SOUTH BOSTON, VA – Josh Oakley picked up his first South Boston victory since June 2014 in the second of two Late Model Stock Car races at South Boston Speedway on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old passed two-time South Boston Speedway track champion Peyton Sellers on the 33rd lap in the 75 lap race and pulled away for the win – his first win of 2016. The win was just the latest upset victory that proved the parity South Boston Speedway’s new rules package has produced.
“I told them, even if we would have had to come from dead last without the wreck, I felt like we had a good enough car that we could have done it, as long as we had long green flag runs,” Oakley said. “The long green flag run is what did it for me. The longer I ran, the better my car got. When we had a caution, it wasn’t that good. That last race worked out perfect for me.”
Once Oakley got the lead, he began conserving tires while still driving away from Sellers and third place finisher Austin Thaxton.
“I was trying to back up a little bit but I knew I couldn’t back up too much,” Oakley remarked. “It’s a whole nnew setup that we tried on the car tonight. It’s something we never tried before and it just worked. It worked flawlessly on long runs.”
Oakley joins Danny Willis, Jr. and Bobby McCarty as upset winners at South Boston Speedway this season. The triumph on Saturday night was Oakley’s eighth career Late Model Stock Car victory. It was Oakley’s first victory since last October when he scored a win at Orange County Speedway.
The race was marred by a wreck on the opening lap which swept up over half the field, including Matt Bowling and Bobby McCarty. Bowling went on to finish seventh after winning the first race but McCarty was unable to finish the race. Jason Barnes, Raymond Pittman, Stuart Crews, Maddy Ryan Mulligan, Nathan Crews, Eric Winslow and Justin Carroll were all also involved in the wreck, which resulted when Brandon Pierce couldn’t get going on the initial start due to a transmission problem.
Results (Race #2):
- Josh Oakley
- Peyton Sellers
- Austin Thaxton
- Danny Willis, Jr.
- Brandon Pierce
- Matt Bowling
- Alex Brock
- Mark Wertz
- Eric Winslow
- Nathan Crews
- Jason Pittman
- Justin Carroll
- Maddy Ryan Mulligan
- Jimmy Rice
- Bobby McCarty
- Stuart Crews
- Raymond Pittman
- Jason Barnes
