RIDGEWAY, V.A.- As the laps began to wind down in the 2025 ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway, the magnitude of what was unfolding became apparent to everyone in the building.
After seven years away from full-time racing, with only two starts prior to Saturday (Sept. 27) night, Lee Pulliam was on the verge of winning the biggest race in Late Model Stock car racing for the third time.
It’s been 10 years since Pulliam last visited Martinsville victory lane. It’s been 14 since his first win in the race, driving a car in which he paid tribute to this past weekend.
Yet, despite the odds being stacked against him, there was Pulliam, leading the best field of drivers Late Model Stock car racing has to offer in the biggest race of the year.
The pit area knew it. The fans in the stands knew it. We were witnessing history.
It just wasn’t meant to be.
A caution for Brandon Pierce, Pulliam’s former driver erased the lead with two laps to go. The events that followed will be remembered in short track racing lore forever. Pulliam vs. Landon Pembelton in a finish for the ages, with Pembelton narrowly edging out Pulliam in a photo finish at the line.
🏁 Landon Pembelton wins the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at @MartinsvilleSwy!@NASCARRegional #VSCU300 pic.twitter.com/3Sf9NxLTn8
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) September 28, 2025
The final page came up missing in a storybook ending.
Yet in many ways, the short track racing world still witnessed history on Saturday – third clock or not. Pulliam cemented his legacy as one of, if not the greatest to ever hold the steering wheel of a Late Model Stock car.
As Pembelton celebrated in the background, Pulliam took a moment to soak up the moment with his team, then his wife and daughter before speaking with the media. “I gave it all I had,” he told his daughter as they embraced on pit road.
“I think the worst part of it was that caution that came out when I was about to get the white,” Pulliam said. “I took two to go and I’m like man, please don’t let these guys wreck coming to the white. When I saw the caution lights come on I couldn’t believe it. We had a dominant car, I mean that thing was gone you know. We just had to survive the first couple corners of doing what you’ve got to do.
“I don’t blame Landon, I’d have done the same thing. If you won’t do that, you’re not hungry enough. I tried to give it back to him, I gave him everything I could without wrecking him, If I hit him any harder he’s gonna go around. … Just not quite enough.”
As a competitor, all you can as for is a chance, a chance to have the race-deciding moment in your hands. Pulliam had that chance. And with the accomplishment of a lifetime in front of him, chose to preserve character and race to the line. In an era where respect is found in few and far between at times, that moment speaks volumes.
An emotional Pulliam reflected on the weekend as a whole, and his legacy in Late Model Stock car racing afterward,
“It’s what I love doing you know,” Pulliam said while fighting back tears. “It’s such a good career and to come back and still show these guys I can still get it done and you know, that means a lot. I want to be remembered as a hard nose racer, a guy you can never count out, even after after I sat on the couch for a long time. This whole weekend meant a lot to me personally.”
When looking back at the final restart, hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy to say you should have zigged instead of zagged, made this move instead of that one. But Pulliam was content with the cards he played, and said he did all he could in the end.
“Not that I know of,” Pulliam said when asked if there was anything he could have done differently. “I mean I’ll have to go back and watch it. It worked out the restart before that I could, I drug the brake down the front stretch just to kind of give the No. 14 [Jared Fryar] a chance to catch up to us so he could fill the hole. The final restart, I couldn’t really tell exactly how close the No. 14 was to me.
“Maybe could have done a little better job right there, but I expected to race hard, I expected to get a shot, and I knew I was going to give a shot back into three. I mean, right now looking at it, the only thing I can do is wreck the guy right and that’s not what I want to do. I said that before I came in, I don’t want to wreck somebody to win this race. I’ll knock them up the hill, I’ll do anything like that. I felt like I had him out of shape as much as I could get him without wrecking the guy.
“I’ve got nothing to hand my head about, I left it all on the racetrack.”
That just about sums it up. He left it all on the racetrack.
Sure, Pulliam didn’t win the race, but he did something bigger than that. He left one more permanent mark on a sport he’s done so much for by proving that he’s still got it, and in the process gave the Late Model Stock world a moment we’ll never forget.
Will he continue racing down the line? Maybe. He says he’d like to, but it’s all about the funding. Pulliam could continue to come back to Martinsville and race for a third clock, or he could pick back up part-time or full-time racing altogether and write another chapter. If that comes to fruition, the short track racing world would welcome him back with open arms.
However, if this was the last ride at Martinsville, he sure made the most of it. We were all bystanders in a historic night for one of the greats.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.