Philpott took a win in the Sept. 17 Western Late Model race, a 51/50 Live the Madness feature. He seized the lead on Lap 138 of the 150-lap race and held on for the checkered flag.
Officially, it was his second win of the year, but Philpott also counts his two 50-lap events Sept. 3 as wins. He took the lead early in the first race and held on to cross the finish line first, and he competed with Sammy Solari of Escalon for the lead through much of the second race and finished first there, too.
At the end of the night, officials asked inspect the Philpott car and to confirm that it complied with NASCAR rules, but Philpott’s crew asked that the inspection be done the next morning.
After the parties were unable to agree on when to do the inspection, he was disqualified. Wins for both races went to Jeff Belletto of Modesto, who ended up being crowned the Stockton 99 Western Late Models points champion two weeks later.
Philpott said that as far as he and his family are concerned, he goes into Sunday’s 150-lap Fall Classic, the final event of the season, with three wins in a row, hoping to close the season at Stockton 99 with four.
“It’s the best we’ve run in a long time,” he said. “It’s just too bad it’s at the end of the season instead of the beginning.”
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