After coming close the past two years, Lee Pulliam found his way to victory lane in the MDCU 300 at Martinsville Speedway Sunday.
The Semora, N.C. native beat Peyton Sellers on the final restart and survived a chaotic two laps and won his second career Late Model Stock Car race at the historic half-mile track.
“The last four or five years we’ve had a shot to win the race here and every year I’ve felt like I’ve had a winning race car and been wrecked or something crazy has happened,” said Pulliam, who also won in 2011. “The two years I’ve done it I didn’t have a winning car and I got it done.”
Sam Yarbrough finished second and defending race champion Tommy Lemons Jr. came home third.
“It was pretty awesome. We can’t hang our heads too bad,” Lemons Jr. said. “We came here and qualified third out of 78 cars, finished third and the car’s in one piece.”
B.J. Mackey and Mike Darne rounded out the top-five.
Sellers, who sat on the pole, finished 11th after contact with Yarbrough. Sellers did however take home the Virginia Triple Crown Trophy and $10,000.
Pulliam, who took home the $25,000 (first-place) prize, said this win was better than his 2011 Martinsville win.
“My first one was pretty special, but I tell ya, we lost the last two years; heartbreakers” he said. “This race is so, so hard to win and I have put so much effort into it.”
Local driver Matt Bowling came home sixth, followed by Matt Waltz, Davin Scites, Kyle Dudley and Brayton Haws.
Martinsville Speedway PR
