MARTINSVILLE, Va. — The ValleyStar Credit Union 300 annually draws the best late model stock car competitors in the Southeast to Martinsville Speedway to battle for supremacy.
First run in 1985 as part of a tripleheader featuring the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the race has continued to grow in prestige with each successive running.
Barry Beggarly, the 1993 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion, claimed the inaugural running of the race in 1985 when it was a 100-lap event. He added a second victory in the event in 1994, the same season the race was expanded to 200 laps around the .525-mile track.
A number of notable competitors have visited victory lane during the annual event. Mark Martin, a 40-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner, won the 1987 running, holding off Jeff Burton. Mike Skinner captured the 1993 running of the race two years before he won the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship while driving for Richard Childress Racing.Â
Five NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champions are also winners of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. Beggarly is joined by Dexter Canipe, Robert Powell, Lee Pulliam, Philip Morris and Josh Berry, who won the most recent running of the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 in 2019.
Morris, a five-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National champion, leads all drivers with three ValleyStar Credit Union 300 victories. Drivers with two triumphs in the classic event are NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran Timothy Peters, Tommy Lemons Jr., Pulliam, Tony McGuire, Beggarly, Phil Warren and Curtis Markham.Â
Twenty-five drivers have won the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. Five previous winners — Peters, Mike Looney, Jake Crum, Jason York and Jamey Caudill — are among the more than 80 entries for Saturday’s 200-lap event.
ValleyStar Credit Union 300 Winners
2020 — Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic
2019 — Josh Berry
2018 — C.E. Falk III
2017 — Timothy Peters
2016 — Mike Looney
2015 — Tommy Lemons Jr.
2014 — Lee Pulliam
2013 — Tommy Lemons Jr.
2012 — Philip Morris
2011 — Lee Pulliam
2010 — Philip Morris
2009 — Jake Crum
2008 — Jason York
2007 — Dennis Setzer
2006 — Alex Yontz
2005 — Timothy Peters
2004 — Tony McGuire
2003 — Jamey CaudillÂ
2002 — Frank Deiny Jr.
2001 — Phil Warren
2000 — Philip Morris
1999 — Robert Powell
1998 — Dexter Canipe
1997 — Billy Hogan
1996 — B.A. Wilson
1995 — Tony McGuire
1994 — Barry Beggarly
1993 — Mike Skinner
1992 — Joe Gaita
1991 — Curtis Markham
1990 — Wayne Peterson
1989 — Curtis Markham
1988 — Phil Warren
1987 — Mark Martin
1986 — Ed Johnson
1985 — Barry Beggarly