RIDGEWAY, VA :: Peyton Sellers and Lee Pulliam became the first two drivers to lock themselves into the field for Sunday’s Martinsville DuPont Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway by claiming the front row for the event during Saturday’s group qualifying session.

Both Sellers and Pulliam turned their laps in the eighth and final group with Sellers nipping Pulliam by five-thousandths of a second. The pair bumped Tommy Lemons Jr. from the top spot in the closing minutes of the session as the defending race winner had turned his laps during the seventh group.

Dillon Bassett and Kaz Grala completed the top-5 but only Sellers and Pulliam are officially locked into the 200-lap main event. Everyone else will be required to run in one of the three qualifying races and/or last chance race in order to make the field of 42.

Sellers explained after the session that he felt relieved to have earned a first round bye of sorts in forgoing the usually hectic and chaotic heat races.

“I’m absolutely relieved,” Seller said. “We’re going to have 25 lap better tires when the race starts and 50-lap better tires than the guys who run the last chance race. One advantage of running the heat races is that you can see what direction the track is going but being able to avoid the crashes far outweigh that in my opinion.”

Pulliam won the MDCU 300 in 2011 and was the fastest in practice on Saturday. While he was a little disappointed in failing to capture the pole, he admitted that starting on the outside pole was just as advantageous in the big picture.

“I’m just looking forward to sitting out those heat races,” Pulliam said. “Anytime that you can sit on the front row at Martinsville is special. I had watched Peyton all day and knew that they would be our best competition. I think the two best cars from the previous practice session are on the front row and that’s pretty exciting.”

As a result of qualifying third, Lemons will start on pole for the first heat race and says he needs just a little more speed on the short runs to chase down Sellers and Pulliam on Sunday afternoon.

“All and all, you can’t complain with third out of 78 cars,” Lemons said. “I’m actually surprised at what kind of speed we had there for qualifying so hopefully that will transition into the race.”

In all, 78 Late Model Stock Cars took laps on Saturday afternoon with several surprises as Deac McCaskill posted the 24th best time, Philip Morris was 32nd and C.E. Falk was 49th. The complete qualifying results can be found below.

Wheel Chill Qualifying Rundown

1. #99 Peyton Sellers — 20.234
2. #5 Lee Pulliam — 20.239
3. #27 Tommy Lemons, Jr. — 20.306
4. #44 Dillon Bassett — 20.348
5. #31 Kaz Grala — 20.348
6. #50 Jamey Caudill — 20.360
7. #98G Todd Gilliland — 20.363
8. #14D Mike Darne – 20.373
9. #15 Kres VanDyke — 20.386
10. #83 Matt Bowling — 20.386
11. #9 William Byron — 20.389
12. #8G David Garbo, Jr. — 20.399
13. #88 Josh Berry — 20.402
14. #21S Travis Swaim — 20.413
15. #17 Stacy Puryear — 20.422
16. #17P Timothy Peters — 20.426
17. #03 Brenden Queen — 20.430
18. #91 Justin Carroll — 20.432
19. #2W Matt Waltz — 20.436
20. #41 Brayton Haws — 20.442
21. #2 Dennis Holdren — 20.456
22. #36A Anthony Anders — 20.467
23. #02L Mike Looney — 20.472
24. #08 Deac McCaskill — 20.490
25. #77 Blake Stallings — 20.498
26. #14 Michael McGuire — 20.499
27. #8S Thomas Scott — 20.506
28. #57 Eddie Johnson — 20.509
29. #82 Barry Beggarly — 20.509
30. #59 Coleman Pressley — 20.519
31. #98 BJ Mackey — 20.524
32. #26 Philip Morris — 20.524
33. #2S Myatt Snider — 20.525
34. #55 Alex Yontz — 20.527
35. #58 Tyler Ankrum — 20.529
36. #00 Shane Lee — 20.533
37. #73 Bruce Anderson — 20.536
38. #0 Justin Snow — 20.539
39. #01 GR Waldrop — 20.544
40. #41S Rusty Skewes — 20.544
41. #10 Nick Smith — 20.545
42. #20 Sam Yarbrough — 20.547
43. #06 Davin Scites — 20.549
44. #16 RD Smith — 20.549
45. #8 Josh Oakley — 20.554
46. #12 Ryan Wilson — 20.567
47. #07 Clint King — 20.568
48. #02 Austin Thaxton — 20.580
49. #40 CE Falk, III — 20.582
50. #45 Joey Mucciaccioro — 20.582
51. #5E Tyler English — 20.589
52. #9K Brad Kurth — 20.593
53. #17R Bryan Reedy — 20.606
54. #50 Garrett Bunch — 20.622
55. #12 Annabeth Barnes — 20.632
56. #36 Chris Johnson — 20.651
57. #51 Kyle Dudley — 20.661
58. #54 Michael Fose — 20.662
59. #88R Dustin Rumley — 20.681
60. #90 Terry Carroll — 20.696
61. #81 Patrick Coleman — 20.710
62. #1 Jamie Sweeny — 20.713
63. #22 Scott Lancaster — 20.739
64. #25 Derrick Lancaster — 20.760
65. #73L Gary Lewis — 20.778
66. #87 Hayden Woods — 20.810
67. #04 Ronnie Bassett — 20.882
68. #87B Brandon Baker — 20.876
69. #10P Kevin Parker — 20.886
70. #42 Jamie Byrd — 20.887
71. #15B Kyle Barnes — 20.904
72. #7 Dylan Ward — 20.925
73. #21 Jimmy Wallace — 20.984
74. #14H Braeden Havens — 21.194
75. #24 Phillip Sisson – 21.526
76. #01C Jake Crum — No Time
77. #23 Payton Ryan — No Time