NWAAS Div. I Pts: Bassett Hits a Double
Wins at Motor Mile & Hickory; Pulliam Closes Gap On Anders
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dillon Bassett’s season had already exceeded his own expectations.
And that was before this past weekend. Two wins and one totaled race car later, Bassett is still buzzing.
The 17-year-old from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has placed himself squarely in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship conversation with five wins through his first 17 starts running his Late Model stock car on pavement tracks in the southeast.
Last Friday, he went to Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va., and won in his first race at the .416 mile asphalt oval. He led the final 100 yards after passing two-time defending national champion Lee Pulliam on the white-flag lap of the 75-lap feature.
However, he got caught up in a wreck in the track’s second Late Model feature of the night and had to wheel out a back-up car for the next night at North Carolina’s Hickory Motor Speedway.
Driving from 17th starting position, Bassett took the lead just past halfway of the 100-lap race and cruised to his second win of the weekend. Runner-up in the race was national championship points leader Anthony Anders.
“Both wins were pretty big,” said Bassett. “The past two years, I’ve only won five races combined. That speaks a lot to our team this year.”
Bassett is fifth in the national standings with seven wins, 16 top fives and 19 top 10s in 20 starts at seven different tracks. He’s amassed 579 points in races at North Carolina’s East Carolina Speedway in Robersonville, Caraway Speedway in Sophia, Southern National Raceway Park in Lucama, and Hickory; South Carolina’s Anderson Motor Speedway and Greenville Pickens Speedway; and Virginia’s Motor Mile.
He leads the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series points in North Carolina.
Anders continues to lead in South Carolina as well as hold down the national top spot with 684 points by virtue of 17 wins, 26 top fives and 28 top 10s in 30 starts at Anderson and Greenville.
STANDINGS: NATIONAL TOP 500 | STATE/PROVINCE
Anders, of Easley, South Carolina, did not race last weekend. Racing Greenville Pickens Speedway and Anderson Speedway in his home state, he has three wins where he’s earned the maximum 41 points for a victory.
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division I drivers are ranked by their best 18 NASCAR points finishes in series-sanctioned events. Drivers receive two points for every car they finish ahead of – up to 18 cars – and three points for a win, with an additional two points available if the driver starts 10th or lower.
Pulliam moved to second with his second (and 22nd) at Motor Mile Friday, and a fourth and fifth at South Boston (Virginia) Speedway on Saturday. He has 11 wins, 18 top fives and 18 top 10s in 22 starts for 657 points.
Connecticut’s Keith Rocco dropped to third despite picking up his seventh win of the season. The 2010 national champion has 633 points in the pavement modified divisions at Connecticut’s three ovals: Waterford Speedbowl, Stafford Motor Speedway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. Rocco finished sixth at Stafford Friday and won at Waterford Saturday. It was his fifth victory of the season in which he earned the maximum of 41 points.
Peyton Sellers is fourth with 619 points. The 2005 national champion was fourth and second at Motor Mile, and second and sixth at South Boston. His runner-up finish on Friday came following a lengthy review by track officials, who awarded the victory to Tommy Lemons Jr. on a photo finish after the two had identical times in the electronic scoring.
STORY: Lemons By Inches At Motor Mile | VIDEO: Final Lap At Motor Mile
Bassett moved up two spots to fifth in the national points.
Matt Bowling (South Boston, Motor Mile, Southern National and Caraway Speedway) is sixth, followed by Ryan Preece (Waterford, Stafford and Riverhead (New York) Raceway), Lemons (South Boston, Caraway, Motor Mile and Southern National), Randy Porter (Greenville and Anderson) and Kres Van Dyke (Virginia’s Lonesome Pine and Tennessee’s Kingsport Speedway).
Drivers in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series compete for track and U.S. state/Canadian province championships in addition to the national title.
For Bassett, who will enter his senior year at Union Grove Christian School in Lexington, North Carolina in the fall, and earned his state driver’s license on Monday, those are attainable goals in what has already been a memorable year.
“It’s really cool to be out there with Lee Pulliam and Peyton Sellers and to be able to race with them and compete with them,” said Bassett, whose older brother Ronnie Jr. is a Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. “Not many people can say they went out there and won the first time they were on a track – especially against a two-time defending national champion and a recent national champion.
“It was probably one of the best wins I ever had.”
Bassett started second but didn’t make his move for the lead until five to go when he made it three-wide with Pulliam and Bowling. He went side-by-side with Pulliam over the closing laps before pulling away for the win.
“We were beating and banging,” Bassett said. “That was probably the hardest five laps I’ve ever driven a race track. To go to Motor Mile and win, it’s hard to explain how excited I was.”
The euphoria was short-lived, as he got caught up in a multi-car wreck in the second feature. The drive got them back to Winston-Salem at 6 a.m., where they wheeled out the back-up and went to work.
“We really didn’t get much sleep,” said Bassett. “(Crew chief) Seth Smith and the guys worked on the car all morning to get it ready. … The back-up car is just what we need in case something happens.”
Practicing and qualifying on old tires put them in the back of the field to start, but Bassett made his way to the front quickly. He will look to continue the momentum when he returns to the track on Friday for the 171-lap Rusty Harpe Memorial event at Caraway.
“Racing in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in the southeast is so hard and the competition around here is so great that it’s really difficult to get one win, let alone have seven wins already this season,” Bassett said. “It just goes to show what kind of people and the kind of equipment we have at Bassett Racing.”
Established in 1982, the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is NASCAR’s national championship program for weekly short track auto racing. In all, 58 paved and dirt tracks throughout the United States and Canada participate.
Connecticut-based Whelen Engineering is the series’ title sponsor. Whelen Engineering is a leading manufacturer of automotive, aviation, industrial and emergency vehicle lighting. NASCAR tracks and pace cars across North America are among the many showcases for Whelen products.
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series: National Top 25
Pos Driver Track Starts Wins T-5 T-10 Points
1 Anthony Anders Greenville, Myrtle, Hickory, Anderson 30 17 26 28 684
2 Lee Pulliam S Boston, Southern Natl, Motor Mile 22 11 18 18 657
3 Keith Rocco Waterford, Stafford, Thompson 20 7 17 20 633
4 Peyton Sellers Motor Mile, S Boston, Caraway 20 5 18 20 619
5 Dillon Bassett East Carolina, Southern Natl, Motor Mile, Anderson, Greenville, Caraway, Hickory 20 7 16 19 579
6 Matt Bowling Motor Mile, S Boston, Caraway, Southern Natl 23 2 16 19 560
7 Ryan Preece Waterford, Riverhead, Stafford, 20 6 15 19 558
8 Tommy Lemons, Jr S Boston, Caraway, Motor Mile, Southern Natl 25 4 13 18 530
9 Randy Porter Greenville, Anderson 18 5 13 15 517
10 Kres Vandyke Kingsport, L Pine 17 6 15 16 506
11 Chad Finchum L Pine, Kingsport 17 9 15 15 489
12 Ryan Stiltner Kingsport, L Pine 17 0 14 15 436
13 Ted Christopher Waterford, Stafford 16 1 8 15 429
14 Brandon Fox Greenville, Anderson, Myrtle 27 0 10 15 420
15 Joe Wilder (R) Greenville, Anderson 18 0 3 16 416
16 Marty Ward Anderson, Greenville 14 0 12 14 410
17 Burt Myers Bowman 14 4 9 13 406
18 Jason Durgan (R) Airborne, Devil’s Bowl 18 3 10 16 403
19 Spencer Davis New Smyrna, Bowman 19 0 6 11 394
20 Myatt Snider S Boston, Caraway, Southern Natl 19 0 8 14 384
21 Tim Brown Bowman 14 2 9 13 382
22 Matt Waltz S Boston, Langley 14 6 11 13 366
23 Daniel Alvarez (R) Greenville, Anderson 24 0 1 16 362
24 David Roberts Anderson, Greenville 12 1 9 12 359
25 Ryan Wilson Motor Mile, Caraway, Southern Natl 22 0 4 13 352
Sources: Jason Christley/NASCAR PR