Sellers keeping faith that opportunities soon to come

After spending years of grassroots racing, 24-year-old Peyton Sellers feared he might be on his way to home-track lifer status with no chance of advancement.

The Virginia native had more than paid his dues in NASCAR's development series, winning a Late Model championship and races in both the sport's East and West touring divisions.

Still, Sellers finds himself with no guaranteed plan for the 2009 season despite winning the season-ending race in the NASCAR Camping World Series East last weekend at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Howie Hodge/NASCAR

Peyton Sellers won last weekend at Stafford Motor Speedway.

"It was a good race for us," said Sellers, driver of the No. 44 Chevrolet for Andy Santerre Motorsports. "We led 42 laps of the 150. Unfortunately, [Ted] Christopher had been leaking fluid and grease covered my windshield, he checked up after Brian Ickler spun on the restart with eight laps to go and I got into him. I hated it for him."

Nevertheless, the win secured Sellers a starting spot in the postseason NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown in January at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

The win could also secure him a ticket out of the development ranks and into a permanent livelihood in one of NASCAR's three national touring divisions.

Sellers has been given a handful of opportunities although only one possessed any real potential. That was with Richard Childress Racing in 2006. He was a paid development driver and ran a full season of Camping World Series West with Bill McAnally where he was named rookie of the year. Sellers finished fifth in the final point standings.

"We had hopes of moving to a Nationwide car the following year, but in November [Richard Childress Racing] said they didn't have the funding and that I was free to look elsewhere," Sellers said. "I thought my career was set. It was very disappointing and that was that."

But that wasn't that.

With the help of his brother H.C. Sellers and father Burt Sellers, the young racer launched a family-run team, built cars from bare chassis, and ran a full season of Camping World Series East the following year.

He finished third in the final point standings and qualified for the Toyota All-Star Showdown, where he finished second of 40 cars in the 250-lap event.

"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.