SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Peyton Sellers found his groove, Trevor Ward regained the points lead and a mechanical issue sent Landon Pembelton’s car up in flames.
Those were the big takeaways from Saturday night’s 125-lap Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division race, the headline race of the Benchmark Community Bank Race Night event at South Boston Speedway.
Sellers won the race, earning his third victory of the season – putting the competition on notice that he will expects to be among the top contenders in the June 27 Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200, the opening race of the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown presented by FloRacing.
“We’ve been ‘off’ and to finally turn the page tonight makes us feel we’re moving in the right direction,” Sellers remarked. “There’s no quit in this team. We’ve been off. That’s a part of racing. Trevor and those guys have been good. Landon has come on strong over the past month. Here we are tonight, and hopefully we’ve got a rebound.”
Sellers led twice for 81 laps. He took the lead from Ward on the 50th circuit and led the rest of the way, edging Ward by 2.122 seconds at the finish.
While Ward had to settle for a runner-up finish after having led 44 laps, it was a strong run nonetheless.
“We tried some stuff for the ‘200’ and it seemed to work pretty well,” Ward noted.
“The speedy-dry kind of threw us for a curve ball when Landon had some motor issues. I’ll take a second tonight and build on it.”
Ward and Pembelton were tied for the division points lead entering the race but Ward unofficially regained the points lead as Pembelton encountered an engine issue and finished 11th.
Landon S. Huffman crossed the finish line third, Conner Wedell and Bobby McCarty completed the top five.
Drew Dawson became the third repeat winner in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division with his victory in the 50-lap race.
Johnny Layne tied the record for all-time career wins in the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division with his win in the first race of the division’s twin 15-lap races Saturday night.
Layne’s fifth win of the season gives him 37 career wins in the division, tying former division champion Nathan Crews’ record of 37 career wins.
Dillon Davis won the second race of the twin-race event to earn his first victory of the season.
Jason DeCarlo won the Hornets race.
