“Team SoBo” to Take on CARS Tour’s Best in Season Finale This Saturday Night
South Boston Regulars Ward, Sellers, Pembelton, Weddell to Compete in CARS Tour Championship Event October 17; McCarty to be Weddell’s Crew Chief
By Joe Chandler
Director, Public Relations
South Boston Speedway
SOUTH BOSTON, VA (October 13, 2026) – Imagine this – Team SoBo versus the zMAX CARS Tour. Our best versus their best, head-to-head in one big-ticket event.
It’s THE ticket and it’s all goes down in the zMAX CARS Tour AutosByNelson.com Championship Night event on Saturday, October 17 at South Boston Speedway.
South Boston Speedway’s top four drivers in the 2026 championship standings – track champion Trevor Ward of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, eight-time South Boston Speedway track champion Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia, two-time Martinsville winner Landon Pembelton of Amelia, Virginia, and rising young star, 16-year-old Conner “C-Weed” Weddell of Centerville, Maryland – will be competing in the zMAX CARS Tour’s final event of the season.
The Team SoBo roster doesn’t stop there. Three-time zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour champion Bobby McCarty, who finished fifth in the South Boston Speedway standings while landing three victories, and is a former CARS Tour champion, will be in the battle as well, serving as Weddell’s crew chief.
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Ward and Pembelton will race in the 100-lap CARS Tour Pro Late Model race. Sellers and Weddell will compete in the 125-lap CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car race, with McCarty serving as Weddell’s crew chief.
They will be going up against an all-star lineup of CARS Tour drivers including NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor Kaden Honeycutt who has won each of his last three starts at South Boston Speedway, 2026 CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour champion Caden Kvapil, Landon Huffman, Treyten Lapcevich, Carson Brown, Carson Loftin, Conner Jones, and CARS Pro Late Model Tour points leader Mason Walters.
“Fans can come out and root for the local guys that race at South Boston every week and watch great racing,” remarked Ward, who had four wins, five poles and finished in the Top-5 in all 20 of his starts at the legendary oval this season.
“It’s going to be like the action-packed Thunder Road 200. What we’re going to see here on the championship night of the CARS Tour is a lot of good racing.”
Weddell, who earned his first career South Boston Speedway win on the final night of the track’s points season, said he is “super-stoked” about the upcoming CARS Tour event at South Boston Speedway.
“I love representing Team SoBo because that’s my guys,” he remarked. “You’ve got some of the best Late Model Stock Car drivers in the country all coming together and clashing for one trophy. That’s my track, so you’ve got to run well when you’re representing Team SoBo.”
The upcoming CARS Tour event at South Boston Speedway will be Ward’s first attempt at racing a Pro Late Model car. He will drive the Bryson Lopez Racing No. 47 car. Ward serves as Lopez’s Late Model Stock Car crew chief when not racing at South Boston Speedway and other selected races and Trevor Ward Motorsports house the Bryson Lopez Racing cars.
“We’ve been talking about this all year,” Ward explained. “We went to North Wilkesboro for the CARS Tour race, and Brandon said ‘why don’t you get in this Pro right here?’ So, I got into the Pro Car and was actually pretty good in it. I said ‘man, I’d like to run one of these things one day.’ The season’s winding down and championship night for the CARS Tour is at South Boston, and they were like this is the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet and see what we can do for more to come. So, I made five laps at North Wilkesboro and I’m racing a Pro Late Model at South Boston.”
There is a great deal of difference between a Pro Late Model car and a Late Model Stock Car.
“The Pro cars are about 400 pounds lighter, they have a lot better brake system, and the motor is not as strong as the Late Model Stock,” explained Ward. “They have a lot of offset built into them and have a different rear end with activator gears. The rear end is a spool, where we run a ratchet locker in Late Model Stock Car. There are a lot of different key components that are going to be different from the windshield.”
There is one similarity, though.
“It’s still four tires and you’ve got to turn left,” Ward noted.
Sellers, who has won two NASCAR national titles and eight South Boston Speedway titles including six of the last nine years, will be making his sixth career CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour start in the 125-lap Late Model Stock Car race. He led South Boston Speedway’s Hitachi Energy Late Model Stock Car Division in the win column with six victories in 2026.
“I haven’t run a CARS Tour race this year so I’m looking forward to being here on home ground and trying to compete with those guys,” said Sellers who has not competed in a CARS Tour race since 2024.
“Our car has been really good. Martinsville was a rough night for us but I’m looking forward to being here. There are going to be several local drivers racing here and I’m looking forward to that. It’s a good series but it’s just another Late Model Stock Car race.”
The eight-time South Boston Speedway champion said fans will see great racing in the upcoming CARS Tour event.
“Everybody has seen the action all year at South Boston Speedway,” he pointed out, “how close the racing has been week-in and week-out with all of the ‘regulars’ here. It’s going to be no different this weekend. You’ve got good cars in the CARS Tour. You see everybody mixing it up at Martinsville and seen them here at South Boston. They’re going to put on a show Saturday night.”
Pembelton, who finished third in the South Boston Speedway point standings and captured four wins and 16 Top-5 finishes in his 20 starts, will drive the number 23 Pro Late Model out of the GMS Racing stable in the 100-lap Pro Late Model race. It is the same car Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to a second-place finish at Florence, South Carolina and Spencer Davis has had success with this season.
“Huge thanks to GMS for the opportunity. I’m really looking forward to it,” Pembelton said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s something different.”
The arrangement for Pembelton to race in the CARS Tour event came together quickly.
“Marcus (Richmond) and I were kind of wanting to venture out and do some different things toward the end of the year, whether that being Pro Late Model or Super Late Model – just something different than Late Model Stock,” Pembelton explained. “We had seen GMS Racing had a really good program going right now, and we reached out to them and wanted to put a deal together specifically for this race, kind of build a relationship with those guys, and see if we could build something in the future to do some things when we’re not racing our Late Model Stock Cars.
“This was actually a kind of a quick deal,” Pembelton continued. “It all came together and Tony Eury and everybody at GMS put it together for us and made it a lot easier to get the ball rolling.”
Pembelton insists there is no pressure in driving the same car Earnhardt had earned a second-place finish in earlier this season.
“We’re just looking to go have a good time and have a lot of fun doing something different,” he said. “You always have that expectation of we’ve run well there all year so we should run well. But. It’s going to be a totally different ballfield for me being in a straight-rail car. I’m just going to make it a lot of fun and no pressure for me.”
Weddell will be making his first career CARS Tour start and will be driving the No. 22 car out of the Nelson Motorsports stable in the 125-lap Late Model Stock Car race. Tyler Hughes, who owns the car that Weddell has piloted this season and serves as Weddell’s crew chief will not be available for the event, so McCarty will step in and serve as Weddell’s crew chief for this event.
An unexpected phone call from Nelson Motorsports owner Barry Nelson led to this opportunity for the young racer.
“We were going to take the month of October off,” Weddell said. “Mr. Nelson gave us a ring and we’re going racing now. It’s super cool to have someone like that call you like that for a job to run with those guys. I’m just super grateful for the opportunity I’m getting.
“It’s a super cool opportunity to run the Tour because the Tour is pretty special,” continued Weddell. “I’m really excited about it because it’s at a place that I’m so familiar with and I feel like I’m decent at. I feel that’s going to give me an advantage because I know what the track’s going to do come nighttime, and I feel that’s going to play into my role a little bit.”
Nelson said he wanted to provide Weddell a chance to race.
“I wanted to give a driver who really deserves it an opportunity,” Nelson said.
“He’s a great young talent and he gets another chance to show it.”
The young racer says he is not feeling any more pressure than he normally feels.
“I’m just going to treat it like another week, just try not to put any extra pressure that’s not needed on myself,” Weddell remarked. “Obviously we want to run well and have a really good result, but, at the end of the day, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. There’s no need to be like this is a do-or-die moment where I need to go win. I want to bring this man’s car home in one piece and treat it exactly like my equipment.”
Weddell said he hates that Hughes cannot be with him for the event. Hughes’ son will be celebrating his second birthday, and Hughes will be at his son’s birthday party.
“I feel like a terrible uncle missing it,” Weddell said. “It tore me up a little bit missing my little buddy’s second birthday. I had to find somebody, somebody really smart that knows what he’s doing. I called up Bobby and asked if there was any way he’d be willing to come and crew chief this thing. He was like ‘I’d love to do that.’ It’s cool to have a guy that has been in this before and has won in that car at this track being in my ear for the race.”
McCarty relishes the opportunity with Weddell, who he’s come to admire as a young racer.
“Conner has been one of the kids that I’ve really, really liked. Every time you see him on pit road, he’s working on that race car, and that’s something you don’t see a lot with the young kids anymore.
“When Conner and Tyler called me, it was a really big sign of respect and took me by surprise,” McCarty said. “I told them ‘You don’t know how much this means to me.’”
McCarty makes this a bit of a homecoming, as well. He won all three of his CARS Tour titles (2018, ’19 and ’21) driving for Nelson Motorsports.
“It’s crazy to think I’d be crew chiefing the 22 car,” McCarty said. “I did not have that on my BINGO card. I’m just as pumped as if I was driving my 6 car.”
The zMAX CARS Tour AutosByNelson.com Championship Night event on Saturday, October 17 at South Boston Speedway is one of the series’ biggest events as the Pro Late Model championship will be determined and the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock Car champions will be celebrated following their respective races.
The AutosByNelson.com Championship Night event will feature the Pro Late Model Tour competitors in a race that will go for 100 green-flag laps. Rounding out the evening is a race for the Late Model Stock Tour drivers that will go for 125 green-flag laps.
Along with the exciting racing action, fans will be treated to an on-track driver autograph session from 3:45 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. After the race fans will see a dazzling fireworks show sponsored by Italian Delight Family Restaurant of South Boston, Virginia.
On-track activity gets underway on Friday, October 16 with an open practice for the Pro Late Model and Late Model Stock Car teams from 1 p.m. until 6 p.m.
The Saturday, October 17 event day schedule has pit gates opening at 8 a.m. Practice will run from 9:25 a.m. until 11 a.m. Qualifying is set to begin at 2:40 p.m. The on-track autograph session is set from 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Driver introductions are slated for 5 p.m. Pre-race ceremonies will begin at 5:20 p.m. and the first race will get the green flag at 5:30 p.m.
Adult advance tickets are priced at $25 each. Adult tickets at the gate on race day are priced at $30 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, veterans and military personnel, first responders, healthcare workers and students with ID may purchase tickets for $25 each at the gate on race day. Kids ages 12 and under are admitted free. Suite passes for the event are not available as they are sold out.
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