SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Momentum breeds a positive mindset and extra motivation. It also breeds confidence and, subsequently, more momentum.
Momentum is certainly behind Landon Pembelton, who is enters 2026 coming off a great finish to last year. The Amelia, Virginia resident capped his 2025 season by winning the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway last fall to become a two-time winner of the prestigious Late Model Stock Car event.
The Martinsville win followed a strong performance at the end of the 2025 season at South Boston Speedway. Pembelton finished a close third in the South Boston Speedway championship chase, just 13 points behind champion Peyton Sellers and 11 points behind division runner-up Trevor Ward.
Pembelton finished the 2025 season at South Boston Speedway with two wins, five second-place finishes and 10 top-three finishes in his 18 starts. Notably, he had a win among three top-three finishes in the season’s final four races.
That has fueled a lot of excitement in Pembelton as he continues preparations to pursue the 2026 Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division championship at South Boston Speedway. He will competing for the second consecutive season out of the R&S Race Cars stable with Marcus Richmond as crew chief.
“I’m really excited,” Pembelton remarked, “and really looking forward to this season. I’m looking forward to being back at the racetrack. I have a lot of confidence going into this year and I’m sure Marcus does too. I think we’re going to come out of the gate really strong. We were knocking on the door the last half of the season. We’re trying to carry that momentum into this season. I feel we’re going to be even stronger this year.”
Pembelton feels that he and Richmond having a year under their belts in working with each other will pay good dividends this season.
“We’re going to continue working on our program and trying to get better,” Pembelton said. “Marcus and I worked really hard last year getting our communication down. We did a little off-season testing last year, but we had new chemistry going into last season.
“Marcus and I learned a lot about each other last year,” Pembelton added, “and I’m looking forward to continuing to build that relationship and making it stronger. Marcus and I have built a really good program, and we’re going to keep building on it.”
Pembelton noted that along with the 2025 season being his first season working with Richmond, it was also his first full-time season competing at South Boston Speedway.
“I’m looking forward to going back to a second full-time season and going after the championship,” said Pembelton. “South Boston is a tough racetrack, and you must be on your ‘A-game’ every time you hit the racetrack. It doesn’t matter if you’re practicing each week or you’re practicing for the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 race, you’ve got to be the best you can be there.”
One of the primary areas Pembelton is looking to improve upon in 2026 is qualifying. The last time he won a pole in qualifying at South Boston Speedway came in 2023.
“Qualifying is a big deal,” Pembelton pointed out. “You always want to win the race, but you have to put yourself in position to win the race. We’ve been working during the offseason on how to get better and we’re looking forward to going into this year being better at everything with both our qualifying package and our race package.”
One of the new components both are working with is a switch to Dodge for the 2026 season.
“I’m looking forward to going into this season with Dodge and getting the best finishes we can for them,” Pembelton remarked.
Pembelton is hoping to get off to a faster start at South Boston Speedway this season than he did in 2025 when he finished better than sixth place only once in the season’s first three races.
“We’re going to come out of the gate swinging hard,” he said. “You always want to start the season off strong. I feel we have all the confidence in the world and a lot of momentum going into the first race of the season. I can’t thank my dad, my family, and everyone at R&S Race Cars enough. It’s going to be a ton of fun this year.”
