One day in 2007, a father and his son spotted a racecar for sale on a family vacation. The 19-year-old from Semora, North Carolina had worked throughout high school to get into racing, and with help from his father, they bought that car.
Nearly two decades later, that kid was standing on pit road at Martinsville Speedway holding back tears. Lee Pulliam had accomplished a lifelong dream and raced in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.
“Just unbelievable to get to do this and be on a stage like this,” Pulliam said. “Something I’ve wanted to do my entire career. I’ve worked really hard on myself physically and mentally to get back into racing shape and I felt like we were going to have a good shot at the win.”
Pulliam’s right. He had one of the better cars of the day at Martinsville, the No. 9 Chevy from JR Motorsports. Then again, few in the field also had the resume at Martinsville that he had.
Pulliam has two ValleyStar Credit Union 300 wins at Martinsville. He’s a six-time winner of the Thunder Road 200, a winner of the Hampton Heat 200, a two-time Virginia Triple Crown Champion and a four-time NASCAR Weekly Series national champion.
He rose to prominence so fast after back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013 that he was looking to make starts in the then-Nationwide Series with Hattori Racing Enterprises in 2014. After five starts with the team in the K&N East Series, he was fired, and his shot at NASCAR fizzled out.
That’s where Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his team come in. JR Motorsports has built its reputation as the de facto top dog in the NOAPS throughout the past decade with 110 race wins and four championships. A lesser recognized piece of JR Motorsports allure is being the land of opportunity for racers like Pulliam: drivers with talent displayed on the late model circuit but maybe not with the resources to take a leap into NASCAR.
The first driver to ever run for the team in 2005 was Mark McFarland, a veteran driver who made a name for himself at Old Dominion Speedway. McFarland went on to a great career in NASCAR as a crew chief. In 2009, Earnhardt collaborated with Chip Ganassi and Jimmy Means to give Trevor Bayne his first start in NASCAR at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Whether it’s full-time drivers of today like Josh Berry or one-offs like Bubba Pollard, JR Motorsports has played a significant role in either starting or boosting the careers of tons of great late model talent.
While Pulliam didn’t win, he did something maybe just as daunting for Martinsville. He didn’t let the chaos and pressure of an O’Reilly race consume him.
Pulliam had the fastest car in practice, but rain relegated him to starting 12th based on the metric. He had an uncontrolled tire send him to the rear of the field, then ended up in the middle of a jam up that saw Kyle Seig spin off his bumper. He ran most of the final 80 laps in the lead or top five and survived a massive tire rub in the closing laps.
Oh yeah, there was also that restart. Pulliam had struggled with his launch all afternoon, and with 18 laps to go, flat out missed a shift that led to half the field piling up behind him. Not only did it take out a bunch of his competitors, but he lost his grasp of the front row for the following restart.
“It’s probably my inexperience mostly,” Pulliam said. “I think a combination of having older tires and me not ever doing this. Man, I just hate it. I needed to do a better job. I was trying to clean them up hard and I just could not get going from second to third. Just hate to tear up a JR Motorsports teammate in (Carson) Kvapil and anyone else involved.”
Despite all he had to manage, the 37-year-old’s first NOAPS start was undeniably a success. A fifth-place finish with 40 laps led. Only Justin Allgaier, the race winner, led more. He was embraced postrace by Earnhardt, and speaking to The CW post-race, the moment caught him.
“It’s been pretty special for me, something I’ve wanted to do my entire life,” Pulliam said. “Just thankful for everyone who led me to this moment. I hope I made you fans proud leading all those laps. That was super cool driving away.”
Prior to Saturday’s race, it’s fair to guess that not many people watching had heard of Pulliam. By the end of it, he was one of the stars of an afternoon of entertaining racing.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, in recent years, has sold itself on being where the stars of tomorrow get their start. But the best days in NASCAR are often when a star is made in one day. Even if, for Pulliam, that day took 19 years to reach.
Bayne became a national star by winning the Daytona 500 at just 20 years old. Jamie McMurray‘s long Cup career started as a shock winner at Charlotte Motor Speedway in his second Cup start. Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch‘s path to being Cup teammates today started with both winning upon respective series debuts.
As of now, there’s no word on when Pulliam will be back in the series. If he does come back, and he’s certainly earned it, it could be the next chapter in one of racing’s great success stories.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in Fort Wayne, Indiana covering minor league, college and high school sports. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with football, music, anime and video games.