DEMING — When they’re not racing at the track, Steven Hendrickson and Spud Allen live across the street from each other on Cottonwood Avenue in Bellingham.

“We call it the ‘Wood Hood,’ ” Allen said Friday after the second night of preliminaries for the 25th Annual Nooksack River Casino Clay Cup Nationals.

Turns out, their new “hood” could become victory lane at Deming Speedway.

Allen led from start to finish to claim his first feature victory in the 600 class, and Hendrickson followed with a victory in the 1,200 A-Main, his second feature win at the speedway.

Neither could have picked a much better time to turn in an impressive performance with the final night of Clay Cup, the largest annual event at the track, only one night later on Saturday, July 19.

“I placed second at Clay Cup a few years back,” Allen said. “To get a win now, even though it’s the preliminaries of Clay Cup, feels pretty good.”

Allen had plenty to feel really good about Friday, as he was driving what was definitely the dominant car in the 600 A-Main.

Allen, who started on the outside of the first row, took the lead coming out of the first set of turns over Larry Jenne and never relinquished it.

Logan Forler and Thursday night feature winner Austin Wheatley traded second place a couple of times, but neither seemed to have an answer for catching Allen.

“We definitely hit on the setup tonight,” Allen said. “We got ourselves out front and hit all our spots the whole race.”

Forler, who was the fastest qualifier for the second straight night, finished second, and Jake Benson got around Wheatley for third place.

Hendrickson looked like he was going to have a similarly dominant performance in the 1,200 feature race, as he also took the lead from outside the front row on the first lap. But unlike his neighbor, Hendrickson’s car fell off a bit as the race progressed.

“The further the racing goes, the drier the track gets, and that changes how your car handles a little,” Hendrickson said. “I just started sliding around a bit more.”

As Hendrickson fell off, Thursday night feature winner Jason Bloodgood seemed to pick up.

He was up to third by a caution on the fourth lap and took over second when he avoided a Lap 11 restart crash near the front of the field that forced the car he was chasing — Sherman Holloway — to the pits with a broken front wing.

Bloodgood then set his sights on Hendrickson, trying to slide underneath him in the corners. On Lap 13 between turns 3 and 4, Bloodgood made it stick, allowing him to sneak under Hendrickson for the lead.

“Jason definitely had a better car,” Hendrickson said.

But in racing, it’s not all about being good.

As Bloodgood tried to work his way through lapped traffic in turns 1 and 2 with less than three laps to go, he appeared to catch the inside of the turn, turning his car on its side and ending his night. Defending Clay Cup 1,200 champion Aaron Fell, who was third at the time, also spun in the corner, sending him to the back of the field.

Hendrickson reassumed the lead, and even had the benefit of two lapped cars between himself and new second- and third-place drivers Eric Drake and Derek Holmwood for the restart. Drake worked his way through the lapped cars, but had no time to try catching Hendrickson, while Cody Anderlini passed Holmwood for third place.

“There was definitely a little bit of luck involved tonight,” Hendrickson said. “But luck is part of racing.”

It’s a part both he and Allen, who have never raced in the same class, hope to keep at least one more night for the Clay Cup finals, when they and the rest of the field will attempt to claim the winner’s share of the $15,000 purse.

If they can, you better believe there will be some kind of block party on Cottonwood Avenue.