Dora, Alabama (September 2, 2026) — Another long, hard-fought season of Late Model competition at Sayre Speedway came to its conclusion a couple weeks ago on August 22nd, with quite a few storylines emerging throughout the year. With another year’s worth of action in the books at “The South’s Action Track,” there was no shortage of individual performances that shaped the course of the season.
This particular story will highlight how things transpired for the 2026 Late Model Champion, Charlie Melvin, as well as the 2026 Rookie of the Year, Justice Evans.
Charlie Melvin’s Path to the 2026 Championship
Firstly, the most noteworthy story was that of 2026 Sayre Speedway Late Model champion, Charlie Melvin. Melvin’s 2026 Late Model title served as his third overall, having won the Sayre Late Model titles in 2021 and 2025 beforehand. The year’s statline also included seven wins in eight attempts, an impressive feat for any racer in any class.
Melvin attributed the success to simply being in the right place at the right time, which can often be a more important factor for racers than anything else.
“It was sort of the luck of the draw,” said Melvin. “We never truly just showed up and dominated. A lot of guys just had bad luck.”
To win at any level of racing is already tough, and to win in late models is even tougher. Given the history and talent of Sayre’s late model champions, it’s even more impressive to score seven wins in a single year against some of the best in the business. Melvin’s approach to the season involved tuning out the noise both at the track and away from the track, solely focusing on the task at hand.
“When you climb into a race car, everything else that you have going on in life goes out the window,” said Melvin. “It’s not just a mechanical thing, it’s a release of responsibility from your ‘real life.’ For 30 minutes, you get to clear your head. That’s how I’ve treated it.”
Melvin’s feat this season did more than just solidify his own accomplishments and stats. It cemented an even bigger legacy for the family name as a whole. Sayre is host to multiple noteworthy racing families, and the Melvin family is no different. Charlie’s father Bill has cemented a veteran role in the Alabama racing scene, and his sister Brooke has even had her fair share of success at Sayre in Limited Modified competition recently.
“All I ever wanted to do from the time I was a little boy was drive race cars, and be like my dad. I wanted to be a short track, Dick Trickle type of hero. So, to put another thing on my résumé, and it not be just a fluke or a marginal feat, it’s pretty fulfilling,” said Melvin.
“It’s pretty cool to have that recognition of being Billy Melvin’s boy. Still having that, but also just being known as Charlie Melvin, it’s a different feeling.”
Late Models aren’t the only form of racing where Melvin can be found, as he’s been involved with a couple different racing divisions as of late.
“I’ve raced the Modified a little bit. The Street Stock’s been on jackstands since last year’s Snowball Derby, but I’ll probably take it back to the Derby this year.”
Time will tell what the next addition to Melvin’s racing résumé will be, whether it comes at the prestigious Snowball Derby or closer to home in Alabama.
Justice Evans Turns Heads with Rookie of the Year Title
The 2026 season saw Justice Evans bring his talents to the realm of Late Model racing. Evans has made a name for himself locally in Street Stocks and similar style cars in recent years, but he had a special opportunity to pilot the no. 0 Late Model for his father-in-law, Norman Key, for the 2026 season.
“We got together with [Key] and he asked me to drive for him,” said Evans. “I think we had three Top-3’s, two Top-2’s, one DNF, and the one win at the B.J. Parker Memorial. We ran seven races total. We only really got in one bad wreck, and that was a minor setback, but it was good for a rookie year.”
“We started off pretty good, had decent speed out of the gate. I had only ran one Late Model race at Sayre back in 2018 I believe,” explained Evans. “Didn’t have the money or the knowledge to be in a Late Model at the time.”
Evans’ lone victory on the season came at one of Sayre Speedway’s most special events, the B.J. Parker Memorial. The race honors B.J. Parker, a renowned track promoter and series director who passed away in 2011. The event brings awareness to breast cancer, which Parker passed away from at the age of 77.
“I used to sit in the stands and dream of winning that particular race. It was just always very prestigious. The King of Dixie is a big thing too, but the B.J. Parker Memorial was just bigger to me with what the race means, the cancer awareness and a super cool cause,” Evans said.
The 2026 campaign served as the foundation for Evans’ ascent to the Late Model scene, and he hopes to continue carrying the momentum he’s built into the future. One victory and even more podium finishes have proven that he has the speed to make his mark within the Sayre Speedway community in an even bigger way next year.
“Everybody at Sayre is doing everything they can to get to the track each week, so just to be able to be a small part of the Late Model community there is super big to me. I hope we can build on the season we had and hopefully shoot for a championship next year. I feel like we were hitting our stride there towards the end of the season.
Much like Charlie Melvin, Evans has participated in various kinds of racing divisions, but he wants one thing more than anything else for his next accomplishment: a championship. He believes he’s found an avenue to achieve that goal with his current Late Model success.
“I’ve raced for 13 years in different cars but never really ran for a points championship. I came up several points short in Street Stocks in 2017. I was Rookie of the Year in Limited Modifieds, but never a champion. I would like to do that at Sayre, with the possibility of running Huntsville and some Montgomery races in their Late Model Sportsman class.”
The 2026 Late Model season at Sayre may have concluded, but the foundation it built will be seen in whatever happens next for Melvin, Evans, and all the other great competitors who competed over the course of the year. The top five finishers in the Sayre Speedway Late Model division can be found below.
- #1 Charlie Melvin – 254 points [Champion]
- #05 Nathan Davis – 210 points
- #0 Justice Evans – [Rookie of the Year]
- #15 Josh Ross – 177 points
- #33 Dale Pugh – 158 points
Cover photo: Sayre Speedway
Love both Justice Evans and Charlie Melvin they represent the sport and Sayre Speedway well