9/29/2023
Postman 68
Not Icky
The last 25 laps of Sunday’s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville are among the best 25 laps of racing I have seen in YEARS. There was great hard-core racing, and the results did not make me feel “icky.”
Four drivers – Landon Huffman, Carson Kvapil, Peyton Sellers, and Trevor Ward – each with a great story put on an exhibition in good, aggressive but clean racing.
Huffman, driving for the potent hometown Nelson Motorsports team, is a mid-career driver who was looking to add the win to the $30,000 Old North State Nationals earlier this year and a 2022 Hickory Motor Speedway NASCAR Track Championship.
Kvapil, the reigning CARS Tour Champion and current point leader, is the extremely talented young driver who wheels the JR Motorsports Chevy. He will have few chances to win the biggest race in late model stock racing; the kid is destined to success on NASCAR’s biggest stage.
Sellers is the benchmark late model stock racer. He is a two-time National Champion, has won numerous track championships and finally in 2022 check the ValleyStar 300 off his bucket list with a popular win.
And for Ward it would be an establishing victory for the second-generation drivers who has put together a solid 2023 season grinding it out with his little family race team.
Each would tell a remarkable story with a win in Late Model Stock’s biggest race.
In the final 25 laps there were moments when it looked like each driver had gotten the upper hand, and a restart with seven laps to go set each up for the chance to make a final move. And each did. The final three laps were a thrilling Ward and Huffman side-by-side battle with some rubbing and no wrecking.
Ward got the win, representing the “blue collar” racers and his family. His father, Dean, attempted the Martinsville race many times, qualifying on eight occasions. He had three top-five finishes with a best of third in 1999.
Trevor scored a fourth-place finish in 2018 and understands how difficult a Martinsville win is. And how big it is.
With Martinsville there is a lot of money, Ward won nearly $40,000 for the effort. But this one is about the prestige of the race and the coveted Grandfather Clock Trophy.
It was a life changing win for Ward.
For the three drivers who finished second through fourth there was proper disappointment with being so close. But there should also be lots of pride in the way those final 25 laps played out.
None of them crossed the “I needed to do what I need to do” line we hear so many times. That made it a celebration of a great race with none of those “icky” feelings when someone was wronged.
-Steve Post
Photo: Ken Childs, Martinsville Speedway
Submitted By: Steve Post
