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Quality
Over Quantity; Wallace and Nelson Secure Victories in Close and
Thrilling Lonesome Pine Twin 30s
Coeburn,
Virginia (May 3, 2026) –
Harvey Harrison, Brent Nelson, Damian Payton, Chrissy Wallace –
only in alphabetical order by last name because any of these four
talented Super Cup Stock Car Series drivers had a realistic shot to
win from the first green flag until the final checkered flag on
Saturday night at Lonesome Pine Raceway.
There were lots of
questions about what to expect with all the immaculate offseason
upgrades by track owner Joey Owens and team to the Coeburn, Virginia
facility, and the first one was answered in qualifying.
With her father Mike arriving in time to watch, Wallace set a
new series track record in the No. 19 Dan Althoff Trucking / JDH
Engineering / J4 Truss / The Also-Ran Broadcast / MW Pressure
Washing / D2 Motorsports Chevrolet getting around the recently
repaved 3/8-mile oval in 16.482 seconds.
In fact, Nelson, Payton, and Harrison were under the mark of
16.792 set by 2009 champion Tyler Nuckles back in that season.
The
decision was made to start the field straight up from qualifying and
immediately everyone was going hard with each of the front four
recording their best lap time within the first eight laps.
At no time during the entire 30-lap distance were the leaders
separated by more than three seconds in a race that went without a
single yellow flag. With
10 circuits remaining, only a tick over one second separated them
and for multiple consecutive times at the stripe each ran nearly
identical lap times.
Nevertheless,
Wallace was able to lead wire to wire for her second consecutive win
in 2026 and extend her margin of victory to 0.319 seconds when
positions changed behind her in the closing stages.
It was 
by
no means clear sailing, with the Concord, North Carolina resident
having to keep several details in mind.
“Brent was coming
flying, and then next thing you know thankfully he and Damian got in
a little bit of a battle and I felt like that gave me the leeway I
needed,” Wallace described. “We
were having a little bit of problems with our motor, bogging down
coming off the corner. Racing
against the guys that are here, they are very good competitors,
they’re all fast, and they race you clean and hard.”
Nelson was quick
off the corners and on Wallace’s tail for the majority of the
race; however, pushed up the track in the turn on a handful of
occasions. That allowed
Payton, the first race winner at Shenandoah, to work his way inside
Nelson for second and then Harrison a few laps later for third.
“We held our own
in the first race, kind of slowly catching her at the end,” Payton
indicated. “I needed
probably 10 more laps there.”
“Everybody was
doing a good job and there was a time there you could maybe throw a
blanket over all four of us,” Harrison recapped.
“We closed back up toward the end and it got pretty
exciting. The car
wasn’t quite turning real good in the middle.
I noticed some other drivers doing the same thing.”
The lead lap
finishers were inverted for the second main event, putting
Nelson’s No. 80 Precision Auto Collision / JEBCO / RAM Trucking /
QH Design / Nelson Motorsports Chevrolet out front despite being 
the
odd man out from the post-race frontstretch interviews among the
contenders.
It would be quite
the fight right from the get-go as Harrison in his No. 35 John 3:16
Ford was relentless on the high side early on, leading by less than
a bumper a couple times in the opening laps. Behind
them, Payton and Wallace dueled side by side making it a two-by-two
formation for the first third of the distance.
Ultimately, Nelson
cleared the Renick, West Virginia three-time Lonesome Pine winner,
which slightly after allowed Wallace and Payton to follow by.
It looked to be all Nelson from there, but not so fast.
With less than 10 to go, the Summit Point, West Virginia
racer found a way by Wallace for the runner-up position.
Payton then went on to record his best lap time of the race
on four occurrences, including coming to the white flag.
Time though ran out and it was just over a quarter of a
second victory for Nelson, his first since the conclusion of 2024 at
Lonesome Pine.
“This
was huge for us,” the Petersburg, West Virginia 2024 series
champion commented. “Last
year we struggled getting the other car to work and our goal this
year is to come back out and get back to where we were running good.
I knew what the car needed.
I was just off a little bit in the first race and we made
wholesale changes to it and it woke up.”
Nelson continued to
recount the challenges that he was given over the course of another
caution-free race, yet again remembering battles from years back
with his Renick, West Virginia friend.
“Harvey is a good
competitor, love racing with him side by side.
I’m going to race him hard and he’s going to race me
hard. Then Damian came
on there at the end and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,
but we were giving it our all.”
Although Payton’s
record at this track now includes three runner-up performances, he
was quite enthusiastic and complimentary about the evening’s
quality of racing.
“That was
probably the most fun I’ve ever had behind the wheel of a race
car,” the driver of the No. 64 Fauquier Stitch Studio / Donovan
Asphalt Paving / Total Stormwater Solutions LLC / Blue Ridge Seafood
Restaurant / McElligott Performance & Design / Payton Racing
Chevrolet said. “Probably
also the hardest I’ve ever driven a race car.
I needed like two more laps and that would have done a lot
for us, but I can’t complain.”
“To be that
evenly matched with some of the greatest drivers you could ask for,
it was a great night.”
Wallace remarkably
had her worst result of the year so far, only a third.
“Harvey and
Brent, those two battled so long that I think Damian and me were
wearing out our own stuff having our own race for third,” Wallace
explained. “All of a
sudden at the same time our motor issues came back and, I don’t
know if anybody could tell as red as our brakes were, we lost our
brakes about lap 19 or 20. I
could have pushed the issue but I didn’t want to take a chance or
opportunity of wrecking any of the cars out here.”
“Overall, I think
it should be somewhat of a decent points night for us with leading
that whole first race, so happy with that.”
Indeed, it was, as
Wallace increased her lead to a still tight 25 advantage.
Nelson works his way within 10 of Payton, while Harrison
remains only a total of 60 points behind Wallace.
It continues to be
anybody’s race and championship to win heading into the next one
at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 16th with little room for
error and some additional factors in play with some drivers making
their 2026 debut as expected early entrants.
The historic Newton, North Carolina track is where the Super
Cup Stock Car Series all started with an exhibition event in 2007
and the return there will feature one 60-lap main event with double
points on the line.
More information
can be found on the Super Cup Stock Car Series official website supercupstockcarseries.com,
on Facebook (search Super Cup Stock Car Series), Twitter (@SCSCSRacing),
Instagram (SCSCS_Racing), and https://www.youtube.com/SCSCSRacing.
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