COPPER HILL, VA :: Champions will be crowned all across the region in what is, for most tracks, the final race of the regular season. Track championships will be decided over the weekend at Dillon Motor Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway, Shenandoah Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park while track championships have already been clinched at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Langley Speedway, Lonesome Pine Raceway, Myrtle Beach Speedway and South Boston Speedway ahead of their final regular season races.
Ryan Hall leads Archie Adams, Jr. by 36 points entering the season finale at Dillon Motor Speedway in South Carolina. Hall has won seven races on the season at Dillon while Adams has gone winless so far this season. Dillon’s season finale will be on Saturday night. RACE22.com’s Chris Owens will have updates from Dillon Motor Speedway. You can follow him on Twitter at @chrisowens62 for updates during the race.
Anthony Anders has already locked up the track championship at his home track at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and will likely win the NASCAR Whelen All American Series South Carolina State Championship for the third consecutive year. Anders has seven wins at Greenville and has also won twice this season at Myrtle Beach Speedway.
“I worked hard to win the track championship at Greenville-Pickens for the last 10 years, “Anders said. “It’s kind of funny. I won the Anderson Motor Speedway championship two years ago, then went to Myrtle Beach last year then came back home to Greenville and won that championship. I’m pretty sure I’ve won the South Carolina State Championship as well. Sam Yarbrough would have to have a 20 car count, win the race and I’d have to not start these two races this weekend for him to even tie me. That would be our third in a row and we’ve won track championships at three different tracks. This means so much. There will be a ceremony Saturday and my name will be put on the wall with names like Earnhardt, Pearson and others.”
Austin McDaniel is on track to win his second consecutive championship at Hickory Motor Speedway. McDaniel has won five races at Hickory this season and holds a 73 point lead over Shane Lee. While McDaniel has been the winningest driver, nobody has been hotter lately than David Garbo. Garbo has four wins on the season, with two of those wins coming in the last two race weekends at Hickory. Garbo won the Bobby Isaac Memorial. Having not run the entire season, Garbo is not mathematically in contention for the track championship.
CE Falk has clinched the track championship at Langley Speedway, his fourth championship in five years at the flat track in Hampton, VA. This time, it looked different for Falk. Historically, the Virginia Beach driver has dominated the season at the track and it was almost a forgone conclusion that he would win the race on any given Saturday night. This season, Langley Speedway had one of its most competitive seasons in recent memory.
Five different drivers visited victory lane at Langley Speedway. Falk started off hot, winning the first two races, but then cooled off. From there, Nick Smith dominated much of the season, winning eight races. Greg Edwards and Matt Waltz also scored multiple victories while Peyton Sellers won the season’s biggest race, the Hampton Heat 200, a race that has gone down as one of the best races in Late Model Stock Car racing this season and one of the greatest races ever held at the track. While Falk didn’t count up a double digit win figure, he ran consistent and methodically collected points on his way to score his fourth Langley Speedway track championship.
“We didn’t dominate by any means like we usually have in the past,” Falk said. “We didn’t get a bunch of wins but consistency and not falling out of races won us the championship. I think having a consistent season and putting together good racecars and not getting in wrecks won the championship. We didn’t have the dominant car every week. It’s the first championship I’ve won without an empkoyed crew chief. It’s just been me and my brother (Wes) working on the cars each week getting them prepared. It’s an all-volunteer crew that wants to race because they love it and they’ve supported me.”
Ryan Stiltne
r has already locked up his first career Late Model Stock Car championship by winning the track championship at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Southwestern Virginia. While Stiltner has dominated the season at Lonesome Pine, the high banked track in Coeburn is another track that proved to be very competitive. Former NASCAR Nationwide Series competitor Danny O’Quinn visited victory lane while Adam Gray and Hayden Woods scored their first career Late Model Stock Car victories at the track.
Stiltner locked up the track championship when he scored his seventh win of the season at the ASA-sanctioned track.
“It’s been a really great season,” Stiltner stated. “I’ve been blessed by what I’ve got at Lonesome Pine. It’s all come together really good. With the championship locked up, we can give it our all on Saturday and try to win the last race.”
Saturday’s season finale at Lonesome Pine Raceway will be a 100 lap, $1,500 to win Late Model feature. RACE22.com will have live, flag-to-flag coverage of the race on Saturday.
Sam Yarbrough boasts a 111 point lead at Myrtle Beach Speedway entering Saturday night’s championship race. Yarbrough has won nine races on the season at Myrtle Beach Speedway. With that 111 point lead, Yarbrough should win the track championship.
The track championship at Shenandoah Speedway in Virginia is also up for grabs. Brian Purdham has won three races at that track in the mountains of the Shenandoah Valley while Kevin Bush, Vincent Campbell, Doug Liberman, David Polenz and Bill Lutz have also scored race wins in 2013 at Shenandoah.
Lee Pulliam has already won the track championship at South Boston Speedway, a track he won at 15 times during the 2013 regular season. Pulliam has already clinched the NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Championship and could win the Motor Mile track championship on September 21st. His main rival, Deac McCaskill, has already secured the track championship at Southern National Motorsports Park, which will host twin races on Friday night and Saturday night.
Last month, Chad Finchum won the track championship at Kingsport Speedway and, with that, picked up the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Tennessee State Championship while Burt Myers picked up the Modified championship at Bowman Gray Stadium. Mack Little won the Sportsman championship at Bowman Gray. Joe Heigl has won the track championship at Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, NC while Chris Dodson won the track championship at Southside Speedway outside of Richmond.
Ace Speedway, Anderson Motor Speedway, Caraway Speedway, Coastal Plains Raceway, East Carolina Motor Speedway, Florence Motor Speedway, Franklin County Speedway, Motor Mile Speedway, Newport Motor Speedway and Orange County Speedway all still have multiple races remaining on their seasons.
