Sellers keeping faith that opportunities soon to come (cont'd)

"The good Lord blessed us enough to keep the car in one piece all season and went on to the Showdown and finished second behind Joey Logano," Sellers said.

The accomplishment is what caught the attention of well-known championship-winning team owner Andy Santerre, who signed Sellers for the 2008 season.

But with the new team came new problems for Sellers. The driver and his brother acting as crew chief won the season opener -- the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway -- but the win was disqualified because of "illegal shock absorbers" and H.C. was suspended for multiple races

Broken fuel pumps, blown tires and other bad racing luck continued to plague the team throughout the year. Performance eventually turned a corner with a few races remaining in the season -- a pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and finally the win at Stafford.

Sellers has made a couple of Nationwide Series starts with under-funded teams, but it was always what he called a "one-off" deal.

Now he's ready to build a permanent career in the series

"It's been trying times," Sellers said. "It tests your faith definitely, but I do what I can on my behalf and leave the rest in God's hands. It gives me peace of mind that I don't have all the control."

However, what he does have control over is his choice to be a so-called lifer in the developmental series. Money and fame that come with NASCAR's big leagues isn't why Sellers wants to race in them.

"If I could just make a decent living and be competitive I would race my Late Models, but that's hard," he said. "So I want to keep moving up, but I want to move up to be competitive, not just to say I'm there."

Otherwise, he'd just as soon be a lifer.