Two 75 lap features at South Boston and two displays of good, hard short track racing. Landon Pembelton and Trevor Ward were the winners of Saturday night’s Late Model Stock features.
The first race saw Trevor Ward start from pole with Landon Pembelton alongside. Pembelton got the jump on Ward and took an early lead. Ward tracked Pembelton for the first 50 laps but with 25 to go Ward mounted his charge. For the next 23 laps the two battled side by side putting on a show for the South Boston crowd. Two laps to go Chase Johnson and Zach Peregoy got together, bringing out the caution and setting up a two lap shootout. On the restart Pembelton got away and cruised to victory.
“We just needed it for a confidence booster,” said Pembelton “We’ve been pretty good the first couple races. Two races ago we got in a wreck and just stuff happened but we’ve been getting some pretty good finishes, we’ve had good cars and I think we really took a turn in our program here. The last two races and gotten it better – We’re starting to click on all eight here pretty good and hoping that we can just get a little bit more improvement.
A 20 plus lap duel with Ward headlined the night.
I’d much rather take a hard fought win than an almost dominant win,” said Pembelton “Don’t get me wrong, I like to win but those hard fought wins, they’re special you know especially Martinsville the last year, then the first win tonight. It was really tough so I’m glad to be able to race with people that want to race respectful and not tear cars up, rub a little bit, lay some donuts on each other but that’s all you can ask for a short track race.”
The invert for race number two was 10, putting Pembelton and Ward in a hole for the start and giving Tyler Matthews the front row and he took full advantage. Matthews pulled away from second place Lane Woods while Trevor Ward picked his way through the field.
Ward made his way to second and it seemed as though that was all he could get until nine laps to go when Zach Paragoy spun once again setting up a shootout.
Shades of the Valley Star 300 last fall, Ward rolled to the restart zone a little too well. Matthews let Ward go and like clockwork, the caution flew and the restart was called back. On the re-restart the two were much more even and the battle ensued. Like the first race the two were stuck side by side until Lane Wood and Chase Burgeson got together to bring out the red flag.
Ward had a much cleaner restart and drove away from Matthews and took his second victory of the season.
“Anytime you can come from the back of the field like that and put on a phenomenal show like that for the crowd, it’s awesome,” Ward said “It was a super awesome race. Two races and me and Pembelton had a heck of a battle you know obviously really points tonight for us so it got the guys confident. They believe in me and I want to keep pushing them to be this confident each and every week we come in here.”
Through four races Ward has a third, two 2nd’s and two wins. Ward’s team is performing at the highest level but driver No. 77 stays humble.
“They push me to be better each and every day at the shop,” said Ward “We get there at the shop at 8:30 and stay until midnight every night man trying to get everything we can out of this car to showcase what we do – To be able to bring it home man it’s awesome. I look at this place as my home track now and to be able to race some great people and great crowd, it’s unbelievable.
Race 1
1) #0 Landon Pembelton
2) #77W Trevor Ward
3) #8W Conner Weddell
4) #26 Peyton Sellers
5) #22C Chase Burgeson
6) #77S Blake Stallings
7) #00 Chase Burrow
8) #1G Andrew Grady
9) #92 Lane Woods
10) #63 Tyler Matthews
11) #47 Ryley Music
12) #6M Bobby McCarty
13) #17 Jason Myers
14) #12P Zach Peregoy
15) #57 Chase Johnson
16) #77C Trey Crews
17) #01 Camden Gullie
18) #22W Eric Winslow
Race 2
1) #77W Trevor Ward
2) #63 Tyler Matthews
3) #8W Conner Weddell
4) #0 Landon Pembelton
5) #26 Peyton Sellers
6) #77S Blake Stallings
7) #6M Bobby McCarty
8) #1G Andrew Grady
9) #00 Chase Burrow
10) #77C Trey Crews
11) #47 Ryley Music
12) #17 Jason Myers
13) #57 Chase Johnson
14) #12P Zach Peregoy
15) #92 Lane Woods
16) #22C Chase Burgeson
17) #22W Eric Winslow
