Bobby McCarty cherishes every chance he has to race at South Boston Speedway.
The two-time CARS Tour champion spent the early days of his career logging laps and gaining experience at the historic half-mile before venturing out to other tracks with Nelson Motorsports.
In his first race at the track since 2019, McCarty battled through an illness to win South Boston’s most prestigious race in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 on Saturday night.
“This one is really special,” McCarty said. “I’ve been struggling to breathe on my own and I told my guys that we were going to do really good or I was going to die. Once I got in the car, the adrenaline got going, I found my rhythm and everything ended up working out.”
McCarty has made plenty of fond memories at South Boston during his career, as he clinched both of his CARS Tour championships at the facility in both 2018 and 2019.
Adding a victory in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 was going to be a tall order for McCarty, who had to figure out to stop current Late Model Stock points leader Peyton Sellers from claiming his third consecutive win in this race.
An invert at halfway that moved McCarty from fourth to first was a turning point for him, as he did not surrender the race lead over the final 99 laps despite facing plenty of challenges from Sellers.
“With clean air, we had a car that could have pulled away from Bobby,” Sellers said. “He had track position and that’s what it takes. Bobby had the top side rolling good and we just couldn’t get going on the bottom. Those guys had a really solid car and they won the race.”
Defeating Sellers for the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 trophy made the win all the more significant for McCarty, who is now setting his sights on checking off another milestone in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300.
“We’ve won the Hampton Heat and now we’ve won this one,” McCarty said. “As a team, we’ve won all three races in the Triple Crown, so nothing would be better than for me to check Martinsville off, whether or not I end up winning the Triple Crown.”
With his busy schedule, McCarty will not have much time to race in South Boston’s weekly Late Model Stock division but he is looking forward to returning to the facility in October with the CARS Tour.
Any opportunity for McCarty to race at South Boston is a moment for him to cherish.
1. Bobby McCarty
2. Peyton Sellers
3. Justin Johnson
4. Thomas Scott
5. Chad McCumbee
6. Mike Looney
7. Chandler Smith
8. Kaden Honeycutt
9. Jared Fryar
10. Jacob Borst
11. Conner Jones
12. Camden Gullie
13. Timothy Peters
14. Brandon Pierce
15. Trey Crews
16. Chris Johnson
17. Danny Willis Jr.
18. Mark Wertz
19. Brenden Queen
20. Matt Waltz
21. Stuart Crews
22. Carter Langley
23. Blake Stallings
24. Terry Dease
25. Nick Smith
26. Terry Carroll
27. Chris Elliott
28. Larry Barrett
29. Landon Pembelton
30. Grayson Cullather
31. Jason Barnes
32. Jason Myers
33. Jordan Pickrel
34. Colin Garrett
35. Chris Denny
36. Ronald Hill
37. Mini Tyrrell
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