The Three Races
Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200
Track: South Boston Speedway (South Boston, VA) — 0.4-mile oval, 12° banking
2026 Date: June 27
Distance: 200 laps
The traditional opener. South Boston's natural bowl — twelve degrees of banking in the turns, forty-five feet of width — rewards patience and punishes bravado. Peyton Sellers owns this track: eight championships, the all-time late model speed record (14.676 seconds, 98.1 mph). Lee Pulliam won six consecutive South Boston 200s from 2011 to 2016. Connor Hall won it back-to-back in 2024 and 2025.
Hampton Heat
Track: Langley Speedway (Hampton, VA) — four-tenths of a mile, 6° banking in turns, 2° on straights
2026 Date: July 25
Distance: 200 laps
The middle leg moves to the flattest competitive oval in Virginia. Two hundred laps on a nearly flat surface amplifies every mistake. Brenden "Butterbean" Queen owns the modern Hampton Heat record (three wins: 2020, 2023, 2024). Matt Waltz took the 2025 edition in his eleventh attempt after a four-hour rain delay. Connor Hall — who won eleven consecutive weekly races at Langley in 2023 — finished second.
ValleyStar Credit Union 300
Track: Martinsville Speedway (Ridgeway, VA) — 0.526-mile paperclip, 12° banking
2026 Date: September 26
Distance: 200-lap feature (preceded by heat races and a last-chance qualifier)
The crown jewel. The oldest track in NASCAR, the paperclip, the grandfather clock. The ValleyStar 300 is the largest and most lucrative short-track Late Model event on the East Coast. Sellers won it in 2022. Pulliam won it in 2011 and 2014. Carson Kvapil took the 2024 running. Josh Berry led all two hundred laps in 2019 and set a track record — the same Berry who won the Bobby Isaac Memorial twice at Hickory Motor Speedway before going to the Cup Series.