HAMPTON, VA – Domination. That’s the word to describe Lee Pulliam’s night in Saturday night’s Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway.

In his Hampton Heat debut, Pulliam charged to the front and stayed there for a good portion of the race. He had a moment of panic when the caution came out on lap 194 with Matt Waltz and Greg Edwards hot on his tail.

“We were checked out fourteen car lengths or so and that caution came out,” Pulliam said.  “I was like ‘oh my god’. I just knew I had to get a good start before Greg almost got me. I just had to dig really really hard there to make sure I beat the other guy to the line.”

What Pulliam pulled off during the race that most couldn’t was taking the outside on the restarts.

“It was tough,” Pulliam remarked.  “I kept taking the inside on the restarts and every time I took the inside trying to get the fresh pavement, I’d go back back back, and finally I was in the hornet’s nest. I just had to get up on the wheel and drive back through them so that taught me. I used the first half to learn what I needed to do different for the second half which presented me with taking the outside on all the restarts.

“It’s really special for me and my team being I’ve never seen this place until this year. To come here and win the biggest race of the year is pretty special for all of us especially with the weekend we had. We went racing at Motor Mile last night [and won] and nobody gave up.”

As soon as the green flag dropped, it was clear who the top contenders for the win would be.

Pulliam, after briefly losing the lead from the outside to Tyler Hughes, took the lead and ran with it.  Many drivers would find themselves taking the cone to start on the outside on the front row and finding success with it as they made a move on the outside to take the lead, only to get it taken back again by Pulliam. That was until Matt Waltz took the lead on a restart around lap 60 which forced Pulliam to the high side where he got shuffled back and settled in the eighth position. Waltz continued to lead until the halfway break.

One word defined the first half of the race as many drivers voiced their frustration; impatience.

Falk, Greg Edwards, and Lee Pulliam were amongst those that voice their irritation. Matt Waltz claimed he had to take the lead as early as possible to avoid the hard racing that was going on behind him, but all of that changed once the green flag for the second half dropped. Brenden Queen took it 3-wide for the lead and ended up tagging Waltz causing him to spin in turn four.

“Well, we just went down and we took the green and came off of turn two,” Waltz said, extremely dejected after a hard fought finish. “It was two-wide with the 5 car and the 03 just drove it down in there. He was probably on the grass, you know, because my left sides were on the apron on the line. I don’t know where he was. If he was on the grass, if he never lifted. The kid runs somebody over every week. And when you run somebody over every week, maybe you need to look at yourself and say ‘hey, maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I can’t drive because I’ve wrecked people every single week.’ That’s all there really is to it.”

Waltz ended up having to start at the tail end of the field but fought his way back to a miraculous finish in second.

He explained his journey back to the front.

“Well, it takes patience, you know. That’s what good race car drivers do. They don’t just run people over. They take their time and you pass people one by one. I passed 20 cars without wrecking one. I don’t think I have to say anything more. It just sucks that we had to do that because of circumstances that we were dealt. I hate it for all the guys.”

Official Race Results

1. #5 Lee Pulliam
2. #2 Matt Waltz
3. #97 Greg Edwards
4. #58 Tyler Ankrum
5. #10 Nick Smith
6. #27 Tommy Lemons
7. #6 Colin Cabre
8. #03 Brenden Queen
9. #01 GR Waldrop
10. #7 Michael Hardin
11. #11 Juan Garcia
12. #36 Chris Johnson
13. #57 Eddie Johnson
14. #25 Craig Eastep
15. #41 Brayton Haws
16. #40 CE Falk
17. #92 Casey Wyatt
18. #98 Todd Gilliland
19. #83 Matt Bowling
20. #91 Justin Carroll
21. #77 Connor Hall
22. #55 Mark Wertz
23. #33 Macy Causey
24. #12 Austin Thaxton
25. #12C Garrett Campbell
26. #33B Kenny Forbes
27. #8 Tyler Hughes
28. #26 Danny Edwards, Jr.
29. #90 Terry Carroll
30. #4 Natalie Decker
31. #99 Tony Keen — DNS