Story by: Andy Marquis ~ [email protected]
Danville, VA(October 17, 2012) – Four drivers hoping to find their way to victory lane in Sunday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 sat down with members of the press after dinner at Kickback Jacks in Danville on Tuesday night.
Defending race winner and NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Champion Lee Pulliam, South Boston Speedway track champion Matt Bowling, 2005 NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Champion Peyton Sellers and Stephen Berry all met with reporters at the dinner to discuss Sunday’s race.
“I think every successful driver has a bulls eye on them and everyone wants to knock that guy off the podium,” Pulliam said. “It would be really neat to pull (winning the national championship and Martinsville in the same year) off. That’s what we’re going for. We’re not going to run second, third; we’re going there to win the race. I think it’s going to be a hard fought battle. Everybody’s working extremely hard to get their cars as good as possible. From the test, it looks like there’s going to be quite a few cars there. It’s going to be a great show for the fans.
“Philip Morris is always tough and it doesn’t matter if he hasn’t raced in two years. He’ll be tough when he gets behind the wheel. I hadn’t raced in seven or eight months and won the first race back. If you have a knack for these racecars, you have a feel for them pretty quick. (Sitting out most of the season) won’t be a problem for him. He’s going to be extremely tough to beat, Matt McCall, CE Falk – there’s a ton of them.
“Everybody’s waiting to see what’s going to happen, what’s going to take place. It’s going to be who puts themself in the right position to make the right move at the end of the race to win. It’s going to be interesting. I don’t know if it’s going to be best to be leading on that white flag lap or running second. You’ve got to be at the right place at the right time and you’ve got to have a lot of luck. All the cards have to fall in to place.”
Lee Pulliam won last year’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 with a last lap bump-and-run on Matt McCall.
“It can either go really bad or really good for you,” Berry said about the new format. “So much can happen in a 25 lap heat race, whether you have the fastest car or not. Running into debris can take you even before you get to the main event. It’s definitely going to be better racing for the fans and it will get more people out there. You’ll see more racing and more people desperately trying to get in, especially in the last chance race. 50 cars going for 10 spots will definitely be exciting.”
Matt Bowling has a chance to win the Virginia Triple Crown on Sunday. His main rival entering the final race in the three leg championship is three-time Langley Speedway track champion CE Falk, who won the first leg at South Boston Speedway in March. Bowling now has a track championship to his name, winning the track championship at South Boston Speedway.
“We’ve been in the hunt in that thing all year,” Bowling said. “If we could pull that off, that’d be awesome. We’ve had a great season already and to cap it off with that. But we’re going after a win on Sunday. We win that, we win the crown and that’s the goal. Everybody looks forward to Martinsville. It’s our Daytona 500. We’re placing a lot of emphasis on it. This being my home track, I want to win it. I feel good about our chances this year and I think we’ve got a shot at it.
“CE’s going to be tough. He always is, everywhere he goes. I watched him in practice last Wednesday and he was really good. He’s a good driver. We’ve just got to get ourselves in the right place at Martinsville. That’s always a gamble anyways, trying to dodge wrecks and stuff. We’ve got to wait until it gets down to the end and maybe we can beat him.”
Peyton Sellers said he’s putting more emphasis on his late model for Martinsville this year trying to capture the elusive grandfather clock. After Sunday’s race, Sellers will also attempt to qualify for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, scheduled for October 27th.
“I’ll be honest with you, Martinsville’s kind of been, well, I don’t want to say Achilles’ heel but I haven’t put a lot of focus on it the past five or six years because I’ve been doing other stuff,” Sellers said. “Last couple years, we’ve had cars that were last minute deals. This year, we’ve put a lot of effort in to it. The car that I’ve got only has three races on it. It’s got a win at South Boston last race. I feel good about my chances right now… my heads 100 percent in the late model stock program and it hasn’t been the last four or five years. I finished third in ’05, took four or five years off, came back in ’10.
“It’s definitely a race where experience helps. You’ve got to be out front and you’ve got to be clean of that entire headache in the back. If you have a bad heat race and start 15th back, it makes for a long day at the track. With it being a shorter race this time, it’s going to put a little more pressure on that even more. Not only do you have to keep the toe-in and fenders straight for the heat race, you’ve got to put another set of tires and hopefully they come back and act like the first set you had. It’s a little bit of a crapshoot there. It’s a good idea not putting tires on at halfway because that screwed a lot of people up, guys put tires on at the halfway break, you see a lot of guys come to the front and a lot of guys go to the back. They’re doing it a little different this year but I’m a fan of it.”
Mike Smith, director of public relations for Martinsville Speedway, said caution laps would not count during the four 25-lap heat races but that they would count in the 50 lap last chance qualifier.
Practice for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 starts on Saturday afternoon and the heat race grids will be determined by practice speeds. All four heat races and the last chance qualifier will run on Sunday afternoon. After each of the heat races are complete, teams will change tires before the start of the 150-lap feature event.
RACE22.com is your home for coverage of the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 with live coverage from the time teams unload to go through technical inspection on Saturday morning until well after the final car leaves inspection on Sunday.
