For the past five years the road to the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 checkered flag has run directly through South Boston Speedway.

Four of the five most recent winners of NASCAR’s biggest Late Model Stock race, scheduled for this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, have been regular competitors at South Boston.

Lee Pulliam, who won 10 races at South Boston this season, is the VSCU 300 defending champion. He also won the event in 2011. Former South Boston track champion Philip Morris won the premier Late Model race in 2010 and 2012.

And headed into Sunday’s event a large handful of South Boston competitors can be considered among the favorites to take home the iconic grandfather clock that goes to the Martinsville race winner. The race was rescheduled for Sunday after heavy rains swamped the area last week.

Pulliam and Morris will be back, both looking for another win. This year’s South Boston track champion Matt Bowling has to be among the favorites.  Former South Boston regular Timothy Peters is taking advantage of an off weekend from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to chase his second Martinsville Late Model win.

Other drivers who competed at South Boston this season entered in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 include Stacy Puryear, Austin Thaxton, Blake Stallings, Matt Waltz, Bruce Anderson, Tyler Ankrum, Josh Berry, Bobby McCarty, Quin Houff, Juan Garcia, Terry Carroll, Justin Carroll and Brian Pembelton.

Bowling says it’s no surprise South Boston drivers fare well in the big Martinsville Late Model race.

“There are a lot of similarities between the two,” said Bowling. “A lot of what you do to the front end of the car … you have to get it working good at both tracks. So in some ways they are a lot alike.”

But more important than similarities in car set up is the quality of competition.

“The competition is big, too,” said Bowling, who finished ninth in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship points race this season. “You’re running against the best of the best every week. We’ve got a national champion in the field every week. We are used to strong competition.”

Bowling has made the most of the extra week created by the rain delay to make sure he is competitive Sunday.

“We’ve been working hard on the car. The extra week to work on it really helped us,” explained Bowling. “We had a new car we tested with and we weren’t pleased with it at all. We’ve gone back to the car we won South Boston with. I think we will be fine.”

The ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway will start at noon Sunday, October 11 with three 25 lap heat races and one “last chance” heat to set the field, followed by the 200 lap feature, with a break at lap 150 and a “blind draw” invert.