By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer
MARTINSVILLE, VA – A runner-up finish for Lee Pulliam in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 was enough for him to earn a second Virginia Triple Crown.
The Virginia Triple Crown is a series of three races, the South Boston 200, Hampton Heat 200, and the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. The driver with the best average finish between the three races wins. Unlike previous years, the winner earns a $7,000 bonus.
Pulliam’s No. 5P Kiker Tree Service Chevrolet narrowly edged out Peyton Sellers for the VA Triple Crown. The 31-year-old’s average finish, 3.33 was just enough to best Sellers’ 3.67.
To finish second and win the VA Triple Crown, Pulliam had to battle Timothy Peters. On the final restart, he restarted behind race-winner Josh Berry and Peters. As the dominant Berry launched on the restart, it opened the lane for Pulliam. The Semora, NC native quickly filled the gap and passed Peters for the runner-up position.
Pulliam admitted that although he and Peters were racing for second, he appreciated being raced clean.
“We were all racing for second. It all lined up there. You’re there on that last restart behind Josh. I’ve been in the same position he been in several times and sometimes it worked out.
Sometimes I got dumped, but I never had any respect for the guy that dumped me, so I wanted to race him clean. He was the best car and the best car went to victory lane. Sometimes it’s frustrating when you lose a race and you have a winning car, but tonight that wasn’t the case.”
It a little bit easier to swallow. But that’s fifth time I finished second in this race. We had a good run. Me and Timothy had a heck of a battle there. I had to race him hard because it came down at one position to beat Peyton there. Peyton had a win on me, so if he finished high, he would have won it. I appreciate him running me clean.”
Sellers finished a distant sixth in his No. 26 Clarence’s Steakhouse / Danville Toyota machine. A late race challenge by JR Motorsports’ Bubba Pollard helped seal the VA Triple Crown for Pulliam as Sellers slipped outside the top-five.
The race ended without controversy in part as a result of no inversions following the two stage breaks. In previous years, the stage winner had restarted sixth or worse following the inversion.
Pulliam credited the lack of inversion for the clean racing at Martinsville Speedway.
“I think it’s awesome, no inversion, because I think that’s part of what leads to the chaos. Like I said, you take a guy and then you take Josh and you invited him to 10th he’s got the race winning race car.
“He gets held up, somebody and gets back to 15th. Well now, he’s really upset and he’s driving with everything he’s got and he’s not going to be wiped away and he gone spun somebody out because he’s frustrated. And I’ve seen that happen before by many different drivers and, I just think it causes a lot of unnecessary wrecks and stuff.
“I think that’s why the end of the race was clean. The cars cycled out. Your best cars are up front all night long. That’s where we should’ve been running.”
The Late Model Stock veteran, like much of the field, had nothing to challenge Berry. Although Pulliam briefly challenged the eventual race winner in the second stage, the JRM driver simply launched off the corner and pulled away.
Although it’s a rarity that a race can be dominated in such a way by one driver, Pulliam believed the race ended as it should, with the best car in victory lane.
“It’s just one of those days, rare that you see a car that dominant. I think that was just a rare occurrence that he had the field covered by that much and it’s happened before. But, I’m still a fan of no invert. I think the best car needs to go to victory lane.”
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