CONCORD, N.C. :: It was the battle for seventh although Deac McCaskill and Tommy Lemons Jr. were essentially engaged in a premature showdown for the CARS Tour LMSC championship.

That was the scene on Saturday night when McCaskill caught Lemons on Lap 80 of the 100-lap event at Concord Speedway. McCaskill started at the rear of the field due to a parts failure during qualifying and it took him 80 laps to catch his closest championship rival.

McCaskill entered the race with an eight-point advantage but risked losing it all due to a broken lifter that manifested itself just before time trials. But Lemons wasn’t even willing to call it a battle, given how their exchanged played out.

“What battle? He caught and passed me — there really was no battle,” Lemons said. “I don’t know what happened. I thought we had a good car yesterday but we struggled with speed today. We were just way too loose. It just wasn’t a good effort today.”

Lemons may look back on Saturday as a missed opportunity. He needed to finish ahead of McCaskill given that circumstances gave him a 11-spot head start at the drop of the green flag but just didn’t have speed.

It’s as simple as that.

“I don’t have an answer for it,” Lemons said. “Everyone else was good or better and we just missed it. We’ll just have to go back to the shop and see where we’re at come Kenly next week.”

But credit has to be given to McCaskill for one of the most spirited drives of the season. Concord is challenging triangular shaped track and it’s often difficult to pass. And yet, McCaskill charged from 20th to seventh in 90 laps.

He believes he had a car capable of winning if not for the parts failure that impeded his qualifying effort.

“We just had an awesome race car,” McCaskill said. “We broke a lifter in qualifying. David West took it apart and tried to get all the metal out. We were actually hoping for a rain out so we could change the motor and come back tomorrow.

“But it stayed together and we just ran good but we just needed more cautions. I needed to get by Tommy first and actually did that so we actually gained points. Incredible.”

McCaskill initially just wanted to survive the race. He was worried that starting so deep in the field would put him at risk for a costly incident. But the race stayed green for the first 90 laps and the on-track action was relatively clean.

Now he heads to Southern National Motorsports Park where he’s led all but three laps over his last three starts. It’s by far his best track and he’s won the second and third races at Kenly in CARS Tour competition. He’s also the winner of the 2006 Thanksgiving Classic.

“Yeah, it’s good but that’s also a lot of pressure so we’ve got to keep it going,” McCaskill said. “We can’t go there and run second now because we’ll look bad. (laughs) We’re excited and think we have a good car for it. It’s been great at Kenly and that’s all you can ask for.”

As for Lemons, he’s not counting points, but he recognizes the importance of beating McCaskill over the final three races.

“We’re just going for the win,” Lemons said. “Like I’ve said all along. We just need to win out. I don’t know how the points stands right now but if you win out, the points are going to add up.”

McCaskill takes a 12-point advantage over Lemons into next weekend at Southern National.