FAIRLAWN, VA :: Lee Pulliam became only the third driver in NASCAR history to win multiple NASCAR Whelen All American Series (NWAAS) National Championships on Saturday night. Pulliam picked up his second consecutive NWAAS National Championship by virtue of his win at Motor Mile Speedway, his 18th full-field win in the 2013 season, putting him at 810 points in the National Standings – a statistical perfect record.
With his win in the 250-lap, $10,000 to win ‘Barnburner’ at Motor Mile and the NWAAS National Championship, Pulliam joins Philip Morris and the late Larry Phillips as multi-time NWAAS National Champions.
“That’s unbelievable,” Pulliam said. “It doesn’t get any better than that. We’ll take this win home tonight. We had to work for it. The car wasn’t exactly right and I got up on the wheel, got lucky and got some breaks at the right time and was able to pull away. To be blessed and be in company with Philip Morris and Larry Phillips, that’s something that is an amazing statement. A perfect season, it’s unbelievable.”
Pulliam took the lead on a restart on lap lap 155 and checked out en route to victory lane.
“I knew this would be our best chance to have a perfect season with the car counts,” Pulliam remarked. “We just knew this race would be extremely tough to win. You have a lot of guys gunning hard. There’s a bunch of guys who stepped their game up this week. Everybody’s been working hard tonight. We just had to keep working to stay ahead of them. We had enough to get it done.”
Pulliam also remarked on how special it was to win two consecutive national championships.
“It’s really amazing how much people help us out and how much fans helped us out,” Pulliam commented. “The crew is all volunteer and I couldn’t have done it without any of them. The lord has blessed us all with this opportunity and it’s been a blessing. If I never won another Late Model Stock Car race, I’ve been blessed.”
Pulliam’s toughest competition in the race came from Deac McCaskill who retired from the race due to mechanical problems and from Peyton Sellers and Tommy Lemons, Jr. who were involved in an accident in turn four on lap 145.
“Peyton just got a little too impatient,” Lemons said. Lemons felt he had a good enough car to win the race.
“Brandon Dean was holding everybody up,” Sellers stated. “That was just a typical invert… fast cars in the back and slow cars in the front. It’s very unfortunate. I hate it for Tommy, for me and for my team that we were all torn up.”
Sellers also responded to Lemons’ remarks, saying, “There’s 10,000 on the line. It’s time to get impatient. They ran side-by-side for 15 laps and Dean was just a rolling roadblock. It was obvious neither one of them was going to make a pass.”
Sellers was referring to an eight car inversion at the halfway point which put Dean at the front of the field for the start of the second half of the race.
“It’s good to see all the competition we have and it’s good to see everybody run well,” NASCAR Whelen All American Series Director Lynn Carroll said. “Lee Pulliam’s got it hooked up. They’re good. It’s good to see it. It’s been a good tight battle all year. I’m glad to see it. We’re always working to make things better. We hope it is better (next year). We hope the car counts come up. We’re working hard with the competitors to get where it needs to be.”
Pulliam’s win on Saturday was his 26th win of the season and his 18th win in fields with 20 or more cars. That 18th win resulted in a perfect season, putting Pulliam at the necessary 810 points to win his second consecutive NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Championship.
Race Results
1. #1 Lee Pulliam
2. #83 Matt Bowling
3. #5 Brandon Dean
4. #88 Josh Berry
5. #14 Trey Jarrell
6. #47 Mike Looney
7. #25 Derrick Lancaster
8. #7 Ashley Huffman
9. #2 Dennis Holdren
10. #57 Kelly Kingery
11. #6 Bobby McCarty
12. #98 Jason Lawrence
13. #51 Kyle Dudley
14. #10 Michael McGuire
15. #24 Philip Sisson
16. #8 Deac McCaskill
17. #27 Tommy Lemons, Jr.
18. #99 Peyton Sellers
19. #3 Adam Long
20. #29 Anderson Bowan
21. #80 Kris Bowen
22. #19 Chad Finchum
23. #40 Brodie Kostecki
24. #2 Aaron Deplazes
25. #8 Myatt Snider
26. #96 Andrew Thomas
27. #12 Garrett Campbell — DQ
