Peyton Sellers and Philip Morris were tied atop the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National point standings at last weeks update but this week Sellers moves to the top all by himself by just two points.

Sellers gained those two points with a third-place finish on Saturday night at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, NC with a field of 25-cars starting the feature race. Sellers also grabbed a third-place finish on Sunday afternoon at Southern National Motorsports Park but the race only started 15-cars and didn’t help him gain any additional points.

Morris also competed in the four races at Southern National, but he was never able to get a good enough finish to gain any points. Morris’ weekend started off as a struggle with his left rear wheel coming loose within five laps of the start of the first race at Southern National. From there it looked to be getting better on Sunday afternoon as he raced inside the top five before he made contact with Mike Looney sending Looney spinning and prompting officials to penalize the five-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National champion.

Looney, who had been the points leader at the update two weeks ago, was able to gain two points with a sixth-place finish on Saturday evening with a field of 27-cars. Looney grabbed two sixth-place finishes on Saturday before being spun by Morris halfway through the first race on Sunday afternoon. The damage from the incident prevented Looney from continuing and he did not compete in the fourth race of the weekend.

After the weekend Morris sits second after Sellers gained two points but Looney slipped back to fifth after a win by Jacob Goede at Elko Speedway in Minnesota and Nick Panitzke picked up a win at Lacrosse Speedway in Wisconsin. With Panitzke moving up to fourth, Rocco slipped from fifth to sixth this week with a second-place finish at Stafford Speedway and Ronnie Williams jumped up a spot from eighth to seventh with a win at Stafford.

This upcoming weekend will offer the points leaders several chances at points. Sellers will head to South Boston Speedway to compete in a single feature. He had considered going to Motor Mile Speedway this weekend where Morris and Looney will have two races to gain points but he really wants to win the championship at his home track.

Sellers outdueled his competitors at Southern National and admitted while he wanted to win, that beating them and being a contender all weekend was his goal.

“It was a real solid weekend for us,” Sellers told RACE22 of his performances at Southern National last weekend. “Getting four top fives and being a contender and that’s all we wanted to do. We gained a few points and we held our own and we gotta win races right now. Heads up against them this weekend we outdueled them two nights in a row.”

Sellers also talked about the decision to head home to South Boston versus going to Motor Mile where the other two drivers will be.

“Track points is dear to me,” Sellers explained. “I want a track championship at South Boston. The National is a bonus right now with four weeks to go we take one race at South Boston and then go try to hit it after that and hit doubles after that. As much as I’d like to go travel around and do some other stuff, we gotta focus on the track championship first.”

Looney will head home to Motor Mile Speedway where he too is chasing a track championship, which will be his first in Late Models at the Dublin, VA track. Looney will again have his work cut out for him with a full car count field expected, he’ll have to start 10th due to the tracks handicapping system for multiple wins in a row. And, if he’s able to win race one on the night, he’ll start the second set of twins from shotgun on the field due to winning three races in a row.

Morris will go there as well as he’s spent most of the season there previously. After what he called a “humbling experience” at Southern National, he’s hoping to get back to victory lane. Morris has struggled in recent races there narrowly coming out on top in a 100-lap contest back on July 27th and then getting beat by Looney pretty handily in twins the following week.

After splitting up again this weekend, the Late Model Stock Car trio of Sellers, Morris and Looney will likely head to Dominion Raceway on August 31st as they continue to chase down as many points as they can attain before the Sunday, September 15th cutoff date for the NASCAR Whelen All-American National points.

Their adversaries from around the country will also be in action this weekend with Goede and Panitzke with potential races at Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin on Friday night and Elko Speedway on Saturday night. Rocco and Williams will have a points-paying opportunity on Friday night at Stafford Speedway in Connecticut.

Sam Yarbrough sits 18th currently but thinks he can be a contender for a top-five position in the National points. He struggled in three starts this past weekend at Southern National Motorsports Park but heads to his home track of Myrtle Beach Speedway this weekend where he hopes to get back to victory lane.

RACE22.com will have coverage from Motor Mile Speedway and Myrtle Beach Speedway on Saturday as we continue to follow the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship battle.

Cover photo by Kimberly Austin.

Current NWAAS National Standings Top Ten:
1 – Peyton Sellers 546
2 – Philip Morris 544
3 – Jacob Goede 538
4 – Nick Panitzke 432
5 – Mike Looney 528
6 – Keith Rocco 524
7 – Ronnie Williams 494
8 – Steve Carlson 480
9 – Todd Owen 480
10 – Zachary Webster 456

Click here to view the NWAAS National Standings.
Click here to view the State by State Standings.