Story by: Andy Marquis ~[email protected]

Ridgeway, VA(October 21, 2012) – Philip Morris collected his third grandfather clock in Sunday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 at Martinsville Speedway.  Morris grabbed the lead in the closing stages of the race from Matt Bowling and held off a late race charge from Lee Pulliam to score the victory.

“I can’t believe it,” Morris said.  “I guess when I get home a week from Thursday, I’ll believe it.  It was an awesome day just watching one opportunity after another and filling in the whole.  The car was really good.  It was good out front.  I can’t thank Sellers Racing enough for that.  On the restart, that thing was good and fast.”

Pulliam started on the pole but lost the lead to Matt McCall early in the race.  From there, Pulliam faded.  After the lap 75 invert, Pulliam restarted third and was able to get to second.

“I guess we had a little misread in the rules,” Pulliam said.  “I thought we were going to have ten green flag laps after that caution on lap 140 and we only had five or six.  I don’t know if we got shorted four or five laps or if we misread the rules.  It is what it is.  We finished second.  Congratulations to Philip, he won it.”

BJ Mackey ran in the top five all race and came home with a third place finish, Ryan Wilson finished in fourth and Brandon Butler rounded out the top-five.

Matt Bowling dominated in the late stages of the race.  However, a power steering leak proved to be his undoing.  Bowling faded to seventh in the final running order, one spot behind his main rival in the Virginia Triple Crown, CE Falk.  Falk won the Inaugural Triple Crown despite being caught up in an early accident.

Kris Bowen finished in eighth, Justin Boston finished in ninth and Adam Long finished in tenth.

Matt McCall was forced out of the race with engine problems.  On an early restart, McCall’s car skipped a gear and he lost seven positions.  Later in the race, he parked his car due to mechanical problems, telling his team the engine was about to expire.

Results

1.) #26 Phillip Morris
2.) #1 Lee Pulliam
3.) # 98 BJ Mackey
4.) # 72 Ryan Wilson
5.) # 29 Brandon Butler
6.) # 40 CE Falk
7.) # 83 Matt Bowling
8.) # 80 Kris Bowen
9.) # 50 Justin Boston
10.) # 3 Adam Long
11.) #59 Coleman Pressley
12.) # 75 Frank Deiny
13.) # 82 Steven Berry
14.) # 41 Ben Rhodes
15.) # 62 Austin Thaxton
16.) # 33 Brandon Jones
17.) # 14 Mike Darne
18.) # 81 Thomas Scott
19.) # 5 Dexter Canipe
20.) # 57 Eddie Johnson
21.) # 16 Jeff Oakley
22.) # 39 Chad Harris
23.) # 06 Davin Scites
24.) # 99 Tony Keen
25.) # 58 Scott Turlington
26.) # 7 Michael McGuire
27.) # 19 Chad Finchum
28.) # 47 Mike Looney
29.) # 37 Bryan Reedy
30.) # 04 Ronnie Bassett Jr
31.) # 08 Deac McCaskill
32.) # 51 Matt McCall
33.) # 88 Josh Berry
34.) # 12 Garrett Campbell
35.) # 02 Matt Waltz
36.) # 54 Kenny Brooks
37.) # 8 Jamie Yelton
38.) # 38 Dustin Rumsley
39.) # 74 Rodney Cook
40.) # 97 Jesse Little
41.) # 17 Josh Brock
42.) # 77 Blake Stallings