Peyton Sellers has a keen understanding of what it takes to win a track championship. With three South Boston Speedway titles in his pocket, he’s a bit of an expert on the subject.
When the green flag falls on the Danville Toyota Twin 100s on March 24, he’ll be gunning for his fourth, but all that championship experience tells him to push hopes of another championship to the back of his brain for a while.
“The only thing about a third championship is you get to focus on a fourth,” said Sellers, stressing the point, though, that it’s not his immediate focus.
“You go into the season trying to do the best you can in every race. Right now, it’s all about a good start … you’ve got to get started on the right foot. By July you know if you’ve got a shot at the championship and you focus harder on it.”
Sellers’ three championships tie him with Matt Bowling for second on the list of drivers with most championships at South Boston. Retired driver David Blankenship leads all drivers with seven championships.
“With a fourth, you get on up there closer to David (Blankenship),” said Sellers. “Do I concentrate on seven. No. Do I want to be around long enough to run for a seventh? Absolutely.”
Sellers knows to get a shot at a fourth title in 2018 he will have to avoid some of the late-season woes he encountered last year. He did not win in the final two months of the season and fell out of the final race of the season. But he had built such a solid point lead behind three wins, 12 top fives and 13 top-10 finishes, he still managed to claim the championship.
“We had a lull right there at the end of the season in August and September,” said Sellers, who is sponsored by Danville Toyota, Clarence’s Steak House, St. Lawrence Radiology and Liquid Performance. “We were running third and fourth every race and didn’t win.
“It was all things combined. We just couldn’t hit the stride when we needed to. I’ve got to pick up from that this season. We can’t do that again.”
South Boston Speedway’s season-opening Danville Toyota Twin 100s on March 24 will feature twin 100-lap Late Model Stock races, a 50-lap Limited Sportsman Division race, a 30-lap Budweiser Pure Stock race and a 15-lap Budweiser Hornets race.
Tickets are $10 for adults and children 12 and under are free. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. with the first race taking the green flag at 7 p.m.
