The second leg of the Virginia Triple Crown is the Hampton Heat 200 at Hampton, Virginia’s Langley Speedway, this Saturday night. More than 30 cars have entered to take on an event that has become known as one of the toughest Late Model races in all of America throughout its previous 14 editions.

Last year’s race saw Jared Fryar beat a strong field of cars and stifling heat and humidity to win his first Hampton Heat title. Fryar beat local favorite Mark Wertz and 2022 CARS Tour champion Carson Kvapil to take the victory.

Fryar headlines this year’s entry list as he looks to become just the second driver to win consecutive Hampton Heats since the race’s inception in 2008. The only other driver to do that was C.E. Falk did it in 2010 and 2011. 

Falk is also the only driver to win multiple Hampton Heat 200s with three in 2010, 2011, and 2014. That feat is one that Fryar and four other drivers have a chance at matching this Saturday night.

Of those four drivers, we’ll start with Connor Hall. The Hampton native has been on fire this season, fitting for the Hampton Heat. Hall, who is also a full-time drive with the CARS Tour, is the only driver to score a victory in Late Model competition at Langley Speedway in the 2023 calendar year. He has 10 victories in NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series competition, and he also won when the CARS Tour visited town back in June. Hall is a perfect 11-for-11 so far this year, so it would be no surprise if Hall, who won this race in 2019, picks up his second Hampton Heat victory.

Watch: Sights and Sounds from the 2022 Hampton Heat 200

Next on our list of former winners is the three-time NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champion, Danville, Virginia’s Peyton Sellers, who triumphed in the Hampton Heat way back in 2013. It’s been 10 years since Sellers won, but he’s been strong just about every year since. In the race’s he’s run since 2013, Sellers has finishes of fourth, 12th, second, fourth, third, seventh, and 14th one year ago. Even though last year’s finish was his worst since winning this race 10 years ago, it’s easy to write that year off as an outlier. 

One driver who started off this year’s Virginia Triple Crown on the right foot is Bobby McCarty. The North Carolina driver inherited the victory in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway earlier this month after Carson Kvapil was disqualified from the win. McCarty heads to Langley with a Hampton Heat trophy already in his collection from back in 2017. McCarty finished eighth a year ago and has finishes of eighth (twice), 24th, and third since his victory. He also finished fifth in the CARS Tour race at Langley a month ago.

Watch: Highlights from the 2022 Hampton Heat 200

The last driver on our list who can join Falk as the only repeat winners of the Hampton Heat this Saturday is local hero, Brenden “Butterbean” Queen. The Chesapeake native won this race in July of 2020 and at the time it was by far the biggest race win of his young career. Since then, Queen has gone on to win the South Carolina 400 at Florence, and the CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro earlier this season. Queen is a three-time Langley Speedway track champion, and finished second to Hall in the CARS Tour race here last month.

The 2023 Hampton Heat 200 from Langley Speedway can be seen live on FloRacing, the broadcast home for Late Model Stock Car racing. Late Model Stock Car fans with a FloRacing subscription can catch every leg of the Virginia Triple Crown, weekly racing at Hickory Motor Speedway, Florence Motor Speedway, Langley Speedway, and South Boston Speedway, and the entire CARS Tour schedule throughout 2023. Race fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.

2023 Hampton Heat 200 Entry List