South Boston 200 Couldn't Be Better Timed for Peyton Sellers

It wasn’t the SRX experience Peyton Sellers wanted last Saturday at South Boston Speedway, but the two-time and reigning NASCAR Weekly Series champion will immediately have the chance to wash it away with one of the most important races of the year.

The South Boston 200.

Sellers finished 10th in the nationally televised event at his home track and just couldn’t get a feel for the SRX car on the Virginia bullring. The experience of racing amongst several of his heroes will be memorable in time but is also tarnished in this moment due to the performance.

"The performance side overshadows all of it," Sellers said. "I'm a racer and I want to come out here and run good. I took the car Bubba Pollard ran second in last week and run dead last with it. It wasn't the night we wanted."

Not that Sellers wants or needs excuses, but the sway bar failed at some point during the feature and that made an already frustrating race even worse.

He was immediately met by Kenny Schrader and Ryan Newman upon climbing out of the car and no one could immediately pinpoint the issue.

"Schrader tested it (Friday) and didn’t notice anything wrong with it," Sellers said. "I didn’t feel it during the heat races. It started with the feature. I don’t know what to say."

Sellers will be back in the comfort zone of his No. 26 Late Model Stock this weekend where he will look to claim a third victory in the Virginia Triple Crown opener following his wins in 2018 and 2019. The defending Virginia Triple Crown champion looks forward to the 200, Hampton Heat and Martinsville 300 more than any other races throughout the year.

"For me, the 200 is the kind of race where I’m the local guy here and everyone comes to my home track, and for anyone who says the competition isn’t good here, I have to prove them wrong in a 200 lapper," Sellers said. "It’s a points race, it’s a Triple Crown race so you’ll take a beating in all those championships if you fall out early and finish 40th.

"For me, that means I put a lot of emphasis on this race. I try to be smart. There’s stage racing this year. Tires are going to be a premium, so we have to be smart throughout the weekend."

Sellers is still pursuing a Ridgeway Grandfather Clock so Martinsville is probably the priority every year but he says the SoBo 200 is the 1b to that 1a.

"Our shop is here, Clarences’ Stake House, our team and everyone is from here, so we have to defend our home turf," Sellers said. "There are going to be a lot of good teams coming in, a lot of the CARS Tour guys. We’ve had Layne Riggs here all year, the JR Motorsports guys are coming so it’s an important race to rise to the occasion for."

Nearly 50 cars are on the entry list, so it seems that the rest of the Late Model Stock community share that enthusiasm this year.

"I feel like they’re going to have to pack their lunch to come in and beat us, but when you bring in 30 plus cars, they lay down way more rubber and the track changes from a 18 car race so we’re going to have to adjust too," Sellers said. "We’re going to have to get out of our comfort zones from running Twin 75s or a 100 lapper to a 200."

Sellers is a six-time South Boston track champion so the opportunity to back it up one week after SRX did not go according to plan could not have been more timely.