TJ DeCaire Racing

Reflecting on the past few weeks. Incredibly grateful. More work to do. ✊🏼

Low Country Motorsports | FERNS & CO. | Hamke Racecars | Earnest Performance | Race City Steel | CARS Tour | Buzze Racing | Cam Clark

📸: Brett Suggs

LowCountry Motorsports scores career-best CARS Tour PLM finish of second with T.J. DeCaire at North Wilkesboro

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (July 20, 2026) – The stars nearly aligned perfectly at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Friday evening for LowCountry Motorsports to take home their first Pro Late Model victory.

In his first start with the program, T.J. DeCaire qualified LowCountry’s No. 7 Chevrolet third out of 30 cars and successfully maintained track position inside the top five despite plenty of aggressive racing. DeCaire’s car was faster than that of race-winner Kaden Honeycutt in the closing stages, but he ultimately did not have enough time to challenge for the lead.

Despite this, LowCountry still earned a career-best showing of second in the CARS Pro Late Model Tour, which matched their strongest overall performance in the discipline during the 2025 Snowflake 125. From co-owner A.J. Frank’s perspective, DeCaire’s performance at North Wilkesboro highlights just how close LowCountry is to finding Victory Lane.

“It was incredible,” Frank said. “We started talking with T.J. over the winter and we had obviously paid attention to him for a long time. Going into North Wilkesboro, we were extremely excited to see how we could work together. Right from the test session to the race, we just gelled really good.

“The car was on a rail. We barely made any changes. The car was just that good.”

DeCaire brought plenty of Pro Late Model success to LowCountry’s burgeoning program. He won two Carolina Pro Late Model Series events from 2022-23 before breaking through for his first CARS PLM Tour checkered flag at Tri-County Motor Speedway last year, which saw him make the race-winning pass with 29 laps remaining.

Frank and LowCountry co-owner Mikey Kile witnessed DeCaire’s composure behind the wheel several times long before they entered the CARS Tour platform. Convinced he was one of the best young prospects in the series, Frank was thrilled all the positive qualities that defined DeCaire were on full display as he made a run for the checkered flag on Friday evening.

“T.J. is extremely focused on the task at hand,” Frank said. “His focus, his drive and his ability to find the feel that he needs in these cars was extremely impressive. We’ve all seen over the years he can get the most out of anything he drives. [With] his maturity, his race craft and his speed, I just think he’s an incredibly talented driver.”

Ensuring DeCaire had a great car for North Wilkesboro required diligent hard work from Frank and the entire LowCountry team. The car DeCaire was driving sustained heavy damage in a crash during the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway, but Frank, Kile and the rest of the team managed to get the chassis repaired with race-winning speed.

Assisting LowCountry’s North Wilkesboro effort was Hamke Race Cars owner Cody Glick, who served as DeCaire’s crew chief for the Spears Manufacturing 75. Glick’s support of LowCountry through Hamke Race Cars, along with that of Cam Clark Engines, is why Frank believes LowCountry has enjoyed steady improvement since their first Pro Late Model race.

DeCaire was impressed by the efficiency of LowCountry on every front. There was never a moment during the weekend at North Wilkesboro where he doubted his ability to win, which he attributed to Frank’s leadership and the positive environment created by everyone on the team.

“Every single person who laid a hand on this car is top notch,” DeCaire said. “Class act, really great people, fun to be around. I feel like I’ve bounced around a lot of teams at such a young age, but having fun at the racetrack is the biggest beneficiary to having a good weekend. It was 100 degrees outside, but everyone did their job like they were supposed to.”

Winning the Spears Manufacturing 75 would have been a perfect culmination of such a great weekend for DeCaire, who expressed mild frustration over how his runner-up showing unfolded. DeCaire nearly passed Honeycutt twice, but the move was undone by a lapped car the first instance and an ill-timed caution on the second occasion.

The circumstances of Friday’s race reminded DeCaire of a race-winning battle he had with Honeycutt at North Wilkesboro in 2024, which also ended in a second-place run. Even though history repeated itself for DeCaire, he found plenty of solace with how strong he performed in his first outing with LowCountry.

“I kind of got pushed around on the restarts,” DeCaire said. “We had the better car at the end both times, but couldn’t get there quick enough. I was there the first time and cut [Honeycutt] a break, which a lot of people respected me for. I think that was the right thing because he was the championship leader.

“Got pushed around again, went for the lead but just ran out of laps.”

Had there been a late-race caution, Frank believes DeCaire would have found his way around Honeycutt for the lead despite their struggles with fire off speed. Despite coming up short, Frank said placing second against one of the most talented fields in PLM Tour history, which included 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, was a moment to celebrate on its own.

DeCaire’s strong night at North Wilkesboro added another chapter to LowCountry’s ongoing story in Pro Late Models that has included names like Tristan McKee, Ben Maier and Treyten Lapcevich. Frank and Kile intend to use the highs from North Wilkesboro to build momentum towards earning a PLM Tour owner’s title.

Obtaining that first Pro Late Model checkered flag for LowCountry is the other primary objective for Frank and Kile in 2026. If North Wilkesboro is any indication, LowCountry is very close to finally reaching that milestone.

“Circumstances just didn’t get us to where we needed to be,” Frank said. “While it stings, all of us guys who have been racing for years, even someone [as young as T.J.], look at a race like North Wilkesboro and feel so blessed to just have a chance to race there, much less come that close to riding that elevator.

“We all gave it everything we had and T.J. gave it everything he had.”

Frank, Kile and LowCountry will regroup for the next crown jewel on the CARS Tour schedule, which is the Throwback Classic at Hickory Motor Speedway on Aug. 8. The PLM Tour will have the first race of the evening at 7 p.m. ET, with live flag-to-flag coverage airing on FloRacing.

Rolling off P3 tomorrow at Wilkesboro with Low Country Motorsports!

Ready to get after it.

Finally time to get back to business at North Wilkesboro Speedway this Friday with late model standout TJ DeCaire behind the wheel of LowCountry Motorsports #7. TJ joins LowCountry Motorsports as we head into the 5th race of the year sitting 2nd in CARS Tour Pro Late Model Owners Points just 11 points behind Setzer Racing. In the practice session for the event TJ was fast right out of the box with essentially a brand new @hamkeracecars we built during the break! We are all looking forward to the weekend…! Stay tuned

First time at 5 flags in a super latemodel this past weekend. We all knew it would be a little bit of a struggle with no Thursday practice and racing on the day we got there. We struggled with the car and it was tough to get honest read on what the car was doing with it being so hot outside and what direction we needed to go to make it better. We missed it in Qualifying, the car bottomed out both laps of my qualifying in turn 3. Killing our lap time. The race wasn’t much better. After going a few laps down in a fast paced race with no yellows we decided to pull it in and try again the next day.

Saturday with one 45 minute practice session we knew we had to change something and everything was looking promising sitting inside the top 10 for a majority of the practice session we thought we had a good chance for a good run. Welp. The sun set and it was a different race car. Qualifying was a struggle for me personally all weekend. I know I can be better. The race turned into a long practice session. We passed a lot of cars (mostly all the same ones) and got the car better at the end of the night. We have some work to do. But no doubt we will be better next go around.

We’re gonna shift our focus to pro late model racing again at North Wilkesboro July 11th.
As always THANK YOU to all of our family and sponsors who help me do what I love to do. None of this will be possible without you.

Getting back after it this weekend with 2 100 lap races at Five Flags Speedway, this time with the Southern Super Series. Watch LIVE on Racing America.

UARA National Full Throttle 125 |Citrus County Speedway |TJ DeCaire 4/11/26 On board with TJ DeCaire #88 in his 125 lap feature he had a good run. coming home P7

Ended the first half week of Spring nationals at highland rim last night. Eventful start of the week to say the least.
Got wrecked ✅
Almost flipped ✅
Rebuilt the car over night✅
Finished the last race 2nd place with the same car✅

Can’t thank Miller Performance Motorsports Direct for all of the hard work these past few days and continuing to thrash on the car to get it fixed up.

Onto Nashville fairgrounds tonight for practice and racing Friday and Saturday to finish out the week!

Surprise Surprise! Back in the legend car this week for Nashville Spring Nationals! Thanks Miller Performance Motorsports Direct for all of the hard work leading up to this week. Double header to start the week off! Keep in touch for daily updates.