Sam Yarbrough Rides Wave of Momentum into Martinsville

Sam Yarbrough’s second place finish in last year’s Valley Star Credit Union 300 was a surprise but, if he were to finish one position better this season, it may not be.

Yarbrough comes in to the race after winning 13 races at Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina, where he clinched the track championship. He also recently picked up a victory in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour where he beat many of the competitors who will be racing on Sunday.

“It’s been the best year we’ve had thus far,” Yarbrough said. “I told Robert last week if we can just win two more races this year, we’ll have a pretty good year. Those two are Martinsville and the Myrtle Beach 400 so we’ll see what happens.”

Also adding to his confidence is his car, which Yarbrough was very pleased with during last Wednesday’s test session. In short, he’s riding in to Martinsville from South Carolina on a wave of momentum.

“It was the best car I’ve ever had here,” Yarbrough remarked. “We unloaded pretty good. Made a few minor adjustments. The car’s rolling through the corner really good. Got a great engine. I’m pretty excited.”

Yarbrough finished second in the 2014 running of the Valley Star Credit Union 300 but, in reality, Yarbrough says he had a 15th place car. Survival and luck, those are two of the keys in Late Model Stock Car racing’s biggest race and luck played into Yarbrough’s hand one year ago.

“We finished second but we probably had about a 15th place car,” Yarbrough remarked. “We missed all the wrecks. You’ve got to have good luck here as well. Hopefully we’ll have some good luck next week and a really good handling car and we’ll be able to race to the front.”

This year, things could be different in the race with the race format being changed and the track doing away with a controversial competition caution that used to fly with 10 to go in the race. Yarbrough hopes the elimination of that caution will allow for a green flag finish in Sunday’s Valley Star Credit Union 300.

“It’s hard to say but I hope it’s going to calm some people down. We tear up a bunch of stuff here every year. Hopefully we’ll have a green flag finish and we’ll see who’s the best.”