Langley Speedway’s longest-running driver keeps adding to record victory total

When a stock car careens toward a concrete wall at almost 90 mph, the driver has time for only a few words. Paul Lubno went with “this is it” as his Grand Stock car smashed into the Turn 1 wall at Langley Speedway after the throttle stuck in a 2021 race.

“It,” as it turned out, was not serious bodily injury for defending Grand Stock Division champion Lubno, who wisely wore his head-and-neck restraint (HANS) device that night. It’s a good thing, too, because although he admits to “seeing stars” as a fellow driver helped him from his vehicle — and a hook connecting the helmet to a restraint strap snapped off amid the violent collision — Lubno avoided nothing more serious than body bruises.

Instead, “it’ meant the end of his season and championship defense as his car’s body frame was bent worse than any he’d ever seen. Lubno, 57, who owns the most race wins in track history, remained frozen at 127 victories as he and his crew painstakingly repaired and refunded his Monte Carlo while sitting out the rest of the 2021 and ’22 seasons.

He’s back this season and as good as ever. In three races, he owns a victory and two second-place finishes as he sits just two points behind Tim Wilson for the division lead.

Lubno has his sights on division championship No. 8 — a total eclipsed on the 4/10ths-of-a-mile Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway asphalt oval only by the late Shawn Balluzzo’s 11.

“I’ll tell you straight up, I never thought we’d come back and win in our second race,” Lubno said. “That car was wrecked so bad that I didn’t even want to work on it. Even the brake pedal was bent.

“But the crew worked so hard, I had to win it for them. All of their hard work paid off.”

He’s not only referring to the labor it took to get the car back on the track. Lubno felt an issue with the sway bar — a suspension piece that reduces body roll — cost him a checkered flag as he finished second to Wilson in the Grand Stock season opener.

Lubno says the crew — crew chief Glenn Green, owner JR Smith, engine builder Marty Strickland, Phil Foster and Dale Parro — got that fixed before the second race of the season, the first of two twin 20-lappers. He won the pole and the first race, then finished second to Wilson in the second 20.

“I was all over it,” he said of his victory. “I was able to get up on the wheel and run up front from the start, and the car was as good after 40 laps as it was after the first.”

The victory came almost 40 years after the first for Lubno, whose tenure behind the wheel is longer than any other current competitor in the track’s 12 divisions. His first came during Ronald Reagan’s first term in the early 1980s in a 1968 Chevelle sporting dark blue house paint he applied.

Since then, Lubno, a mechanic at NASA for almost 20 years, has won 127 more races. He owns a championship in the erstwhile All-American and Limited Stock divisions along with five in Grand Stock.

Former Late Model driver Roger Brehm, whose business PC Doctor sponsors Lubno’s car — as does Smitty’s Better Burger and Watson Petroleum — thinks Lubno is good enough to challenge Balluzzo’s record 11 championships if he remains behind the wheel.

“Paul has excellent talent, he knows what to do to make a car run faster and he knows how to keep it raceable (during competition) until he’s ready to use it (all-out),” said Brehm, who doubles as Lubno’s spotter. “I think he has a really good shot (at Balluzzo’s record) because he can race for points as well as wins.

“He’s a thinking man who gets out there, analyzes things and does what he needs to get the best out of a car that night. He’s got some smarts.”

Assuming he stays healthy, Lubno should race enough years to challenge Balluzzo’s mark.

“I want to be like Red Farmer,” Lubno said, referring to the 90-year-old NASCAR Hall of Famer who won a heat race on a dirt track in Alabama in September.

But milestones are less of a motivation for Lubno than simply being at the track with his family, wife Melissa Ramey, grandson Brodie and granddaughter Emma Grace among them. His favorite photo came in Victory Lane, after a 2018 win, with four generations of Lubnos: his dad and son (both named Paul) and grandson.

“I love the camaraderie of hanging out with everybody and really love when the family is together at the track,” he said. “Besides, I don’t have anything better to do on Saturday nights.”

Up next at Langley Speedway

What: Eight stock car races — twin Late Models, twin Virginia Racers, Super Street, Grand Stock, Super Truck, Karts

Where: Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway, 11 Dale Lemonds Lane in Hampton

When: First race is at 7 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: Adults $15, military and seniors $13, kids (6-12) $7