DAYTONA BEACH, Forida -- Defending track champion Deac McCaskill won three of the first fives races of the season at Southern National Raceway Park in Kenly, N.C. And then they paved the track. He hasn’t been back to Victory Lane since.

But he finally broke his string of bad luck this past weekend with a third- and a fourth-place finish in Southern National’s twin 75-lap features for their Late Model division. It allowed him to move back atop the points lead at the track and moved him up in the national standings.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck on our side,” McCaskill said. “Hopefully, we can turn it around and win some races here. … We still have a long season ahead.”

McCaskill leads the Southern National track standings by 81 over Drew Herring, and jumped from 23rd to 12th in the national standings. Because the point system for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series factors in races run at all NASCAR-sanctioned tracks, Herring is actually in front of McCaskill in the national standings. He is six points ahead and 10th overall.

And Jamey Caudill, who has a pair of fourths at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway and a seventh at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford (Va.) to his credit, is third in points at Southern National but is second in the nation.

“The competition has stepped up so much this year (at Southern National),” said McCaskill, who won four races there last year and entered the season with a goal to win 10. “It’s going to be tough. It’s tough just to win five or six races. Last year, it was pretty much between me and Jamey and Sherman Davis. This year, it’s double.

“We’re fighting for the track championship. But we’re also fighting them nationally. It’s going to be interesting how it all plays out.”

Autodrome St. Eustache in Quebec did not race this past weekend, but Guy Jubinville retained his overall lead in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series point standings with 500. Caudill is two points back, and Rodney Cook, from Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, N.C., stayed at third with 498 as well. Caudill has the higher position because he has more wins, 3-2, than Cook.

Jean Francois Bouvrette, also of Autodrome St. Eustache, is fourth at 496.

Kerry Malone of Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway is fifth at 488, followed by Andy Loden of Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, N.C., with 482. Woody Pitkat and John Blewett III, who compete against Malone at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway and also drive on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, are sixth and seventh, respectively. Ash Dustin of Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Herring round out the top 10.

McCaskill hopes he’s found the setup that will solve his issues at Southern National and allow him to move up in the national rankings.

“We really haven’t been able to get a handle on it,” said the 29-year-old McCaskill, who has raced since he was 13 and competed at Southern National on and off for the past 10 years. “We’d start out running good and fade toward the end.

“We’ve just been playing around with different setup packages – springs and shocks and sway bars – just moving some things around, getting it to handle a little better. ... We’re almost there. I hope this weekend we can get us another win.”

Under the simplified point structure, the race winner will receive two points for every car in the event up to 25 cars. Second place will receive two fewer points, and so-on through the field. For example, if there are 25 cars, the winner receives 50 points, second gets 48 and third 46. If there are 15 cars, the winner receives 30 points, second gets 28 and third 26.

Competitors will count their 18 highest point finishes through Sept. 30. The national champion will earn a reserved spot in the 2007 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway in October.

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