SOUTH BOSTON, VA :: Timothy Peters made his return to South Boston Speedway triumphant on Saturday night as he scored the victory in the CenturyLink 150 NASCAR Whelen All American Series (NWAAS) Late Model race. The win was Peters’ first win at South Boston Speedway since winning the track championship at the track in 2004.
Peters, who is a popular veteran in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, started on the outside of the front row and led the early laps. Lee Pulliam, who was the fastest qualifier, got back around Peters on lap 30 and started to set sail until the left rear tire broke off, sending the defending National Champion in to the wall and ending his night. Pulliam later explained that the hub broke.
Once Pulliam’s night ended, it looked like smooth sailing for Peters until a spree of late race incidents would set up several restarts. Peters held off several challenges from rookie Bobby McCarty to score the victory.
“It’s awesome to win at South Boston,” Peters said. “These fans are great. I hate that Lee had that problem over there off of turn two. I’m glad that he’s okay. We had fun racing tonight. I had an awesome time racing Bobby McCarty. He did an awesome job. It feels really good to win here. This is home. This is why I’ve wanted to come back for so long.”
Bobby McCarty felt he might have had a shot at Peters if he could’ve gotten to Peters’ outside on a restart. South Boston Speedway uses cone restarts and Peters elected to run on the outside on each restart.
“The outside is what we needed and he knew it so he took it to his advantage,” McCarty explained. “Not everybody can say they’ve raced against Timothy Peters like that before so I’ll take the second. I wanted the win obviously and a win against Peters in that type of race would’ve been awesome. I’ll take second, go to work and see what we can do next week.”
Behind them, four-time NWAAS National Champion Philip Morris battled hard with 2001 Old Dominion Speedway Track Champion Dustin Storm raced hard for the third spot and traded a little paint. Their battle allowed Thomas Scott to drive past them and finish on the podium. Scott was ecstatic about his third place finish, his best career NWAAS Late Model finish.
“This is truly unbelievable,” Scott said. “I really thought making Martinsville last year was the best thing ever but this is it right here. I just stayed out of trouble. We had that long green flag run and I just saved and prayed we’d have a caution. I just had something at the end to get up on the wheel and get something done with. “
Thomas Scott is a driver who races on a low-budget each week, usually racing at Orange County Speedway.
“If people knew what we raced on, they wouldn’t believe it. The guys who race Limited Late Models here probably have a bigger budget than I do. I get used parts from some of the guys I race against. We come out here, we do our best and I’ve just been very blessed. It’s unreal though. Just to outrun Philip Morris on a Green White Checkered and pass him clean – that’s what it’s all about. I can’t do it without my parents. My pit crew is me, my mom and my dad. That’s all we had today. I couldn’t do it without them. They sacrifice everything so I can do this.”
Philip Morris finished in fourth and Dustin Storm ended up finishing in fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Eddie Johnson, Patrick Coleman, Bugs Hairfield, Josh Oakley and Bruce Anderson.
Austin Thaxton had a strong car and was running in the top five for much of the race but his night came to an early end and he had to settle for an 11th place finish. Lee Pulliam finished in 12th with Paul Green, Barry Beggarly, Jeb Burton, Ronald Hill, Caleb Davis, William Chappel, Mike Chambers and Matt Taylor rounding out the field.
The first of two 50 lap Limited Sportsman features saw a spree of cautions which took out just about the entire field of 12 cars. The carnage began early and took place often. In fact, it began in qualifying when Libby Privette slammed the inside wall on the backstretch on the warm up lap for her qualifying run and tore the front end of her car off.
The race got off to a crashtastic start when Danny Willis, Jr. was spun in front of the entire field in the first turn on the first lap. Austin Babb, JD Eversole, GR Waldrop and Tommy Peregoy all sustained damage in the incident. That incident set the tone for the rest of the race as just about the entire field of cars fell victim to attrition behind eventual race winner Michael Maresca. Maresca led the 50 lap race wire-to-wire. Joey Throckmorton finished second, Peregoy finished third, Blake Stallings finished fourth and Willis finished in fifth.
Garrett Bunch, who was involved in one of the accidents in the first Limited Sportsman twin race, went on to win the second race after starting on the pole when the top seven finishers were inverted. Willis finished in second, Maresca finished third, Stallings fourth and Peregoy fifth.
One of the most controversial finishes of the entire 2013 racing season took place in South Boston Speedway’s Pure Stock class when Nathan Crews wrecked Grey Autry coming to the checkered flag. Autry crossed the line in second before slamming the inside wall on the frontstretch but was awarded the victory when Crews was disqualified for aggressive driving. Austin Milam was originally declared the victory and had already been giving his interviews when the track reviewed scoring and determined that Autry had crossed the line in second and, by virtue, was the race winner as a result of Crews’ disqualification.
