FAIRLAWN, VA :: Lee Pulliam saved the best for last. With a victory in the season-ending Ethos Technologies TWIN 75’s nightcap Saturday night, Pulliam snared the 2014 Motor Mile Speedway track championship; his second consecutive crown and third overall at Motor Mile Speedway.
The outcome of the final 75-lap contest served as a fitting capstone to a season in which Pulliam notched twenty-five wins en route to NASCAR WHELEN All-American Series State Championships in North Carolina and Virginia, along with his second straight Dirty Dozen title.
In the Bull & Bones Late Model division standings, Pulliam concluded the year with 486 total points, a miniscule eight markers ahead of runner-up Peyton Sellers.
“This season has been huge,” Pulliam acknowledged. “We’ve both had bad luck. [Sellers] is a heckuva competitor. If there’s somebody you want it to come down to the end with, it’d be him. Peyton will go down as one of the greatest in a Late Model Stock Car. He’s one of the best…so it feels real good to be able to pull it out tonight.”
Sellers tallied his sixth runner-up effort of the season in the finale, but the team failed to parlay the consistency into a championship. The 34-point swing in the standings following the late-race misfortune incurred on September 6th left Sellers entering the final weekend trailing by four points— a deficit that proved insurmountable.
“This is nothing to hold our head down about, but its mighty frustrating when you’ve had as good a year –consistency wise– as we’ve had and we get wrecked [on September 6th], but it is what it is,” said Sellers. “There’s no way those guys are working as hard right now as Sellers Racing. We didn’t get the win this year, but I’m O.K. with that. We’ve had solid runs.”
The result marked Sellers’ second straight second place finish in the track standings.
Tommy Lemons, Jr. forestalled Pulliam to claim his third win of the season in the opener, leading rag-to-rag in a contest slowed by one caution. Sellers placed third, with Dennis Holdren and William Byron finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Pulliam coasted to his sixth win of the season in the finale, besting Sellers by a margin of 1.97 seconds at the checkers. Lemons finished third. Holdren and Byron rounded out the top five
Lancaster Wins Limited Sportsman Championship
Scott Lancaster captured his first-ever track championship at Motor Mile Speedway Saturday night, out-distancing Karl Budzevski for the title by 16 points. In the history of Motor Mile Speedway’s Limited Sportsman division, it marks the first time ever that a pair of brothers have celebrated the division’s top honor; Derrick Lancaster is a two-time Limited Sportsman track titlist.
“This is awesome. I don’t think any other pair of brothers have won the Limited championship,” Lancaster stated. “I’m glad we won it.”
Budzevski captured the checkers in the 50-lap season finale, with Brian Sutphin and Preston McGhee rounding out the podium.