SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Nathan Crews can smile all the way to the bank.
The Long Island, Va. native held off Cory Dunn by 1.385-seconds in a six-lap green flag dash to the finish after the race’s final caution period to win the 50-lap Kenny Meadows Limited Sportsman Memorial feature race, the richest Limited Sportsman Division race ever held at the quarter-mile oval.
The win in the race that was part of Saturday night’s Sentara Health Race Night partnering with God’s Pit Crew event at South Boston Speedway was Crews’ fourth of the season at South Boston and was worth $3,000.
“This is the biggest win I’ve ever had,” Crews remarked. “I’ve had some pretty good wins, but this tops them all. Honestly, there were two or three cars out there that could have won at any given time. I just happened to be lucky enough to be in the position we happened to be in at the end.”
Crews led twice for a total of 35 laps, taking the lead for the final time on the 30th lap. However, three caution periods for crashes in the final eight laps of the race kept challengers in play. Two of them, defending division champion Jason Myers, Karl Budzevski and Drew Dawson were involved in one of the mishaps, taking them out of contention.
That thrust Dunn into contention at the end, but Dunn came up just short of the big prize.
“I don’t think I had anything for Nathan,” Dunn said. “I was just trying to keep track position. Everything that happened in the race seemed like it was right around me, either in front of me or behind me. I had a feeling it was going to be a race of survival, and it played out kind of the way I thought it was going to play out.”
Brad Foy finished third and received the $250 Aqua Pros Hard Charger Award. Justin Dawson battled back from being a lap down to finish fourth and Eric Winslow rounded out the top-five finishers.
Winslow was one of the top contenders in the race, leading twice for 15 laps, but two flat tires dented his chances of winning.
Three-time former South Boston Speedway NASCAR Limited Sportsman Division Champion Billy Myers finished sixth in his first start of the season.
Jason Pittman, Brian Rundstrom Jr., Drew Dawson, Myers and Budzevski completed the top-10 finishers.
The race was slowed by eight cautions and took one hour and 24 minutes to complete.
The race honored the late Kenny Meadows who passed away Dec. 7, 2021 at age 56 due to COVID-19. Meadows was a life-long racing enthusiast. He was crew chief for his son, Calvin Meadows,’ racing efforts and helped many other teams throughout the years as well. Kenny Meadows was involved in racing for 14 years.
Blake Stallings and Jacob Borst split wins in the twin 75-lap Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division.
Johnny Layne picked up his fifth win of the season with a flag-to-flag victory in the 25-lap Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division race.
Jason DeCarlo, the 2022 South Boston Virginia State Police HEAT Hornets Division champion, won the 20-lap Virginia State Police HEAT Hornets Division race.
Kevin Floars earned the Sportsman Division win and overall race win and Jimmy Mullins, the overall race runner-up, took the win in the Modified Division in the 25-lap race for the Southern Ground Pounders Vintage Racing Club.