. It was really special for all of us, and it was a really emotional scene in victory lane for the whole family.”
The decision to run the race was hard at first for Yontz. Just days after laying his brother to rest, he was strapping back into a racecar because he knew that’s what Donald would have expected.
“There were all kinds of things going through my mind,” admitted Yontz. “I was down and I didn’t really want to race, but I had to ask myself, ‘What would Donald want me to do?’ I knew he would be mad at me if I let his death stop me from doing what I love to do. That’s the attitude that he had, and I knew I had to run that race and dedicate it to him.”
Yontz qualified seventh and settled into the top five in the early part of the race. During the race, contact with another car sent him to the rear of the field after 40 laps.
“We had to go to the back after I got into another car and spun out. We messed the hood up pretty good, but I was still able to drive back up to sixth before a hood pin broke and we were forced to come to pit road to fix it. Once it was fixed we came back to the front a second time and took the lead with less than 40 laps to go.”
The final 10 laps were the toughest for Yontz. The emotions began to set in and the laps seemed to get longer as they clicked off. Finally the white flag came and Yontz sped around the track one final time to score a victory not for him, but for his brother who had meant so much to him.
“It really took my breath away when I saw the white flag because I knew we could do it,” said Yontz. “I have won some big races… Bristol, Martinsville, but this was special. We had ‘In loving memory of Donald’ on the back of the car, and it was a storybook ending to a very emotional win for the whole family. I am glad the family was there to share the victory with us.”
Alex will return to Caraway Speedway to drive again for William Barber in the Late Model Stock event on Saturday, June 6th. Yontz is also planning the rescheduling of his next ARCA event, as he decided to skip Michigan after his brothers’ passing.
Alex Yontz watches practice. (Late Model Digest Photo)
