After dominating the majority of the South Boston 100 on Saturday afternoon, Austin Thaxton saw his chances at the win nearly vanish moments before the finish.
With seven laps to go, a Jason Barnes spin in Turn 2 brought out the caution and set up an eventual green-white-checkered. Thaxton’s straightaway-length lead over Lee Pulliam was cut to nothing with two laps remaining in the third NASCAR points race of the year at South Boston Speedway.
After leading the most laps, there was concern in the Thaxton camp as to whether or not he saved his tires and equipment for the final showdown.
“My crew chief said, ‘I hoped you saved enough’ and I said, ‘Man, I hope so too,'” Thaxton said after the race. “We contemplated back and forth over which line I should take for the cone restart and I chose the inside. It worked out.
“I didn’t want to get into (Pulliam in Turn 4) but it was hard racing and that’s what it’s about.”
Coming to the checkers, Thaxton washed Pulliam up the track and Sellers attempted to take advantage by filling the gap. By driving so deep, Sellers went up the track as Pulliam was coming down which led to the duo locking tires.
The contact caused Sellers to drive over Pulliam’s front nose, completely destroying both Late Models.
Both Pulliam and Sellers were quick to point out that it was a racing deal and both accepted blame for how it happened.
“I don’t think that was anyone’s fault in particular,” Pulliam said. “We were just racing hard for the win. Thaxton had the best car and we had a second-place car. Peyton just kind of ran it up in there, but I can’t blame anyone because it was hard racing for the win.”
Sellers didn’t disagree.
“I got into the corner and tried to plug the hole and I slid up as Lee was trying to come down the track and we just locked wheels unfortunately,” said Sellers. “I hate it tore up my car. I hate it tore up his car. Both of us were solid but we didn’t have anything for Austin for sure.”
“That’s what the fans come for and while I hate it tore up our cars, that’s just racing.”
For Thaxton, the win was the first of the season and third of his career. South Boston increased the purse during the off-season and the field has reflected it. A total of 20 Late Model Stocks took the green flag and included several perennial contenders and championship caliber drivers.
Defeating them at SoBo made Saturday extra special for Thaxton.
“When you race here, you get to race against the best of the best and that’s why we do this,” Thaxton said. “We were terrible when we started in Limiteds here and we moved up and we’ve actually gotten better, so we just want to keep that going.”
- Austin Thaxton
- Matt Bowling
- Mark Wertz
- Brenden Queen
- Peyton Sellers
- Josh Oakley
- Lee Pulliam
- Justin Carroll
- Dennis Holdren
- Chuck Lawson
- Nathan Crews
- Terry Carroll
- Kyle Dudley
- Brandon Pierce
- Alex Brock
- Eric Winslow
- Jason Barnes
- Bobby McCarty
- Philip Morris
- Maddy Ryan Mulligan
- Dusty Ellington
