‘It’s our biggest race of the season.’ Hampton Heat 200 attracts eager regulars, national-class field to Langley Speedway

It’s this simple: At the top rung of NASCAR racing, you’re either a Cup champion or a Daytona 500 winner. Other milestones approach those, but either or both will be higher in any Cup driver’s career obituary.

At Langley Speedway, it’s even simpler for Late Model drivers. Either you’re a division champion or you’re a Hampton Heat 200 winner. And as markers of excellence on the 4/10-mile asphalt oval, nothing else comes close.

“The Hampton Heat is huge,” said Brenden “Butterbean” Queen, the two-time defending track champ at Langley and 2020 Hampton Heat winner. “For us, it’s our biggest race of the season, our opportunity to go up against some of the best in the country and try to defend our home turf and keep the trophy in the 757.”

Queen’s boast that the race draws the best weekly stock car drivers in the country is no exaggeration. That’s a big reason visiting drivers have won six of 13 Hampton Heats.

Five of the six have combined to win 13 NASCAR Weekly National Championships: Philip Morris (five), Lee Pulliam (four), Peyton Sellers (two), Matt Bowling and 2021 Hampton Heat titlist Josh Berry. Sellers, from Danville, is the only one of that group in Saturday’s race, and will be joined in the out-of-town contingent by former Heat winner Bobby McCarty of Summerfield, North Carolina.

“I think you have to look at Peyton Sellers, Layne Riggs and Carson Kvapil because they’re on top teams and have had a lot of success at different tracks,” Queen said of the favored visiting drivers among 22 in the 36-car field.

Kvapil, 19, brings name recognition on multiple levels. He is the son of Travis Kvapil, a former champion in the NASCAR Truck Series and succeeds Berry in the car that won last year and is owned by NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Riggs’ surname will be recognizable to longtime NASCAR fans because his dad, Scott Riggs, had 16 top 10s in the Cup Series while winning a combined nine Truck and Xfinity races. The younger Riggs is making a name for himself as he has won numerous Late Model races in the region and will make his Truck Series debut next week in Indianapolis.

“The Hampton Heat is like a mini-Martinsville because it feels like you’re racing against the best of the best,” Queen said, referring to the site of the fall Late Model race considered the nation’s most prestigious. “But what makes the Hampton Heat so tough is that you have all of the heavy hitters from Langley Speedway.

“There are so many cars that can win it.”

The race, which draws crowds of about 6,000 annually, has more than proven that as 11 different drivers have won in 13 events. C.E. Falk III, a three-time winner, is the only driver to win more than once.

Remarkably, track regulars Danny Edwards Jr., Greg Edwards and Mark Wertz — who have won a combined 14 Langley Late Model titles — have never won the Heat. The Edwards brothers rank second to Falk with five top fives and seven top 10s. Danny Edwards has finished second twice.

In addition to Queen and Falk, the list of current or former track regulars to win the Heat includes Nick Smith, Woody Howard and Connor Hall. All, save Falk, are in this year’s field.

For each, their Hampton Heat victories rank among the biggest moments of their careers.

“At the time, it was definitely the biggest win of my career,” Queen said. “To win the Hampton Heat, and have your name on the legacy of that race, it’s a crown jewel event in our world.

“To be on that list, with all of those names that are big names in the Late Model world, it’s an honor and we’re blessed to have gotten it out of the way.

“A lot of good drivers aren’t fortunate enough to win it, so we’re glad to have it in the bank. It’s a night I’ll never forget, I’ll tell you that.”

Hampton Heat 200

When: Saturday

Where: Langley Speedway in Hampton

Schedule: Late Model qualifying at 4:30 p.m.; autograph session in fan zone near main grandstand entrance at 5:15 p.m.; UCAR 25, Super Street 40 and Super Truck 25, starting at 6:30 p.m.; 14th annual Hampton Heat Late Model 200 at 8:45 p.m.