A late caution at South Boston Speedway set up a 15 lap run to the finish, and a two horse race between two of the best late model drivers in the sport. In the end, it was the 26 car of Peyton Sellers that held off a charging No. 5 of Lee Pulliam for Sellers’s fifth win of the season.
Sellers came into Saturday’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson Presented by Grand Atlantic Ocean Resort at South Boston leading to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series late model points both at the track and nationally. While he didn’t start the best, an invert of the top 10 cars at the 100 lap break put him in fourth. He hung around the top 5 for much of the second half of the race.
A caution on Lap 177 brought on by spins by Colin Garrett and Layne Riggs set up the final battle between Sellers and Pulliam, both former NWAAS national champions. Pulliam started first on the restart, but Sellers quickly passed him after going green. Pulliam dropped down to fourth until the final five laps, when he got back to second and onto Sellers’s bumper.
Pulliam was right on Sellers’s back coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 200, and could have spun him for the win, but a clean finish by both drivers put Sellers in victory lane.
“We just had just enough car there at the end,” Sellers told reporters in victory lane. “Lee Pulliam was the best car there the last 20 or 30 laps, but he didn’t go on that restart good. We got a good little lead out. He came back strong, I knew he would.”
Sellers praised his opponent for racing clean at the finish.
“He ran me clean at the end. He could have drove through there and took me out, but he didn’t,” Sellers said. “That’s what racing is all about. These races are hard to come by.
“We had a good clean battle last week for the win, and he won that one, so respect coming back. I appreciate that. It’s been some good, clean racing here the last month or two. It’s the kind of racing the fans want to see.”
Sellers called Saturday’s a “race of attrition,” fitting given the night started with 31 cars and finished with about half that. The second half of the race saw seven cautions, with two red flags. Two big pile ups at the start/finish on Laps 102 and 124 took out 10 cars in the back of the field.
After the invert, Tyler Hughes took the pole on the Lap 101 restart, and held it for 70 laps, always coming out clean on restarts. Hughes’s hold on the lead was finally relinquished after his No. 8 car suffered a flat tire, sending sparks out the back for several laps before he was forced to pit.
The third former national champion in the field, Philip Morris, started the day on the pole, and ran towards the front all day until Lap 111 when Morris was pushed and spun between Turns 3 and 4. Morris suffered enough damage to end his night.
Pulliam, currently fourth in the track standings, Trey Crews, fifth in the SoBo standings, and Mike Looney, currently eighth in the NWAAS national standings, finished second, third, and fourth, respectively.
Not only did Saturday’s win come with a $10,000 check, it also gives Sellers a good head start in the Virginia Triple Crown standings. The Triple Crown winner is the driver with the highest average finish in the Thunder Road 200 at South Boston, the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway on July 20, and the Valley Star Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in October.
While Sellers is happy to have a leg up in the Triple Crown, he’s not resting on his laurels.
“We’ve got to go to Langley with an open mind,” he said. “I told them earlier you can’t play today’s game with yesterday’s homerun, so we’ve just got to put our nose down and try to get us a win over there.”
Other races:
– Jared Dawson led all 20 laps of the Budweiser Hornets race to start the night. Dawson was sixth in the South Boston hornets standings heading into Saturday night.
Aaron Cash, Josh Dawson, Kevin Currin, and Andrea Routolo rounded out the top 5.
– Johnny Lane won for the first time this season at South Boston, cruising to a win in the Budweiser Pure Stock race.
Pure Stock points leader Nathan Crews wrecked out midway through the race. Crews attempted to get back on the track without a front hood, but a leak in his car forced him to finish his night.
Jordan Pickrel, second in the track points, was involved in an incident between Turns 3 and 4, but battled back to a third place finish. Pickrel pulled a double a SoBo, also running in the late model race immediately following the pure stock race.
Randy Hupp, fifth in the points standings, finished second. Justin Dawson and Bruce Mayo were fourth and fifth.