MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – An afternoon that looked like it might never get going because of weather was ultimately cut short by it, with Sam Yarbrough collecting the checkered flag during the final late model stock car race at Myrtle Beach Speedway on Saturday.
Yarbrough, a five-time Myrtle Beach champion and the all-time wins leader at the .536-mile South Carolina short track, got up on the wheel when he needed to in the Sun Fun 101.
He darted past Ryan Glenski, who dominated the majority of the feature, on a lap-43 restart and never looked back, leading the rest of the way en route to another victory.
Once Yarbrough took control of the race, he fended off the late advances of Will Burns – the winner of the final Myrtle Beach 400 last fall – before a caution with 72 laps complete stalled the proceedings.
The yellow was called for the crashed car of Justin Hicks, who tagged the outside wall off the exit of turn two. However, during the caution period lingering rain showers returned and dampened the racing surface for the seventh time on the day.
With hope of drying the track slim at best, track officials ultimately elected to declare a caution and checkered finish 29 laps short of the scheduled 101-lap distance, sending Yarbrough to the winner’s circle.
It was an emotional moment for the multi-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series South Carolina state champion, who won more than 60 features at the Myrtle Beach half-mile over the years.
Saturday’s win, however, was one that he put right among the most meaningful moments of his career.
“This just caps off what we’ve done our whole time out year,” Yarbrough said in victory lane. “We tried our best to come out here, do our job and win races, and we did that tonight. Gosh almighty, this car was great. I can’t thank everybody enough that works on this thing.
“To be the last winner (at Myrtle Beach), it’s everything right now.”
Burns chased Yarbrough for the latter stages of the last green-flag run after taking second place from Glenski on lap 47, but didn’t have enough time to mount a challenge on Yarbrough for the win.
“It hit me just as I was getting out of the car that today was my last laps at this place,” Burns said. “Congrats to Sam and his guys. At least we can say that we got beat by the best at Myrtle Beach … possibly ever. I’m kind of sad that it ended with rain, but I’ve been on the good side of one of those types of shortened deals before too. It’s just how it is. It’s part of racing and we’ll move on to what’s next.
“I’m really going to miss this place, though. We really had a strong run going today.”
Past Hickory Motor Speedway track champion Austin McDaniel was scored third at the finish, followed by young gun Jacob Heafner and Glenski, who faded back to fifth.
Brian Vause, Chris Throckmorton, Bradley McCaskill, Justin Johnson and Austin Somero filled out the top 10.
The four support division features – Chargers, Super Trucks, Mini Stocks and Mini Cups – were rescheduled for Sunday afternoon due to the inclement weather and will be completed starting at 1 p.m. ET before the historic track is shuttered permanently.
Saturday’s race, which was delayed from a planned 3:45 p.m. ET start by a half-dozen rain showers that interrupted practice and qualifying, finally went green just after 6 p.m. ET and was broadcast live by SPEED SPORT TV and TrackPass by NBC Sports Gold.
Myrtle Beach Speedway will close following Sunday’s support class mains, with plans in place to bulldoze the track, making way for the development of offices and townhomes on the property.
The finish:
1. 95-Sam Yarbrough, 2. 41b-Will Burns, 3. 12m-Austin McDaniel, 4. 95-Jacob Heafner, 5. 28-Ryan Glenski, 6. 16-Brian Vause, 7. 63-Chris Throckmorton, 8. 07m-Bradley McCaskill, 9. 08-Justin Johnson, 10. 99-Austin Somero, 11. 61-Justin Hicks, 12. 81-Jeremy Burns, 13. 13-Bobby June, 14. 2-Gracie Trotter, 15. 55-Isabella Robusto, 16. 2w-Brandon Rogers, 17. 70-Stuart Ricks, 18. 11-Paul Green, 19. 81b-Sam Butler, 20. 4-Travis Truett, 21. 25-Robbie Mew, 22. 02-Justin Milliken, 23. 60-RA Brown, 24. 6-Rajah Caruth, 25. 41-Whitney Meggs, 26. 51-Perry Patino, 27. 94-Jamie Weatherford, 28. 47-Chase Janes, 29. 22-Jason Tutterow, 30. 96-Sam Scarpelli, 31. 51c-Brandon Clements, 32. 21-Jimmy Wallace, 33. 15w-Mitchell Walker, 34. 4-Michael Faulk.