Peyton Sellers secures fifth Virginia Late Model Triple Crown championship

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Winning championships often has a lot to do with consistency.

No one knows that better than Peyton Sellers, who claimed his fifth Virginia Late Model Triple Crown championship following a ninth-place finish during Saturday‘s ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.

“They get harder and harder (to win) that‘s for sure,” said Sellers, who pocketed $7,000 for having the best average finish in the three Triple Crown events at South Boston, Langley and Martinsville Speedways. “We had three good races. We had a good race at South Boston, another good one at Langley and we had the speed for a while tonight.”

Sellers entered Saturday‘s race second in the Triple Crown standings to NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division I champion Connor Hall, who had a 1.5 average finish in the first two legs at South Boston and Langley compared to Sellers‘ 3.5.

RELATED: Full highlights from the ValleyStar Credit Union 300

Hall‘s pursuit of the Triple Crown ended before halfway as mechanical gremlins combined with a spin left him trapped multiple laps down, putting Sellers in the proverbial catbirds seat.

However, Sellers began to fade late in the race and that seemingly opened the door for Kade Brown to steal the Triple Crown in the closing laps.

Unfortunately for Brown, bad luck also bit him. With eight laps left Brown was collected in a multi-car crash while racing inside the top five. The incident ended Brown‘s night and handed Sellers his fifth Triple Crown title.

“At the end of the day, the Triple Crown is a very big deal for us,” said Sellers, who recently clinched his seventh track championship at South Boston Speedway. “It means a lot. We start off at the beginning of the year and we shoot for a championship in the Triple Crown. To be able to do it is a very good opportunity.”

Sellers ended the Triple Crown with an average finish of 5.3. Despite a challenging day that saw Hall finish 25th, he still managed to finish second in the Triple Crown standings with an average finish of 9.3. Bobby McCarty finished fifth to claim third in the final Triple Crown standings with an average finish of 13.6.