Milwaukee: Peyton Sellers race report

Sellers Shines at Milwaukee Mile
Next Stop: SkillsUSA Championships

Milwaukee, WI.: The Milwaukee Mile welcomed Peyton Sellers with open arms this weekend in the NASCAR Nationwide Series NorthernTool.com 250. The young driver of the #77 SFP Chevrolet had his best run so far this season, finishing 15th.

Although Sellers is getting good experience this season on the larger tracks, he is known as a 'short track specialist' from his experience across the short tracks of America. Sellers was the youngest ever Whelen All American National Champion in 2005, and posted top ten season finishes in NASCAR's Camping World Series each of the past three years.

Milwaukee's legendary one-mile mostly flat track was just what he and his Cardinal Motorsports team were looking for in their fifth of ten planned races this season. Sellers qualified 24th for the 43 car starting lineup. The rookie has made the field for all of his races this season.

Sellers began to make up ground almost immediately, gaining four positions in the first seven laps of the race. As the track cooled, the car continued to improve, and by lap 77 he was pushing to move into the top ten and turning some of the fastest lap times on the track.

The night had only four cautions, however, and most teams came in to pit for the first time of the night around lap 80. The pit road speed limit at Milwaukee is 35 mph, and Sellers found himself clocked just one mph too fast entering, sending him to the rear of the field and a lap down.

Sellers re-entered in 24th position and worked his way back to 15th place, continuing to post solid lap times and skillfully avoiding the two incidents which brought out cautions later in the race.

"We probably had a top five car tonight", said Sellers. "We were well prepared and the car continued to get better and better all night. I'm real proud of our whole team. We've really got things working now like we want them to."

Sellers will now travel to Kansas City for the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference. The week-long event showcases 5,400 career and technical education students competing in 91 different leadership and skilled trade disciplines. Sellers is a national spokesperson for the organization and will appear at the opening ceremony.

The annual event also includes TECHSPO, considered the largest trade show for technical education in the nation, where Sellers will be promoting sales of the #47 Jig-A-Loo/SkillsUSA replica car which was run in this year's ARCA RE/MAX race at Daytona. A portion of the proceeds benefit SkillsUSA.

The team's primary sponsor, SFP, also plans to host events in Colby, Kansas with Sellers during his week-long visit.

The team's next scheduled Nationwide Series race is July 25th at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana.

-credit: cm