Heading into Friday’s Schaeffer’s Fall Nationals Tar Heel 50 at Tri-County Racetrack in Brasstown, N.C., a single driver has perfect attendance in the event’s 16-year history: David Payne of Murphy, N.C.

It helps that Payne, the 2012 Tar Heel 50 winner, lists the Ray Cook-promoted oval as his home track, but even the local standout was surprised to find out he was the only driver to make an appearance in each feature race of the long-running event.

In fact, it wasn’t until a Facebook post by Chris Tilley — promoter of the Schaeffer’s Iron-Man Series who has worked closely with Cook over the years as the series announcer among other duties — that Payne heard about his accomplishment.

“I didn’t know that until I seen (Tilley’s) post (Tuesday). Somebody shared it with me,” Payne said while taking a break from preparing tires for Friday’s race. “I didn’t realize I was the only one that had been to them either.”

Payne has done more than just show up. In the 15 previous events — the 2010 race was rained out — Payne has three top-five finishes and 11 top-10s to go along with his victory in 2012. With the annual race being his home track’s biggest each season, the former high school basketball coach turned school administrator admits there’s a lot of emphasis on the race.

“This is a big race. When I first started, as I’ve grown through my racing career it’s always been a race that’s big in our area,” Payne said. “You like to run good around the house. When people come to your place, you like to be able to defend your turf a little bit and be able to perform on that kind of a level. So, it’s always been one that we’ve circled and wanted to make sure we’re at and try to be as prepared as we could to give ourselves a good shot at having a good run.”

From the first Tar Heel 50 winner — Hall of Famer Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark. — to the last — Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga. — the event has always drawn a healthy contingent of stars, even if the car count hasn’t isn’t always overwhelming.

Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., cut his teeth racing in Tri-County’s four-cylinder division as a youngster. The three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion and winner of three of the last five World 100s has won the Tar Heel 50 three times, with two of the wins coming while making a cameo appearance in someone else’s car. In 2015, Davenport won in Donald Bradsher’s car. He then repeated in 2016 behind the wheel of Randy Weaver’s machine. Driving a Kelly Hamrick-backed Bloomquist Race Car, Davenport outran Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., to win the rain-shortened ’06 event.

With four wins, Casey Roberts of Toccoa, Ga., is the event’s most successful driver, while former World 100 winner Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., in ’05 and Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., in ’09 have also reached victory lane in Tri-County’s biggest event.

“You see people’s name that have won that, and it’s a pretty prestigious group of people,” Payne said. “To be able to add your name to it and win one that you’re kinda thinking, ‘This is a race we’d like to do well at,’ … to be able to pick up a win, that was a big deal.

“We’ve been close a few times and felt like we maybe had a car that was capable of winning but for whatever reason didn’t, whether it was contact throughout the race or whatever the factors were, it never lined up. So, to be able to get it done there in 2012 was big for us.”

Nestled in the western corner of North Carolina — Brasstown is closer to five other state capitals than North Carolina’s Raleigh statehouse — Tri-County Racetrack isn’t the easiest place to find. In the Appalachian Mountain foothills, Brasstown is enveloped by the Nantahala National Forest to the northeast. With the winding river gorges both east and west, getting to Cook’s track is a slow go, albeit a scenic trip.

About 100 miles away to the south, however, is Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga., a track that hosts the Lucas Oil Series along with sister track Rome (Ga.) Speedway each October. Cook strategically schedules the Tar Heel 50 for the Friday before the Lucas Oil Series doubleheader, giving drivers a chance for an extra payday if they’d like. (This season’s events at Dixie and Rome were cancelled by a wet weather forecast.)

“Ray has done a good job of selecting a weekend that he can draw off of some of those people that are making the trip that run the two-day show at the end of the Lucas schedule,” Payne said. “You never know who’s gonna be there, but out of a 22-car field, I’ve said it before, you’ve got probably 16 people, that if the cards fall the right way, who can possibly win that thing.

“We’ve got some good local racers, too. You take those national guys that come in there … you’re gonna have some cautions, you’re gonna have some lapped traffic. There’s gonna be some factors and you just gotta have things go your way. It’s a tough field. Spots are hard to get no matter which race track you’re at or who you’re against.

“But when you got that group there you got to go hard enough to not let a spot slip away midrace and be able to maintain that. You also have to kinda be cautious, too, you gotta be aggressive, but cautious enough. You’re looking past your bumper and trying to figure out what guys two, three (positions) in front of you are doing so you can possibly react and be able to dodge something that might happen in a hurry.

Payne knows all too well how things can suddenly go sideways. During a Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals race at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., on July 10, a spin and subsequent rollover while debuting a new Capital Race Car left Payne scrambling to go back through his new car, while forcing him to re-evaluate his plans to follow the entirety of Cook’s summer series.

“After we turned that car over, we had to go back completely through it,” said Payne. “We just went ahead and rented the racetrack and went through the car and just made some changes and tried to get a little more of a feel that we were looking for. The car’s been good, there’s nothing wrong with the car. The two races leading up the Tar Heel 50 here at Tri-County, we won those two races.

“So, we feel like we have a good race car. Not only there but other places with it as well. We just need to get up there and be able to try not to get caught up in everything. Just try to do our stuff. We were off a little bit last year, qualified and got us behind the 8-ball. If we can qualify well and start in the first few rows, I feel like we will be OK.”