FAIRLAWN, VA :: The top two drivers in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship standings each scored victories on Friday night at Motor Mile Speedway but had to go through each other in order to do so in the Kesler Contracting Twin 125s.

The victories served as a reminder that the road to the national championship goes through Lee Pulliam and Deac McCaskill and solidified their roles as title favorites.

Lee Pulliam out-dueled pole-sitter Peyton Sellers on the final lap of the first race, pushing Sellers up the banking off turn four and beating him back to the line by half a car-length.

With 10 laps to go, Lee Pulliam took second place from a resurgent Mike Looney and set his sights on the leader, Sellers who had extended his lead to nearly a full straightaway. Pulliam got to his bumper with two laps to go, shadowed him on the penultimate lap and methodically made his move with just one corner remaining in the race.

“I could get in the center a lot better than Peyton Sellers could,” Pulliam said after the race. “He’d just keep coming down up off (the corner) and taking my line away. He came down really good and we lost the whole nose and fender.

“I thought the race was over; did a lot of praying and drove my heart out and was able to run him down. We rubbed a couple of times that last lap and I was finally able to move him out of the way in three and four. ”

Sellers had led every lap but the last one and was left visibly frustrated when asked about the battle with Pulliam after the race. But he ultimately justified his rival’s bump-and-run…conditionally.

“To lead 124 and a quarter laps just to have Lee shoot us up the track like he did… he did what he had to in order to win,” Sellers said. “It doesn’t make it better and we know he races us now and that’s the way we’ll race him from here on out.”

The race was caution-free through the first 89 laps and was equally uneventful until the yellow fell for debris in turn two. Another caution fell on lap 101 and both occasions saw Sellers successfully choose the high line for the restart.

Josh Berry restarted second on both resets and allowed Sellers to get away when Pulliam pulled to his inside for third. The second of those restarts saw Pulliam take both Sellers and Berry three-wide, allowing Looney to surge to second.

The lost track position was almost too much for Pulliam, the outside pole-sitter, to overcome but he timed it just right and nipped Sellers at the line.

By virtue of a six car inversion, Deac McCaskill was awarded the pole at the start of the second race and would stay near the front all race long, cruising to a relatively easy victory in the nightcap at Motor Mile Speedway.

But it was not without some controversy as he pushed a hard-charging Lee Pulliam up the racing surface on a late restart to crush the national championship leader’s momentum and secure the top spot.

McCaskill led early from the top spot but surrendered the lead to Mike Looney on lap eight. He would lead for a majority of the race before a flood of late-race cautions jumbled the running order.

That first caution fell on lap 84 but his decision to restart on the outside lane allowed him to get away briefly before another caution dropped on lap 96. It was on this second restart that the intensity really began to pick up.

McCaskill motored away from Pulliam on the restart via the momentum of the outside line but Pulliam battled back, tucking under McCaskill and using the outside line himself to get a run at the top spot. But Pulliam was forced to concede the position when McCaskill drove Pulliam up the banking to win the spot.

That was the closest Pulliam would get as McCaskill pulled away to score his first-ever victory at the Radford half-mile. The victory was special on another front as it also allowed McCaskill to keep pace with Pulliam on the national championship front.

“This is a big win because it’s our first win here, at a track we’ve struggled at a lot and this is just our sixth start,” McCaskill said. “We were way off in that first race and finished sixth, which gave us the pole. We made a lot of changes…took a swing at it…found a lot of grip on the outside and was able to hold those guys off.”

Pulliam says the battle with McCaskill set the tone for the remainder of the season and their championship battle.

“It is what is what is and one of those hard-fought battles, ” Pulliam said. “Every win counts, winning that first race was big (in regards to championship implications) and I thought we had the car to beat in the second race, we just got beat on the restart.”