Story by: Andy Marquis ~ [email protected]

Martinsville, VA(October 10, 2011) — Matt McCall had the dominant car in Sunday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 at Martinsville Speedway, but a series of late cautions set up a green-white-checkered finish. That gave Lee Pulliam a chance to use the bump and run on the final lap, allowing him to take home the $25,000 check and grandfather clock.

“This is a dream come true right here,” Pulliam said. “I can understand (McCall) being mad but he would’ve done the same thing. He got in to me big time going in to one and about wrecked me. I don’t know how I saved it. You just keep that stuff in the back of your head. Next restart, he pushed me up again so I left off of it going down the back straightaway, turned under him and gave him the bump and run going in to three and got the ‘W’. 

“I bumped him and moved him out of the way. He hit the brakes pretty hard to keep that thing on the bottom and a combination of that sent him up the racetrack. It all worked out perfect. Proud of everybody, got to thank the good lord for keeping me safe and this is a dream come true. I was praying every lap and I hated that it came down to that but he was moving me and rooting me so I just root him back. He’s a heck of a wheel man, always will be. He’s mad at me and wants to put me in the fence, that’s fine.”

The late race contact relegated McCall to a fifth place finish. He saw things differently and was less than happy after the race.

“He just drove over top of me,” McCall said. “He claims I hit him going in to one. When you get lifted up, what are you supposed to do? Just stop for everybody? That’s alright, no problem. I got a lot more in life than he does. He’s just trying to race late model, that’s no big deal. I promise you, we’ll be eating dinner somewhere probably.”

After all the dust settled and the sparks flied, Brandon Butler ended up finishing in the runner-up position. He also won the best appearing car award.

“We had a great racecar,” Butler said. “We had a top five car all day. I like Lee Pulliam, but I think he went in there and took (McCall) out there at the end. You’re not supposed to be able to do that here. The way I see it, we won the race but that’s not the way they’re calling it so we’ll see what happens.”

“That’s just Martinsville,” third place finisher Stacy Puryear said. “Everybody was trying to win that $25,000. When you make it $25,000 to win and $5,000 for second, it puts on a good show. It was exciting for the fans, everybody loves it. It was a great day for us.”

Dexter Canipe Jr. and McCall rounded out the top five. Davin Scites, Greg Edwards, Jeb Burton, Coleman Pressley and Mike Darne finished in the top ten. 11th place finisher Ryan Robertson was the last car running on the lead lap at the end of the race.

Controversy arose over the final restart. Pulliam took off and beat McCall back to the line. NASCAR told Pulliam to give the position back. When McCall got under Pulliam and started to take the position, NASCAR deemed that Pulliam had given the position back and did not black flag Pulliam.

Pole sitter and pre-race favorite Philip Morris dominated the early part of the event, but a fuel pickup problem put him a couple laps down and Morris was never able to recover. He got both of his laps back throughout the race, but the problems persisted and Morris ran out of fuel in the closing l aps of the race.

At lap 100, the race went in to halftime and the top-five cars in the field were inverted. That put Brandon Butler, who had a strong car all weekend, to the front. Pulliam restarted the race in third and McCall in fifth. Pulliam took the lead on lap 136 after several cautions prevented him from being able to complete the pass. McCall took the lead from Pulliam on lap 165 and led all the way until the money lap.

With three laps to go, the red flag came out due to a huge crash in turn two. Brennan Poole, Jake Crum, Ryan Robertson, Coleman Pressley and Frank Dieny Jr. were all involved in the wreck when a stack up caused Poole to literally drive over Pressley’s car. That set up what turned in to two green white checkered finishes.

The yellow flag was displayed 17 times during the 208 lap race, with the red flag waving once.
Results:Jake Crum, Paddy Rodenbeck, Alex Yontz and Eddie Johnon all won their respective heat races to transfer in to the main event. Morris had won the pole

with a new track record.

1. #1 Lee Pulliam
2. #29 Brandon Butler
3. #17 Stacy Puryear
4. #6 Dexter Canipe, Jr.
5. #51 Matt McCall
6. #06 Davin Scites
7. #21 Greg Edwards
8. #27 Jeb Burton
9. #59 Coleman Pressley
10. #14 Mike Darne
11. #31 Ryan Robertson
12. #2 Jonathan Cash
13. #22 Jamey Caudill
14. #05 Doug Godsey
15. #82 Barry Beggarly
16. #67 Eddie Johnson
17. #97 Jesse Little
18. #37 Tommy Lemons, Jr.
19. #5 Frank Deiny, Jr.
20. #7 Brennan Poole
21. #11 Jake Crum
22. #26 Philip Morris
23. #80 Kris Bowen
24. #57 Kelly Kingery
25. #83 Matt Bowling
26. #84 Peyton Sellers
27. #36 Harrison Rhodes
28. #9 Bruce Anderson
29. #33 Kenny Forbes
30. #98 BJ Mackey
31. #16 Jeffrey Oakley
32. #87 Paddy Rodenbeck
33. #02 Dennis Holdren
34. #28 Danny Edwards
35. #07 Tony McGuire
36. #30 Jason Merriman
37. #12 Garrett Campbell
38. #40 CE Falk, III
39. 04 Ryan Reed
40. #72 Josh Berry
41. #81 Justin Johnson
42. #77 Alex Yontz