The battle for this year’s NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series (NAAPWS) national championship had been a tight one all season long, but now we’re finally starting to see who the real contenders are. Three drivers are currently locked in a close fight, one of whom we expect to see slugging it out every single year. 

We’ll start this off in reverse order as we put a spotlight on the three-time NAAPWS national champion, Danville, Virginia’s Peyton Sellers. As of the most recent points-paying date of July 15, Sellers currently finds himself 38 points out of the championship lead with eight victories in 21 races. It wasn’t that long ago (just two weeks, actually) that Sellers was tied for the points lead, but a crash in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 at South Boston Speedway was a big setback for the driver who barely missed out on a fourth national title one year ago. Typically, the national championship fight goes through Sellers and South Boston Speedway, but it’s beginning to look like that may not be the case this year. 

Twelve points ahead of Sellers is the current second-place man, Richlands, North Carolina’s Tyler Matthews. Matthews currently sits 26 points out of the lead with a total of 510 points on the season so far. Matthews has made 26 starts and has scored seven victories, 22 top-five finishes and 26 top-10 finishes so far. His victories have mostly come at two North Carolina tracks at Hickory Motor Speedway where he is the current track points leader, and Wake County Speedway.

And then there’s the current points leader, hailing from Forest Hill, Maryland, Doug Barnes Jr. In 22 feature starts, Barnes has scored six victories, 17 top-five finishes, and 21 top-10 finishes. Barnes has been winning all over the place with victories at Hickory, Dominion Raceway in Virginia, Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina, and Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina.

That win at SNMP might be the most important one of the season so far. Barnes and Sellers went to that race nearly deadlocked atop the standings. Barnes went on to take the victory while Sellers went back to Virginia with a seventh-place result. That win proved to be even bigger than initially thought because Saturday’s twin 75-lap features at South Boston Speedway just a couple of days later didn’t have full fields to pay out points, which kept Sellers from gaining any ground back that he’d just lost.

And that right there is the beauty of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship. From mid-April to mid-September the points standings ebb and flow. 

The 2022 battle between Sellers and eventual champion Layne Riggs was one for the ages with a head-to-head showdown at Dominion Raceway settling the title. And it looks like we’re headed for a similar showdown this year.

Carver, Minnesota’s Jacob Goede currently sits fourth in points, 152 points behind Barnes. Goede has three victories in 14 starts and is the only driver not from the Southeast to be in the top 10 in the national standings.

Winston-Salem’s Bowman Gray Stadium has four drivers currently in the top 10. Tim Brown leads the way in fifth in the standings. Chris Fleming sits in sixth, Brandon Ward in seventh, and Burt Myers rounds out the top 10.

Hampton, Virginia’s Connor Hall is having an unbelievable season at his home track of Langley Speedway. Hall is a perfect 11-for-11 so far this season. Hall has won every single NAAPWS weekly race to date, as well as the CARS Tour race there in June. Hall currently sits in eighth in points entering this Saturday’s Hampton Heat 200 at Langley where he, of course, is the odds-on favorite.

Denver, North Carolina’s Kade Brown sits ninth in points as of July 15 with seven victories in 15 starts. Brown has wins at Hickory, where he’s second in track points behind Tyler Matthews, and at the nearby Tri-County Speedway.

Race fans can watch the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national championship battle play out every weekend with racing from Hickory, South Boston, Florence, Riverhead Raceway, La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, Berlin Raceway, Meridian Speedway and Alaska Raceway Park all live on FloRacing. Fans can subscribe to FloRacing by clicking here.

NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series National Points (As of July 15)