In front of packed grandstands on Saturday night at South Boston Speedway, Tony Stewart earned his first SRX win of the 2022 season. Greg Biffle and Bobby Labonte followed close behind to earn podium finishes. Biffle won Heat 1 and the season-opener winner Helio Castroneves won stage two.
CBS Race Recap: A recap of tonight’s race can be found here.
Post-Race Quotes:
Tony Stewart (Winner): “Seeing these fans cheer when we got the lead every time, that’s what kept the motivation going. Not like I need much motivation, but when you’ve got fans of South Boston cheering like that every time you get the lead, you aren’t going to let them down. I was worried we would get a caution late, so I just tried to take care of it there, but I think backing my pace off actually hurt me versus helping me. I thought I was trying to take care of it and I think I was making some problems a little bit worse by not running as hard as earlier. This car was really good. When we practiced today, it rolled the corner really nice, it was a little loose off. I was worried about it. I haven’t been to South Boston since I ran a midget clear back in 2000, 2001, 2002 or something like that. Didn’t know, couldn’t remember the characteristics of what this track does when it cools off. I was hoping it would tighten up and it did a little, just not as much as we needed.”
Greg Biffle (Finished 2nd in the Main Event): It was a great night. Our car was really fast. Tony (Stewart) just took care of his stuff a little better with starting on the front row every time. He had a little better tire than I did at the end. I was doing all I could, overdriving the corner and just trying to get to his bumper and wiggle him a little bit. I wasn’t going to spin him out or anything, but I wanted to try to make it exciting. I just couldn’t get there.”
Bobby Labonte (Finished 3rd in the Main Event): “We just got too tight in the center, it reminded me of IRP last year. We made one adjustment from the heat races to the feature and it just got tight, tight, tight. You can count 1,001 by the time you back to the gas and that’s all I needed, the middle of the corner. Probably built up too much air-pressure in the right front. At least we weren’t in the melee.”
Ryan Newman (Finished 4th in the Main Event): It was real similar to Pensacola, just fell one spot short of what we did there. It seemed like we kind of settled in to just being an equal in equally prepared cars with a bunch of NASCAR guys between Stewart, Biffle, Labonte and myself. It seems like we kind of settled into that speed and really couldn’t get side-by-side or anything else. We all ran the same speed. It was a good run for our Sun Outdoors car. It was fun to drive here. Still a fun class and even if you don’t win, it’s still fun. Happy to have come here and had the opportunity again.
Ernie Francis, Jr. (Finished 7th in the Main Event): “Had a fun race out there. Wish we could have finished a little higher up in the field, but happy with where we ended up. Got roughed up a bunch out there. The car wasn’t where we needed it to be, super loose on entry. The adjustments we made didn’t really do much to it, so just had to deal with that for the night. Had a really good battle with (Tony) Kanaan out there. (Tony) Stewart and I got into it a little bit, but we’re all good. Happy to be here. Hopefully I can come back by the end of the year, maybe do the race at Sharon Speedway. Got to try to pop to let me out there, so we’ll see what happens.”
Peyton Sellers (Finished 10th in the Main Event): “It wasn’t the night we wanted for sure. It was a lot of fun. Packed house here at South Boston. Next week we get to come and do it again, so hopefully we’ll be able to rebound in our own car. They prepared me a really nice car. I think the sway bar was unhooked late in the race there. In the heat race, I was kind of saving tires and I said ‘You know what, we‘ve got something to race with,’ but in the feature when I really called on it, it just wasn’t there. These guys prepare nice cars, but something just wasn’t quite right. We’ll figure it out and go from there. It was a great experience.”
Main Event Results at South Boston Speedway:
| Finishing Position | Driver | Car Number |
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 14 |
| 2 | Greg Biffle | 69 |
| 3 | Bobby Labonte | 18 |
| 4 | Ryan Newman | 39 |
| 5 | Helio Castroneves | 06 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan | 6 |
| 7 | Ernie Francis Jr. | 5 |
| 8 | Marco Andretti | 98 |
| 9 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1 |
| 10 | Peyton Sellers | 26 |
| 11 | Michael Waltrip | 15 |
| 12 | Paul Tracy | 3 |
Heat 2 Results at South Boston Speedway:
| Finishing Position | Driver | Car Number |
| 1 | Helio Castroneves | 06 |
| 2 | Marco Andretti | 98 |
| 3 | Ryan Newman | 39 |
| 4 | Tony Kanaan | 6 |
| 5 | Bobby Labonte | 18 |
| 6 | Tony Stewart | 14 |
| 7 | Michael Waltrip | 15 |
| 8 | Greg Biffle | 69 |
| 9 | Ernie Francis Jr. | 5 |
| 10 | Peyton Sellers | 26 |
| 11 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1 |
| 12 | Paul Tracy | 3 |
Heat 1 Results at South Boston Speedway:
| Finishing Position | Driver | Car Number |
| 1 | Greg Biffle | 69 |
| 2 | Tony Stewart | 14 |
| 3 | Marco Andretti | 98 |
| 4 | Bobby Labonte | 18 |
| 5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1 |
| 6 | Peyton Sellers | 26 |
| 7 | Ryan Newman | 39 |
| 8 | Ernie Francis Jr. | 5 |
| 9 | Tony Kanaan | 6 |
| 10 | Michael Waltrip | 15 |
| 11 | Helio Castoneves | 06 |
| 12 | Paul Tracy | 3 |
Next Race: The Camping World SRX Series now heads to Stafford Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 2, 2022. Local Ringer Matt Hirschman will join Tony Stewart, Marco Andretti, Greg Biffle, Hailie Deegan, Bill Elliott, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Bobby Labonte, Ryan Newman, Paul Tracy, Michael Waltrip and Justin Marks. The action kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.
SRX PR
