AMELIA COURT HOUSE, VA :: Brian Pembelton is excited about Saturday’s Halloween Spooktacular at Southern National Motorsports Park and, after the times he turned when practicing on Tuesday, he should be.

“We ran a lot of 16.40s so I hope that’s good,” Pembelton said.  “We ran blistering fast in the morning – mid-15s.  The track had more grip in it.”

Pembelton has plenty of confidence after turning in fast laps but he knows that Southern National regulars, such as Rusty Daniels, Andrew Grady and Haley Moody, will be tough to beat on Saturday.

“I feel like the regulars are going to be hard to beat.  There’s going to be a lot of good competition there.  We’ll be in the hunt provided we stay out of trouble.  At any point yesterday, I was comfortable on short and long runs with the car.  If we have a little luck and we can be around in the end, we can put on a battle for the win.”

Pembelton has raced at Southern National before.  In fact, he made a couple of starts in a Late Model Stock Car earlier this season.  His best finish in those starts this season was a sixth place finish back in May.  He has extra motivation to win this weekend.  He will be trying to snap a winless streak that dates back to July 2013 when he won at Franklin County Speedway.

“I think I’m going to change the winless column for the year this weekend,” he remarked.

While other drivers don’t enjoy racing on scuff tires, Pembelton is looking forward to it.

“I can take it either way, it don’t matter to me as long as everyone’s on the same tires.  It’s more affordable to run on scuffs.  I have some pretty good backing so, either way, I’m good.  I’m good on it.  It works out good.  You hope you get some good tires.  I think, regardless of what tires you get, you’ll have to have a good racecar to run up front and win.  The guys with the good cars will be up front.”

Pembelton’s victory at Franklin county Speedway came in a race where every driver ran four scuff tires – and Pembelton had a set of tires with a lot of laps on them.

“We had the worst tires of anyone there.  If your car’s good enough and you’re ready to get up on the wheel, the scuffs are okay.”

He’s also excited about being reunited with Bruce Anderson for this race and beyond.

“I’m excited about being back with Bruce Anderson and him being my Crew Chief and maintaining my car.  Most of the races I’ve won have bene with him and the chemistry’s been really good.”