SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — After having won the 100-lap Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division race at South Boston Speedway a week earlier Peyton Sellers remarked he was going to be hunting trophies the rest of the season.
Saturday night the eight-time South Boston Speedway champion picked up two more by sweeping the twin 75-lap Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division races that headlined the Hitachi Energy Race Night event Saturday night at South Boston Speedway.
“We cleaned up on them a little bit tonight,” Sellers remarked in the wake of the wins that pushed his career win mark at South Boston Speedway to 71 victories.
“It’s hard to do that right now. As competitive as it is with the eight-car invert for the start of the second race. There are too many good cars here to try to get by every time.”
The Danville, Virginia resident sped past pole winner, two-time Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 winner Connor Hall on the fourth lap and drove away to a 1.514-second won over runner-up Conner Weddell, leaving Weddell with his fourth consecutive second-place finish and fifth runner-up finish in his last six starts.
Landon Pembelton, Dillon Harville and division points leader Trevor Wardrounded out the top five finishers in the 16-car field.
The nightcap was much more dramatic, with Sellers perfectly executing a restart with seven laps to go following the race’s third caution period to gain the lead. From there he fended off a stiff challenge from Pembelton, Ward, and Weddell to complete the sweep and run his season win total at South Boston Speedway to six. Deac McCaskill rounded out the top five finishers.
Prior to that, Sellers had surged past Ward for the lead right after a restart that had come three laps earlier.
“I was very fortunate to have those late-race restarts like that and be able to fire back off,” Sellers noted. “I’ve lost some like that, so to win one like that is good. I knew we had a good car. Once the tires cooled back off, that was the key to it all. That’s what it takes, being in the right place at the right time.”
Pembelton was pleased with his pair of Top-3 finishes, a solid effort that resulted after his team had to replace the rear end in his car late in Friday’s pre-vent practice day.
“All things considered it was a great weekend for us,” he said. “We broke the rear end in the car on Friday. I’m thankful we were able to go to the shop, thankful R&S Race Cars is right here, get a rear end and put it in the car. We were way off on adjustments until about qualifying time, and the car was okay. We said we would go race and see what it does. Third in the first race and second in the second race, you can’t ask for much more.”
d Saturday night’s twinbill with a 19-point lead over Sellers in the division championship chase and left the event with finishes of fifth and third. Unofficially, Ward holds an 11-point edge over Sellers heading into the final race of the season, a 100-lap race, on Saturday, September 12. Pembelton, with finishes of third and second, remains in third place in the division point standings, and is unofficially 12 points behind Sellers heading into the season’s final race.
The second race featured a lot of exciting action. There were four lead changes among three drivers. Sellers led twice for a total of 44 laps, Ward led twice for a total of 24 laps, and Chase Burgeson, who drives for Lee Pulliam Performance, started on the pole and led the first seven laps.
Sixteen-year-old Brian Rundstrom Jr. earned his fourth win of the season in Saturday night’s 50-lap race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division.
Division points leader Johnny Layne and Dillon Davis emerged as the winners of Saturday night’s twin 15-lap races for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division.
