One week after the underdog Mike Looney ascended to the points lead in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National points standings, his fellow Late Model Stock Car competitors pushed by him and find themselves tied at the top.
Philip Morris added to his points total by 22 points with two wins at Dominion Raceway over a full field of cars while Peyton Sellers gained 20 points with two second-place finishes at South Boston Speedway. The two vaulted to the top of the standings in a deadlock at 544 points.
Looney on the heels of a tough outing at Kingsport Speedway on Friday night where he finished 10th in the first race after struggling to find the speed needed to compete all day and found a brake caliper sticking. Looney would not run the second race of the night as it wasn’t worth tearing his car up with it being unlikely he’d be able to compete for the win.
Looney slipped back to fourth behind Morris, Sellers, and midwest driver Jacob Goede. Looney gained no points and remained at 526 with Goede slipping ahead of him at 530. Keith Rocco closed in on the leaders in the fifth position and now has 500 points.
Late Model Stock Car driver and championship points leader at Hickory Motor Speedway moved his way back into the top ten with 436 points in tenth. Lacrosse Speedway driver Steve Carlson has quickly made his way into the top 15 now sitting in 13th position with 426 points. Carlson’s climb will continue as he has only made 14 starts, the fewest among the top 25 drivers in the standings currently.
Morris, Looney, and Sellers will likely take their championship hopes to Southern National Motorsports Park this weekend in hopes of gaining points over the course of two days of racing and four points-paying starts. Saturday and Sunday will feature twin 40-lap Late Model Stock Car races. It will be the first time the three National championship hopefuls have all raced against one another since the Thunder Road Harley 200 at South Boston Speedway back in June.
Morris and Sellers both made starts at Southern National Motorsports Park earlier this season on a Sunday makeup race with neither driver picking up a victory. Morris finished third in the first race that day, which is the best finish of the two drivers. Looney has never competed at Southern National and hopes his success at Motor Mile Speedway, a track similar to Southern National will help vault him back into the lead on next weeks update.
The State championship battles also continue to shape up around the region with Looney continuing to lead the Virginia state standings this week. All of his 526 points have been accumulated racing in the state of Virginia. Sellers sits second with 522 and Morris with 516 with both drivers having competed at tracks in other states. South Boston Speedway regular Austin Thaxton and Dominion Raceway driver Jeff Oakley complete the top five currently but a pending penalty for Oakley’s retaliation on Trent Barnes over the weekend could eliminate him going forward.
In North Carolina Thomas Beane is leading the standings (398) over a pair of Bowman Gray Stadium drivers Burt Myers (396) and Tim Brown (378). Beane’s competitor at Hickory Motor Speedway for the track championship, Chris Hudspeth sits fourth with Bowman Gray drivers making up the rest of the top ten in points.
In South Carolina, the Myrtle Beach Speedway racers own the top seven positions with Sam Yarbrough leading the way (336) over Justin Milliken (268) and Brian Vause (212). Nick Sanchez and David Roberts, who also competes at Anderson Motor Speedway complete the top five.
In Tennessee where Kingsport Speedway is the only sanctioned track, the track points leader Nik Williams continues to lead (200) by eight points over Zeke Shell (192). Joey Trent, Wayne Hale and Derek Lane complete the top five.
RACE22.com will have coverage of the continuing NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship battle at Southern National Motorsports Park this weekend.
Cover photo by Dinah Mullins.
Current NWAAS National Standings Top Ten:
1 – Philip Morris 544
2 – Peyton Sellers 544
3 – Jacob Goede 530
4 – Mike Looney 526
5 – Keith Rocco 500
6 – Nick Panitzke 476
7 – Todd Owen 474
8 – Ronnie Williams 460
9 – Zachary Webster 456
10 – Thomas Beane 436
Click here to view the NWAAS National Standings.
Click here to view the State by State Standings.
