Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Copper Hill, VA(January 8, 2012) – Motor Mile was again the place to be with the highest average car count of any Late Model Stock Car track and arguably the best competition.
Motor Mile Speedway’s 2012 season was a record making season for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series affiliated team, but more than that it was the stage for 10 of the seasons wins for the eventual NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Champion. If you simply take a look at the li
st of winners from the 2012 season, you’d be hard pressed to believe that Lee Pulliam didn’t win the championship there. He led the NASCAR sanctioned Late Model Stock Car division with 10 wins on the season. However, those 10 wins came in just 14 starts of the 18 races held on the Fairlawn, VA short track.
Pulliam’s 2012 story began with Pulliam being suspended from NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition due to an incident with Philip Morris in the 300-lap special event at South Boston Speedway in October of 2011. In Pulliam’s absence, JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry became the cream of the crop.
The season kicked off on March 31st with Langley Speedway regular CE Falk III making a rare appearance and putting his team in victory lane. Falk qualified on the pole and took home the win. Sound boring? Not so much. Falk wasn’t able to start from the pole after his exhaust fell off prior to the green flag. Relegated to the rear, Falk’s Toyota was on a rail and quickly returned to the front of the pack.
With Falk having grabbed the first win of the season and not in attendance for the second race of the season, the win was up for grabs. Mike Looney started from the pole in the second race of the season and at the drop of the green flag he was still the man to beat. Falk would return for race three and pick up his second win of the season, but due to a full schedule at his home track of Langley Speedway, it would be his last win at Motor Mile.
With Pulliam returning to the track, everyone expected him to pick up where he had left off the season before. In 2011, he had won 16 of 20 races and despite his suspension he had successful returned to South Boston Speedway in two races held during the month of May before his May 19th return to Motor Mile.
Pulliam’s bad luck in his return to Motor Mile didn’t last long as on the very next race weekend, he doubled up on victories. He followed that up with another win in a set of twins two weeks later on June 16th, but bad luck and an old rival returned in the second race and left Pulliam’s car with significant damage. His 2011 rival, Frank Deiny, Jr., picked up the win in the second race of the night, but not before contact between the two sparked controversy.
Pulliam didn’t set the pole as he had so many times before as Adam Long grabbed his first career pole award in the fourth race of the season. However, the 2011 track champion did take the lead early and dominate the race, but he wasn’t the one who ended the night in victory lane. Pulliam’s domination of the night was ended on a late restart when he cut down a tire racing hard with eventual champion Josh Berry. Berry would survive the contact and go on to pick up his only win of the 2012 season.
Deiny was blamed for Pulliam’s crash, which also took Derrick Lancaster out of the race. While Pulliam was on probation and didn’t offer much of an opinion, Lancaster was outspoken about the incident. He vowed revenge on Deiny, who he had a brush up with in the previous race as well. Deiny and Lancaster had gotten together on June 2nd resulting in Lancaster spinning in race one and the veteran returning the favor to Deiny in race two.
Lancaster, who has struggled greatly since moving up from a dominant career in Limited Late Models, grabbed a second place finish in the second twin on that night after receiving a black flag for his contact with Deiny. He was again in the mix for the win, running second when the contact between Deiny and Pulliam took him out of the race. While the Pulliam/Deiny rivalry died off, the Deiny/Lancaster rivalry would flicker on as they began a war of words with Lancaster even attempting to take Deiny out while struggling during the late stages of a later race.
With now five different winners on the season, Tommy Lemons, Jr. was ready to put his name on the list. He put down a pole winning qualifying lap on June 23rd and was poised to pick up his first win on the season. On the pace laps, Lemons chances at victory seemingly vanished as he pulled down pit road to have his throttle reattached. He would start shotgun on the field, but would make his way back toward the front fast in a long green flag run.
Lemons put himself in position to compete for the win but, with a run back to the front from the rear of the field, the question was whether he had enough to beat Pulliam. After catching Pulliam and stalking him for many laps, Lemons got a break as the caution waved with just seven laps to go and Lemons knew he had a chance at victory.
In what was the most thrilling race of the season, Lemons and Pulliam raced side by side to the finish with contact coming out of turn four as they raced for the win. Pulliam would slide up a little, Lemons wouldn’t give an inch and, as they crossed under the checkered flag, it was Lemons winning by just a few feet as the pair nearly crashed after crossing the line. It was Lemons’ first win in two seasons and it continued a short losing streak for Pulliam.
Pulliam would return strong in the next race as he went on a five race win streak. As the competitors returned to the track on August 18th, Pulliam’s streak would come to an end at the hands of Lemons. With Pulliam competing in twin races at South Boston rather than the single 150-lapper at Motor Mile, Lemons would pick up the win. However, that win was not without incident.
After starting second on this night, Lemons and the rest of the leaders would find themselves in an oil slick as a car near the back of the field would have his engine expire. With smoke throughout the turns and the front of the field barreling down into turn one, the track chose not to throw a caution. Lemons and the rest of the front runners hit the oil and all of them went spinning.
Lemons would save his car as it was spinning and return to restart fourth while several of the leaders wouldn’t be so lucky. Lemons would take his car to the point around lap 70 and would never look back for his second and final win of the season. Pulliam would return for the next race, which was the next to last race of the season, but so too would the reason for his early season suspension.
Philip Morris, the driver who owned Motor Mile Speedway for nearly a decade was making his return to the 4/10 mile track for the first time in 2012. Morris, who had a story of his own on the season as he missed most of the season after losing his ride just months after winning his fourth NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship. Morris had already picked up his first win of the season, a week earlier at South Boston and, on this night, he and Pulliam would battle hard for the lead for much of the race.
In the end, Pulliam would spin and return to finish third while Morris took his car to victory lane. Deiny, who hadn’t performed as well since his one controversial win, finished second and was working to gain points on point leader Josh Berry. Berry had run into a little bad luck and Deiny was looking to capitalize with just one race to go.
In the final race weekend of the year, Pulliam would go unchallenged to twin wins, but Berry would have the last laugh as he secured the championship. For Berry it would be a first for him, but more importantly, he would secure the first championship for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s JR Motorsports — their first championship of any kind.
In the end, it was a veteran driver, who already has five different track championships to his credit, falling short to a young buck with loads of talent. And, while the eventual NASCAR National Champion stole the show in most of the races he competed in, the eventual track champion put himself on the map with top performances week in and week out. 2012 proved once again that Motor Mile Speedway is the cream of the crop for NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars and that’s not likely to change into the new season.
Motor Mile Speedway will race into their 25th season of NASCAR Whelen All-American Series competition with the shortest schedule in the track’s history. The season will feature six sets of twin 125-lap races, which will be part of a special $10,000 points fund with Southern National Motorsports Park dubbed “The Dirty Dozen”. The season will be highlighted by a special 25th Anniversary 200-lap, $10,000 to win race. It will be the first big race at the Fairlawn, VA track in many seasons and will likely draw a huge car count with most tracks not competing with Late Model Stock Cars that weekend.
