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By Joe Chandler

South Boston Speedway

It came down to the final points night and the last two races of the season. When all was done, Layne Riggs emerged with his first career South Boston Speedway NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Late Model Stock Car Division championship.

Meanwhile, Peyton Sellers gained ground on Riggs in the quest for the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship.

Riggs finished second to Sellers, the defending South Boston Speedway and NASCAR national champion, twice as Sellers swept the twin 65-lap NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Late Model Stock Car Division races that headlined Saturday night’s Halifax County Farm Bureau Championship Night event at South Boston Speedway.

The Bahama, North Carolina resident entered Saturday night’s twinbill with a 20-point lead over Sellers and a 22-point edge over Jacob Borst of Elon, North Carolina. The pair of runner-up finishes was more enough to give Riggs, a 10-time winner at the speedway this season, the track championship.

“It feels great to win this championship,” Riggs said. “At the beginning of the year I didn’t expect it would happen. But wins started coming, and I felt we were a dominant enough car to win every weekend. We deserved to win this championship. I really hate that we couldn’t seal it with a win.”

‘AN AMAZING NIGHT’

The magic Sellers has known at South Boston Speedway in recent seasons returned over the final two nights of the season. He won three of the season’s final four races to cap his season at the .4-mile oval with four victories.

It wasn’t enough for the Danville resident to claim a record-tying seventh career South Boston Speedway NASCAR track championship and a fifth consecutive South Boston Speedway title.

“Man, this was an amazing night,” Sellers said of the sweep. “We executed perfectly. Everybody said you’re worried about points, and I said all we can do is go win the race. Everything else would have to fall into place. We came up a little short.”

While Sellers lost the battle for the South Boston Speedway championship, he was able to further close the gap on Riggs in the chase for the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship.

Riggs entered Saturday night’s event leading Sellers by just eight points in the NASCAR national standings and leading Sellers by just two points in the Virginia NASCAR state standings.

“We gained some good points tonight,” Sellers pointed out. “We’ve just got to go out and do what we know to do and that’s just stay focused and try to win races.”

Sellers dominated Saturday night’s pair of 65-lap NASCAR Late Model races. He led flag-to-flag in winning the opening race as he sped across the finish line six seconds ahead Riggs. Landon Pembelton of Amelia finished third with Borst and Parker Eatmon of Sims, North Carolina rounding out the top five finishers.

With an inverted start among the top 10 finishers of the first race, Sellers started tenth in the nightcap but needed only nine laps to get to the front of the field, Once Sellers passed Borst for the lead on the ninth circuit he never relinquished the lead, finishing 1.6 seconds ahead of Riggs in taking the win and the sweep.

Borst finished third with Thomas Scott of Efland, North Carolina and Chris Denny of Timberlake, North Carolina completing the top five finishers.

For the night, Sellers led 122 of the total 130 laps.

BARNES TAKES HOME SPORTSMAN TITLE

Kyle Barnes would have liked a better result in Saturday night’s twin 30-lap Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division races, but a pair of third-place efforts allowed him to win his first career South Boston Speedway Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division championship.

Barnes of Draper entered Saturday night’s twin 30-lap races having won eight of his 11 starts at South Boston Speedway and holding a 30-point lead over Jason Myers of Hurt.

Myers finished second in both races, cutting into Barnes’ final margin, but it was not enough to prevent Barnes from winning the championship.

The night belonged to Eric Winslow of Pelham, North Carolina. Competing in the division at South Boston Speedway for the first time this season, Winslow swept the twinbill, with Myers taking second place in both races and Barnes finishing third in both races.

Zach Peregoy of Clarksville, finished fourth in both races. Tristen Barnes of Draper, Virginia rounded out the top five finishers in the first race and Andrew Amos of Callands, finished fifth in the second race.