RIDGEWAY, VA :: Lee Pulliam scored his second career victory in the MDCU 300 Late Model race at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon, jumping ahead of Peyton Sellers on a green-white-checkered restart to claim another grandfather clock and the $25,000 grand prize.
For the second season in a row, the annual Martinsville Late Model race was decided under controversial circumstances as Pulliam was second on the restart and beat Sellers to the line by several car-lengths.
Sellers dropped to fourth before reaching Turn 1 and was hounded by Mike Darne over the next lap. Going back into Turn 1 the next time around, Darne shoved Sellers hard into the outside retaining wall and Anthony Anders had nowhere to go, plowing into the prone Sellers Late Model as a result.
The caution ended the race as Pulliam had already taken the white flag.
Despite beating Sellers to the start-finish line, NASCAR deemed Pulliam the winner of the race. Pulliam believes Sellers was playing games on the restarts and that he wasn’t on the throttle until the official restart zone.
“He’s done that a lot,” Pulliam said of Sellers. “I’ve raced him a lot and he plays games a lot on the restarts. I felt like I waited until I was at the line, and once I reached the line, I went. It was pretty cool. I knew he was going to pull something like that and try to get us in trouble on the restart but I knew I was in my spot when I got on the gas.”
Both Anders and Sellers were transported to the infield care center after the accident. Sellers was cleared and released but decline an interview request while Anders was transporter to a local hospital for further evaluation.
Sam Yarbourgh, Tommy Lemons Jr., BJ Mackey and Darne completed the top-5.
Yarbourgh and Lemons were the other beneficiaries of the final restart, following Pulliam on the outside line around Sellers and into second and third. Lemons wasn’t able to repeat as Martinsville champion but was satisfied to survive the melee despite all that surrounded the final laps.
“We were just trying to ride right there,” Lemons said. “We didn’t have the best car today and were trying to just get the best finish that we could. I don’t know what happened with (Sellers) on that final restart but we got beside him and came up a little short on the win today.”
Lemons won the Martinsville Late Model race last season by what many onlookers perceived as a jumped restart. Lemons was behind Pulliam on the final restart on Sunday night and says he saw the same thing play out in that the leader, Sellers, was bit by his own efforts to play games coming off of Turn 4.
“Peyton almost started, but didn’t, and I guess Lee felt like it was an attempt to start and he took off,” Lemons said. “And now, he’s down there in Victory Lane. You can’t fault Lee, that’s just part of it.”
Pulliam joined Kiker Motorsports and the No. 5 team late last season and the partnership has paid instant dividends. In addition to 25 NASCAR sanctioned race victories, the Motor Mile Speedway track championship and a runner-up finish in the Whelen All-American Series national standings, team owner Travis Kiker has also been rewarded with a victory in the biggest Late Model Stock race of the season.
“I’ve had a lot of good drivers over the years but I won’t never have another driver than him,” Kiker said of Pulliam. “This is unbelievable and I can’t believe it. I’ve got to thank my dad for letting us do this. I was just praying so I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Pulliam restarted fourth for the restart that followed the 10 to go competition caution and survived the ensuing incident that began when Sellers brake-checked Dillon Bassett upon taking the green flag. As a result of the brake check, Coleman Pressley ran into the back of Bassett and ignited a multicar incident that included C.E. Falk, Kres VanDyke, Michael McGuire, Myatt Snider and William Byron.
The majority of the first half of the race featured Pulliam, Sellers, Kaz Grala and Timothy Peters exchanging the lead. The racing was tough but clean and few cars were eliminated from contention during the first 100 laps of the event.
The hardest racing occurred in front of the leaders as lap cars raced side-by-side in order to avoid losing a lap to the frontrunners. Grala was scored as the leader at the time pf the halfway break, barely nipping Peters entering Turn 1 when they halftime yellow was shown to the field.
NASCAR inverted nine cars at the halfway break, putting Darne, Pressley and Bassett at the front of the field. Sellers and Pulliam restarted sixth and seventh respectively.
Race results for the 2014 MDCU 300 at Martinsville Speedway can be found below. A replay of Race 22’s live coverage can be viewed here.
- Lee Pulliam
- Sam Yarbourgh
- Tommy Lemons, Jr.
- BJ Mackey
- Mike Darne
- Matt Bowling
- Matt Waltz
- Davin Scites
- Kyle Dudley
- Brayton Haws
- Mike Looney
- Peyton Sellers
- Josh Berry
- Anthony Anders
- Kres Van Dyke
- GR Waldrop
- Eddie Johnson
- William Byron
- Coleman Pressley
- Dillon Bassett
- Myatt Snider
- Michael McGuire
- CE Falk, III
- Timothy Peters
- Stacy Puryear
- Terry Carroll
- Kaz Grala
- Travis Swaim
- Philip Morris
- Brenden Queen
- Justin Carroll
- Deac McCaskill
- David Garbo, Jr.
- Clint King
- Gary Lewis
- Barry Beggarly
- Joey Mucciacciaro
- Todd Gilliland
- Austin Thaxton
- R.D. Smith
- Shane Lee
- Tyler Ankrum
