Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Halifax, VA(July 5, 2011) — The party’s over, turn out the lights.

That was the case for Philip Morris this past weekend at South Boston Speedway as the 3-time NASCAR National Champion didn’t win. That may sound like it’s not that rare of an occurrence at most tracks, but at South Boston where Morris has railed off 11 victories this season it’s a surprise to see new face in victory lane. And, this event was a big one as the annual Fourth of July weekend race paying $5000 to win was full of excitement with Morris’ arch rival, Lee Pulliam going to victory lane.

The holiday classic always brings out a nice field of cars and this installment of the 200 lapper was no exception as 26 Late Models were on hand. Some of those that were non-regulars included CE Falk, Stephen Berry, Dustin Storm, Micheal Rouse, Anthony Anders and Brandon Butler making only his second start of the season. Another driver making his first appearance at SoBo in over two years was Kelly Kingery driving the Bob Uncer #4 machine usually piloted by Nick Smith. Kingery was working on his backhoe Saturday morning when he got the call asking if he could be at the track by lunch so he grabbed his suit and helmet and made the trip down jumping in the car and qualifying inside the top five.

Of course to no ones surprise the front row was made up of Morris and Pulliam, undoubtedly the two biggest drivers in the VA region right now. The rest of the top five was very refreshing as it was mixed up well with the youngsters Matt Bowling and Kenny Forbes, then the veteran Kelly Kingery, or as he says “200 pounds of come get some”………Kelly is the one thing that racing misses now the most at every track, characters.

From the drop of the green flag it became evident, then again not like we didn’t know already, Morris was going to be hard-pressed to be beat. He and Pulliam jumped away from the field for a bit with Bowling moving Forbes up high and taking third away on lap eight and putting Forbes out of the the top ten while he was stuck on the outside groove. Forbes would later use it to his advantage as he put on a show coming back through the field using the same line that sent him back there to begin with.

It takes almost 50 laps for Morris to catch the cars of Sam Hunt, Michael Hardin and Anthony Anders at the rear of the field with Pulliam still stalking about four car lengths back. Hardin had a terrible day and didn’t even get to qualify, brake problems that had been hampering them all season had set back in and Anders who has been the hottest driver in SC was just simply slow. Hardin would get pressure back in the brakes and Anders never got better, then there was Sam Hunt who had his own problems that turned into Anders problems.

After a quickie caution on lap 56 we have some great racing between CE Falk and Brandon Butler for fourth while Kingery looked on. They had moved up as Bowling who was in third suddenly dropped to pit road, a broken exhaust doing him in. He would make it back out many laps down only to have the power steering pump burn up, it for sure wasn’t his night.

We get more great racing in the middle of the pack as Natalie Sather and Ronald hill beat and bang off one another with Forbes and Dennis Holdren side-by-side for eight right in front of them, there were battles all over the track. It all came to a halt on lap 71 as Hunt, Anders and Tommy Peregory all wad up down the frontstretch, all three cars with heavy front end damage. Peregoy and Anders would make it back out but their nights were effectively “done” from this point on.

On the lap 80 restart we see Pulliam hang tough with Morris to his outside, the crowd comes to their feet only to have Morris pull ahead once more off turn four. Once again Butler and Falk fight hard for third going even around the track for four laps until Butler pulls ahead from the outside to take third on lap 85. As they settle down up front all eyes get focused on Forbes machine as he decides It’s time to go.

Forbes had got freight trained by cars on the inside putting him back about 12th very early in the race after starting int he top five. He was slowly picking cars back off until lap 87 when he decides to turn it up a notch. First he goes around Stephen Berry on the outside to take sixth. Then on lap 93 by Kingery for fifth spot. Then around CE Falk for fourth a lap later, Forbes was putting on a show. He would have to hold off on it for a few laps as Ronald Hill has something break in the right front suspension bringing out the caution on lap 95.

Morris easily jumps to the front again after the restart just past halfway, from the looks of the way his car is handling unless something happens to his ride then everyone looks to be racing for second. Lap 126 comes and the crowd jumps up, suddenly Pulliam is there, he looks to the inside and blows by Morris for the lead. a lap later Brandon Butler blows by Morris. that “unless” came true the next lap as Morris comes by in a giant cloud of smoke, a blown engine ending his night. When Morris pulled in the pits he looked as stunned as anybody, “I had no warning at all, I honestly thought I had a tire down because it felt like the car was dragging, then it just popped” said Morris.

Now it was Pulliam’s race to lose, he had been the man at Motor Mile this season with Morris dominating SoBo, now with Morris out he looked to capitalize. Only thing was that there were a few drivers that had that same idea, the main one being Kenny Forbes. On the lap 137 restart after the red flag for Morris’ oil down, Forbes jumps past Butler to take second on the outside but doesn’t stop there. He then just keeps it hammered and goes all the way up to Pulliam for the lead and pulls even with him off turn four. For the next 28 laps the two put on a race that reminded long-time fans of the glory days of South Boston as they went side-by-side the entire time. I’m not talking about one pull in front then lap later they get back beside them, I’m talking neck and neck, even all the way around the track for nearly 30 laps for the lead.

As Forbes and Pulliam went at it another driver was creeping towards the front as he has done so many times for the past three decades. Eddie Johnson doesn’t always qualify well but at the end of every race, especially the big races, you can expect the red and white #57 to come into play and he did with 50 alps to go as he started to ease inside the top five. Johnson moves into fourth by Dustin Storm on lap 165 and then pulls up on the bumper of Butler a lap later as Butler is now working on Forbes, the hard running to the outside of Pulliam had finally gotten the best of his tires.The performance Forbes put on at the front of the field will be remembered for some time though.

Pulliam looked to have it in the bag now, he was pulling away from Butler who had Johnson all over him after the two had disposed of Forbes. All he had to do was hold what he had and he would be picking up one of the biggest victories of his career, of course since I laid it out like this we know it didn’t happen like that. Dennis Holdren spins with eight to go bringing out the caution and ultimately turning the race into a green-white-checkered finish.

We were about to go green on lap 196 but the caution comes back out, the field comes around but no sign of Brandon Butler. a lap later the wrecker is pushing him to the pits, the car is not running. The man running in second with four laps to go in one of the biggest races of the year had ran out of gas. It was actually a fuel pickup problem as the car had gas in it after the race but that didn’t make Butler feel any better, all he could do was smile at this point.

Now Pulliam would be going into overtime with the veteran Johnson to his side. Pulliam jumps out front as they enter turn one with Johnson falling right in behind. Storm gets loose off turn two and gets up into Kingery, Kingery doesn’t like that and turns right back down on him with Forbes getting into them also. Third through about ninth wrecked 12 times in the last three laps, they just never actually did it to bring out the caution.

Pulliam would win over Johnson with Storm coming home third in the storied Sam Beaty owned car. It was a great night of racing at South Boston, hard fought action and grandstands packed with people all the way around the track. We finally got to see the Pulliam vs. Morris rivalry go off once more with Pulliam winning this round, although the last two wins by both against each other have not come without mechanical issues. You may see them go at it again before the week is done, you never know.

South Boston 200 Results:
1. Lee Pulliam
2. Eddie Johnson
3. Dustin Storm
4. Kelly Kingery
5. Kenny Forbes
6. Natalie Sather
7. CE Falk
8. Bruce Anderson
9. Josh Oakley
10. Stephen Berry
11. Dude Gibbs
12. Dennis Holdren
13. Kyle Waltz
14. Julia Landauer
15. Michael Hardin
16. Brandon Butler
17. Jonathan Cash
18. Ronald Hill
19. Matt Bowling
20. Tommy Peregoy
21. Philip Morris
22. Michael Rouse
23. Scott Marshall
24. Anthony Anders
25. Sam Hunt
26. Peyton Sellers
27. Barry Beggarly