Seeking an elusive victory in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300, Bobby McCarty will lead the field to green on Sunday evening in the most prestigious Late Model Stock race of the year at Martinsville Speedway.
After posting the fastest time in qualifications on Friday night, McCarty also led every lap of his 25 lap heat race to earn the top starting position. The other heat winners, earning starting positions two, three and four were Doug Barnes Jr, Carson Kvapil and Ryan Millington.
The bigger story from the heat races were who did not make it into feature due to various misfortunes in their races. That list includes 2021 Martinsville winner Landon Pembleton, CARS Tour contender Brandon Pierce, Ronnie Bassett Jr, ARCA East champion William Sawalich and Conner Jones.
The same fate nearly befell newly crowned NASCAR Weekly Series national champion Connor Hall, who was involved in an incident with Magnum Tate, one that severely damaged both cars.
Tate dropped low into Turn 1 on a late restart and Hall blocked. The contact sent Tate up in the air and hard right into Hall on corner entry.
Hall was able to rally and finish his heat in 10th to make the field but Tate did not. Their two crews fought in the garage after the first heat.
“I know we weren’t the best,” Hall said. “That’s to say. We were about a fifth place car or wherever we were. NASCAR tries to police the whole lagging back and dive-bombing someone on a restart thing but obviously but not everyone wants to follow that rule. Chad Bryant gave me a really good car and it’s really really messed up.
“The cream always rises to the top, and I’m not saying that’s who were are today, but we made the show.”
The starting lineup for the main event can be found below. Green flag is scheduled for shortly after 5 p.m. ET and will air live on FloRacing and the Motor Racing Network.
- Bobby McCarty
- Doug Barnes
- Carson Kvapil
- Ryan Millington
- Daniel Silvestri
- Landon Huffman
- Brenden Queen
- Jacob Heafner
- Trevor Ward
- Mike Looney
- Kaden Honeycutt
- Matt Waltz
- Peyton Sellers
- Justin Hicks
- Mason Diaz
- Riley Gentry
- Sam yarbrough
- Jacob Borst
- Jared Fryar
- Dylan Ward
- Kade Brown
- Dustin Rumley
- Karl Budzevski
- Trent Barnes
- Kres VanDyke
- Ryan Matthews
- Chase Burrow
- Blake Stallings
- Carter Langley
- Dillon Harville
- Matt Cox
- Heath Causey
- George Waldrop
- Zack Miracle
- Kyle Dudley
- Dexter Canipe
- Casey Kelley
- Connor Hall
- Thomas Scott
- Davey Callihan
