Aaron Turnbull had the Estevan Motor Speedway modified championship locked up.
And then he lost it.
An incident involving Turnbull, Joey Galloway and Mason Big Eagle during Saturday's feature led to all three drivers being disqualified.
In an ironic twist, that meant that Turnbull's brother, Tyson, won the season points title.
In a feud that spilled over from Friday's races, Turnbull and Galloway collided hard on the front stretch. Turnbull then rammed Galloway's car, followed by Big Eagle slamming into Turnbull from behind.
Big Eagle and Galloway both race out of the same operation in Manor.
"Nobody wants to be the guy who didn't get the last push or shove in," said Speedway past-president David Mack. "It started Friday night, but I think (the feud) started many races before that."
Neither side was willing to comment on the incident.
"I've got nothing good to say, so I'll just keep my mouth shut," said Turnbull.
Mack explained that the disqualifications were standard procedure for the infractions that took place.
"In a nutshell, the three cars were DQ'd. Think of it as five minutes for fighting and a game misconduct. Everybody that was involved got the same penalty," he said.
"We'll send a report to the IMCA (International Motor Contest Association) and if they want to take supplemental action, that'll be up to the governing body."
Ed Turnbull won the feature in a walk, grabbing the lead early on and taking the checkered flag by nearly half a lap.
"I didn't see who was behind me at all, so I didn't know what kind of a margin I had," said Ed. "We've had an excellent season. I think that's around 15 wins between the three of us. I don't think we've ever had a year like this before."
Tyson Turnbull entered the night in third place in the standings, 31 points behind his brother - mathematically eliminated by a country mile under normal circumstances. Allen Kent was second at the start of the evening but didn't start the feature.
Aaron Turnbull wound up tied for second with Mike Hagen, eight points behind Tyson.
"It was definitely a bit of a surprise, yeah," Tyson said. "Honestly, I hadn't looked at the points all year until the end of the race Saturday, when they told me there was a possibility I might end up with the championship."
He started Saturday's feature in dead last, 25th, and managed to scamper all the way up to second.
"I just found the right holes to get around those guys. Usually I'm real patient, but I really didn't waste any time with anybody," Tyson said. "Usually I'm not real good through traffic like that, that's kind of my brother's specialty."
He added that it wasn't the way he'd prefer to win, but he'll take it.
"I'd definitely rather be winning all the races and cleaning house all the time and winning it in a dominating fashion. (But) the record book doesn't show how you get them, I guess."
Rocky Alexander hung on to win his third straight stock car championship, finishing second in Saturday's feature. Challenger Kelly Henderson, who wound up six points behind, was right on his tail in third place.
Alexander and Henderson started the race in 11th and 12th, respectively, but quickly worked their way up. Henderson passed Alexander on the ninth lap, but he needed to finish at least six spots ahead to win the championship and Alexander stuck to him like glue, finally passing him with two laps to go.
Robby Rosselli won the race, taking the lead after J.J. Barnstable lost control on the 12th lap.
In the hobby stock class, it was Gary Goudy Sr. claiming the season championship, overcoming a seven-point deficit to take the title away from Blaine Durward.
Goudy finished sixth in the feature, which was won by Brock Beeter for the second straight night. Durward did not finish and placed 19th.
On Friday night, Tyson and Aaron Turnbull finished one-two in the mod feature.
"I'm pretty sure everybody else we race against is getting awful sick of us," Tyson laughed, referring to the back-to-back one-two finishes for the family.
Jim Harris ran third on Friday and fifth on Saturday.
Tanner Matthewson won Friday's stock car feature.
