CALLAWAY, VA :: Losing a father is often a difficult thing but a pair of siblings from Vinton, Wesley and Cary Thomason, vowed to continue racing because it’s what their father would have wanted.  The Thomason brothers don’t have the fanciest haulers or the most money, but they come to the races with passion and desire. On Saturday night, that passion and desire finally paid off and the brothers both found themselves standing in victory lane.

Bobby Thomason would have loved to have been alive to see his sons both score victories on the same night.  That was not meant to be.  He passed away in February.  Wesley Thomason, 26, feels his father was riding shotgun with him and his 16-year-old brother.

“It’s an incredible feeling and it’s safe to say we got that damn monkey off our back,” Wesley Thomason said.   “We’ve struggled.  I mean, we were terrible the first half of this year.  We’ve done a lot of work on this car and gotten faster and better here lately.  We’ve been up front and leading laps here on a weekly basis but it was starting to suck finishing second and third every week.  So, to finally pull one off, and to do it on the same night my brother won his first career race, was really special.  I couldn’t let him go home with a trophy and not get one myself.

“I can’t even put in to words what this means to me.  It’s like it was meant to be.  We definitely had someone riding shotgun with us for sure.”

Wesley’s victory was his first win since 2010.  His long road back to victory lane was a total family effort with Cary spotting for him and guiding him to victory lane.  Cary had picked up his first career win of any kind in the U-CAR race earlier that evening.

“When I passed that start finish line, there was this feeling inside of me like my dad was right in that car with me cheering,” the younger Thomason said.  “It felt like I had just won the Daytona 500.  That race will be marked, by far, as the best moment of my life.  I got out and all my family was there when I came in to victory lane.  I got out, pointed in to the air and said, ‘Dad, this was for you’.  After that, I had a cooler of ice poured on me for the Ice Bucket Challenge and my brother was the first one to come up to me.  He said, ‘Buddy, you did it for dad’.

“I thought I was dreaming.  I’ve dreamt a lot of me and him winning on the same night and the Lord and my dad assured it happened on Saturday.  Wesley was so excited.  He did multiple donuts on the front stretch.  He got out and I poured ice on him and he cheered.  I felt like my dad had a front row seat in heaven for that race.  I just wish he was there when we won; he would have been one proud father.  Deep down, I know I couldn’t see him but he could see me and Wesley.  In my 16 years on this planet, Saturday night was the best night I’ve had in my life and probably will be for the rest of my life.”

The perseverance by both the Thomason brothers finally paid off, and Cary told Wesley it was a great reward.

“I told Wes, ‘no matter what goes on or how bad out luck is, never give up’.  We didn’t give up and we got rewarded with both of us winning on the same night.”