SOUTH BOSTON, VA :: Lee Pulliam swept both ends of the Virginia Gazette Twin 75 doubleheader on Saturday night at South Boston Speedway, and in the process, may have moved one step closer to back-to-back NASCAR All-American championships.

Both Pulliam victories came over Deac McCaskill, who entered the night second in the national standings. So while Pulliam padded his lead, he isn’t exactly taking anything for granted with only six weeks remaining in the season.

“You never have a big enough cushion,” Pulliam said after the race. “But it was a good points night after letting one get away last night (at Motor Mile Speedway).”

McCaskill doesn’t exactly feel defeated either, especially since he’s shown that he can defeat Pulliam like he did on Friday night in Radford. He said that he recognizes that a lot of things could change over the next six weeks and he’s just getting started.

“He’s right,” McCaskill said about Pulliam’s cushion comments. “There is still a lot of racing left to do and we’ve shown that we can beat him. It’s a goal of mine, my sponsors, to get invited to the NASCAR banquet and we’re on pace for that.

“Now we just have to pick up that one last spot.”

Pulliam had a perfect night South Boston, winning the pole and sweeping both Late Model Stock Car races. But as has been the case all season, McCaskill is lurking in the shadow.

Pulliam’s lead in the NASCAR All-American championship grew to 18 on Saturday night. Pulliam has 778 points to McCaskill’s 760 and both drivers will again race head-to-head, next Saturday at Motor Mile.

Lee Pulliam led wire-to-wire from the pole to score yet another victory at South Boston Speedway on Saturday afternoon and did so with a track-placed bounty hanging over his head. Any driver that could have bested Pulliam on Saturday would have earned an extra $1,000.

But no driver was up to the task and Pulliam survived another race where his rivals could have attempted to rough him up for the top spot.

It helps that Pulliam, in clean air, was able outpace and escape the field by seconds each opportunity he was provided. To be able experience that kind of success here is still “a dream come true” according to the 25-year-old champion.

“We couldn’t afford to do this when I was little and I worked hard to graduate early and work hard while I was still in school,” Pulliam said. “It’s like a fire there, I wanted to do this every day of my life and I just come out trying to make the most of it.”

Back-to-back cautions involving Meagan Creech on lap 39 and 49 were the only reasons to slow the field and neither resulting restart made a difference in the final order. McCaskill made slight contact with Pulliam off the first restart but Pulliam said it was deliberate, to help him get going on the cooler tires.

Austin Thaxton completed the top-three behind Pulliam and McCaskill.

An invert following the first race forced Deac McCaskill and Lee Pulliam to start sixth and seventh respectively in the nightcap. It made little difference as Pulliam again pulled away from McCaskill in the closing laps, with the race ending with the same two drivers in the top two spots.

Pulliam says he was a little worried about having to restart in the middle of the field but that similar experiences have made him a better driver over the years.

“It’s taught me how to pass people, how to set them up and how to make out car better,” Pulliam conceded. “It’s great to start up front but at the same token, you just don’t learn as much.”

Like the first race, Pulliam had to endure a late-race restart, this time with 10 laps to go. Unlike that race, there would be no contact between Pulliam and McCaskill and the gap increased from the drop of the green flag.

Pulliam never looked back and earned a clean sweep of South Boston and third win in four races in just two nights of All-American Series racing.

Matt Bowling completed the top-three behind Pulliam and McCaskill in Race no. 2.