Peyton—The Other Peyton—Leads the Pack at the Magic Mile

Peyton—no, not Manning, but the other Peyton—Peyton Sellers—is at the front of the pack, qualifying for the pole position in NASCAR's Camping World East Series at the Magic Mile in New Hampshire.  Peyton Sellers posted the fastest speed in qualifying at 126.437 mph for the quickest qualifying lap at 30.124 seconds. 

Sellers edged out veteran Steve Park, who ran a qualifying lap of 30.177 seconds.  Eddie MacDonald came in third, with Brian Ickler right behind him.  Marc Davis rounded out the top five in the qualifying effort.

Other Camping World East series notables Jeffrey Earnhardt qualified in the ninth position and points leader Matt Kobyluck qualified in the thirteenth position.  Childress grandson and racing phenom Austin Dillon qualified in the fifteenth position.

The Camping World East Series just got their qualifying run in before the rains rolled in to the hills of New Hampshire.  The inclement weather cancelled Cup qualifying and ultimately cancelled the NHMS Camping World East Heluva Good! Fall 125 race.  The Camping World East Series will run their race instead at 10:00 am on Saturday, September 13th.

While Peyton Manning has much to prove on the football field, the other Peyton—Peyton Sellers—has much to prove on the race track.  Sellers, age 24, has been racing for 16 years.  He has over 30 wins and 50 poles in various NASCAR races.  He began racing go karts at age seven and moved quickly up the racing ranks.

In 2005, Sellers was the youngest driver in NASCAR history to win the Dodge Weekly Racing Series Championship.  He did so at the South Boston track, where they actually even named a grandstand after him.

In 2006, Sellers went to the Camping World West series, racing for Richard Childress Racing in their driver development program.  He was named Rookie of the Year and finished fifth in points. 

In 2007, Peyton transferred to the East series, racing for his family team, crew chiefed by his brother HC Sellers.  This partnership worked well and the team finished third in points for the season.

At the end of the 2007 season, Sellers went to the championship race for the weekly series, the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway in California.  Peyton finished in the second position, after battling mightily with NASCAR's newest rising star Joey Logano, who is scheduled to take over the JGR number 20 Home Depot car in 2009.

With Logano's debut in a Cup car at the Magic Mile this weekend, rival Sellers most likely had something to prove in his qualifying run at the track.  He did so in fine fashion in his number 44 car with Andy Santerre Motorsports, by decisively taking the P1 position for the East series race. 

Just as the other Peyton—Manning that is—is poised to take the field for the Indianapolis Colts against Minnesota this weekend, Peyton Sellers will bring the Camping World East field to the green at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  And fans of both Peytons will most surely be cheering.