FAIRLAWN, VA :: Lee Pulliam racked up more wins and more championships on Sunday afternoon, adding his win count on the season to 29. With the victories, Pulliam also secured the Motor Mile Speedway track championship and the Dirty Dozen crown, adding to his South Boston Speedway track championship, NASCAR Whelen All American Series (NWAAS) National Championship and NWAAS Virginia State Championship.
“We’ve been extremely blessed,” Pulliam exclaimed. “It’s been a battle all year. Deac (McCaskill) and those guys have been working extremely hard. They’ve got that Ford Crate hooked up. That thing is fast. Don Kowalsky and his guys haven’t given up with our Chevrolet; it’s just been tough… (To win all this) is unbelievable. I’m just surrounded by a lot of great people. I’m just the guy that gets to drive in the seat. I’ve got a great job. I get to work on cars for a living. GR Waldrop, Garrett Bunch, what a heck of a year for them as well as Matt Taylor, track champion (Limited Sportsman) tonight. A lot of racers won out of our shop this year and I’m proud of everybody’s hard work. I’ve been putting a lot of hours in all these cars. It just feels good for all of us to be running up front.”
Lee Pulliam, Deac McCaskill, Tommy Lemons, Jr., Josh Berry and Hunter Devers finished in the top five in the Dirty Dozen championship – a partnership that was set up by Motor Mile and Southern National Motorsports Park. Lemons and McCaskill both had strong showings in Sunday’s races. McCaskill scored podium finishes in both twin 125-lap races while Lemons, who had a podium finish in the first race, had his night cut short in a lap one melee in the second race.
“I really don’t know what happened,” Lemons explained. “It’s just part of the product of inverting 10 cars for the second race and three of four of them being multiple laps down in the first race. It’s not necessarily anything the drivers did wrong, just not the right thing to do to invert that many cars.”
The incident that ended Lemons’ night occurred after the top 10 finishers from the relatively sober first race were inverted for the second race. Phillip Sisson and Kyle Barnes made contact and calamity ensued after Barnes bounced off the wall. Dennis Holdren was also swept up and out of the race in the incident.
Entering the race, McCaskill and Pulliam were tied atop the Dirty Dozen standings but McCaskill knew he wouldn’t be able to win that crown when only 13 Late Models were set to start the race. Pulliam’s wins put the nail in the coffin in spite of McCaskill’s dominance at Southern National.
“He was awful strong at two different racetracks and I just had one track to play with,” McCaskill stated. “I’m really happy with our performance this year. When the season started, we didn’t plan to go run for this National Championship thing, we just got caught up in the middle of it. Congratulations to Lee on a perfect season. He’s strong, he’s fast every week and he definitely deserves the title. We had a small shot in this Dirty Dozen deal then the car count kind of hurt us tonight. I would’ve had to beat him two races in a row and that was going to be hard enough.
“I’m happy with our finish. We qualified and raced well. We just had a little mishap in the middle of the season. We didn’t run as strong as we needed to but we picked it up strong at the end of the season and learned a lot this year. I’m glad Southern National and Motor Mile put this Dirty Dozen deal together because it was a lot of fun and we look forward to doing it again next year.”
Pulliam becomes the first driver to win the Motor Mile Speedway track championship and the South Boston Speedway track championship in the same season. In the Limited Sportsman division, Matt Taylor won the championship while Karl Budzevski, who finished second in points, won the final race of the season. Budzevski’s win was his first of the season. In the season’s first race, Budzevski looked destined for victory until he was caught up in a wreck triggered by Kyle Barnes on the last lap.
Lee Pulliam wasn’t the only driver bidding for two track championships. Brittany Cockram’s bid to win two track championships in the same season in the Mini Stock division came up short with a subpar showing in that feature race. Cockram entered the race second in points and could’ve won the Motor Mile track championship if she won that race or finished ahead of eventual champion Chucky Williams. Cockram has also been competing at Franklin County Speedway where she sits atop the Mini Stock points standings at the bullring in Callaway by virtue of her three wins. Cockram is expected to move up in to the Late Model Stock Car ranks next season where she will likely compete at Franklin County Speedway.
Results
Late Model Race #1
1. #1 Lee Pulliam
2. #8 Deac McCaskill
3. #27 Tommy Lemons, Jr.
4. #99 Peyton Sellers
5. #88 Josh Berry
6. #2 Dennis Holdren
7. #96 Andrew Thomas
8. #15 Kyle Barnes
9. #30 Chad Ball
10. #24 Philip Sisson
11. #0 Sheryl Carls
12. #4 Hunter Devers
13. #14 Tony Keen
Late Model Race #2
1. #1 Lee Pulliam
2. #99 Peyton Sellers
3. #8 Deac McCaskill
4. #88 Josh Berry
5. #96 Andrew Thomas
6. #30 Chad Ball
7. #15 Kyle Barnes
8. #24 Philip Sisson
9. #14 Tony Keen
10. #4 Hunter Devers
11. #27 Tommy Lemons, Jr.
12. #2 Dennis Holdren
Limited Sportsman
1. #26 Karl Budzevski
2. #50 Garrett Bunch
3. #1 G.R. Waldrop
4. #17 Bryan Reedy
5. #7 Matt Taylor
6. #7 Preston McGhee
7. #30 Tam Tompam
8. #21 Travis Hurt
9. #71 Brian Sutphin
10. #11 Steven Weeks
11. #13 Richard Caldwell
12. #0 Jerry Godbey
13. #27 Taylor Ransom
