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Lee Pulliam (back) waves to fans during driver introductions
ahead of last fall's VSCU300 at Martinsville Speedway.
Bulletin photo by Mike Paris
Imagine if Tom Brady abruptly retired from football in the middle of the New England Patriots dynasty.
That’s how it felt when Lee Pulliam retired from racing seven years ago.
In 2019, Pulliam was the Tom Brady of the Late Model Stock Car world. He made his rookie debut at South Boston Speedway in 2007, when he was 19 years old. After moving up to late models in 2011, within four years the track had named a section of the grandstand after him. Pulliam won four NASCAR Local Racing Series national championships, two ValleyStar Credit Union 300 late model races at Martinsville Speedway, six straight July 4th Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 races at South Boston, and nearly 200 races in all.
“When I walked away from it, I was on top of the world,” Pulliam said in a recent phone interview with the Bulletin.
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Lee Pulliam celebrates in victory lane after winning the 2011
MDCU300 at Martinsville Speedway. It was the first of two wins at
the track for the NASCAR national champion.
Bulletin file photo by Mike Wray
But, local short track racing isn’t cheap, and Pulliam had to make a financial decision for his family to get out of the drivers seat and focus on the business side of the sport. He created Lee Pulliam Performance, a team that’s developed young drivers like Corey Heim and Brenden Queen on their way up to the NASCAR ranks.
Pulliam has seen drivers he’s mentored move into the top NASCAR series, but that hunger to get back to racing himself has never left.
“I went so long without doing this. You’ve just got to think, it's not something I ever wanted to walk away from,” he said. “I was winning races every week and it was just to the point where I didn't know what else I could prove. Financially, I needed to be able to focus more on the business side of things and provide for my family.
“I was in my prime… and it was a tough, tough deal. So for me, I think that fire and that hunger and that desire and that passion has only grown immensely.”
Pulliam decided to get back in the car for the 2024 VSCU300 at Martinsville, and finished 13th. Unsatisfied, he came back for the race again last September and made an impression. He was second in practice, second in qualifying, and battled youngster Landon Pembelton for the final stretch of laps before coming home with a second place finish.
Even though he didn’t take home the Grandfather Clock trophy, his run caught the attention of some big names in NASCAR – including Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt is part owner of the CARS Tour, a late model series throughout the Southeast, and he owns a car that competes. Pulliam’s team also has a car that races in the series which he crew chiefs.
“He sent me a text and we've become friends over the years,” Pulliam said of his relationship with Earnhardt.
“I've just become friends with everybody over there at JR Motorsports and we pit beside each other most weekends. Me and Dale have had a good relationship for a long time now. He's called me on Sunday mornings after a race to talk about different things and we have an open dialogue.”
Part of that open dialogue was Earnhardt telling Pulliam he saw the race at Martinsville last fall, and it gave the former NASCAR driver an idea.
“It was just neat just to see him excited for me, and the conversation pretty quickly went from, ‘Dude, that was so bad to the bone,’ to, ‘We’ve got to find a way to get you in my car at Martinsville for the O'Reilly's race.”
The rest, Pulliam said, “transpired really quickly.” After never getting the chance to compete in anything above a late model and going more than five years out of the car, this weekend Pulliam will suit up for the No. 9 car of JR Motorsports and race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Martinsville Speedway, his first time competing in one of NASCAR’s top series.
Pulliam called Saturday’s race, “a second chance at doing it.”
“It's something that I worked my whole life for, you know?” he said. “I've put 20 years into short track racing and had a ton of success and won a lot of races... It’s just a complete dream come true to be able to do it on the national stage with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and everybody at JR Motorsports.”
Landon Pembelton celebrated his second ValleyStar Credit Union 300 win at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, besting Lee Pulliam by just 0.024…
Why now?
A question a lot of short track racing fans have for Pulliam is, why is this his first shot at NASCAR? He won pretty much everything there was to win on the local level, and is still one of the biggest names in the sport.
But just like when he retired the first time, Pulliam said much of the reason comes down to money.
“I really thought that this was just not meant to be,” he said.
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Lee Pulliam drives his car around Martinsville Speedway during
last September's VSCU300 Late Model race. Pulliam finished
second.
Bulletin photo by Mike Paris
“Everything is sponsorship based in NASCAR. I just never could find it. It takes $4-5 million a year to run in the top three series, so it's not an easy task. It's not like most sports. It takes a major financial backer to be able to do it.”
In all sports, everything is about time. For those years when Pulliam was competing full-time, he said “The timing just wasn't right.”
The timing now, though, couldn’t be better. Pulliam called the Earnhardts his heroes when he was growing up. The father-son duo were his favorite drivers. To have that driver now be willing to take a chance on him, “To drive for what I consider the biggest name in NASCAR is a complete honor,” he said.
Not only does Pulliam have a strong, well-funded team letting him drive their car this weekend, he also has four sponsors: Folsom Fence Supply, Jerky Boys Beef Jerky, Best Repair Company, and Carolina Drilling.
“The timing worked out with people I've met over the years and I've got a lot of support from different people,” Pulliam said. “Without those four it wouldn't be possible to go do this… I just couldn't be more grateful.”
Back in the car
Before this spring, those two races at Martinsville were the only times Pulliam had competed since 2019.
In the first practice last fall, he was up to speed quick but said he found himself having to work harder than normal to find his line and hit his marks.
“I got better as the race went on with restarts and just decision making in the car and stuff like that,” he said. “I felt as the race went on I got very sharp and I was pretty sharp at the end of the race, but I had just started my journey on getting back in shape at that time.”
Since last September, Pulliam has put a focus on getting in the gym and getting in what he says is the best shape of his life, which he thinks will be crucial this weekend.
The 37-year-old added, “I've been working super hard, eating right, and just feel like my body is 18 years old again, so that's a good feeling to have.”
Since getting the call from Earnhardt, Pulliam has competed in a few warm-up races to get ready for his NASCAR debut. He led all but 18 laps on the way to a second place finish in a late model race at Southern National Motorsports Park last November.
On Saturday, he returned to his home track at South Boston Speedway and found himself in a familiar spot at the end of the day – victory lane.
Pulliam grabbed the lead with 12 laps to go and ran the rest of the way to his first win since September, 2019, and his 53rd career victory at SoBo.
“It just feels like everything's clicking right now and I feel sharp behind the wheel,” he said.
Late models aren’t O’Reilly cars though, something Pulliam acknowledges. Thankfully, JR Motorsports is helping bridge that gap. He’s been in the Chevrolet simulator twice to get a feel for the differences in the two cars, and plans to go back this week for a final time.
He also recently made a trip to the Hendrick Motorsports shop for a pit stop practice because he’s never done a live pit stop.
Pulliam said the JR team has “went above and beyond to make sure that they prepare me as fully as possible.”
“They have really given me all the tools to be successful,” he added. “After being there and being a part of it, it's no wonder their drivers have so much success because they really do put a lot of effort into it. I couldn't be no more thankful for it, that's for sure.”
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Lee Pulliam talks with reporters following his second place
finish in the VSCU300 Late Model race at Martinsville Speedway last
fall. Pulliam will return to Martinsville on Saturday for his
NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series debut.
Bulletin photo by Mike Paris
Saturday at South Boston Speedway was a day fit for a king – two kings, in fact.
Late model racing
Being from North Carolina, Pulliam grew up going to both the late model and NASCAR Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway every year. He remembers sitting in general admission on the back stretch, waiting in line beside the train tracks to get in.
“I just remember having to get there early in the morning because the place was sold out every year,” he added. “It was kind of an incredible time to be a part of the sport. It wasn't an empty seat in that place all the way around the track.”
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Race winner Lee Pulliam gives a fist pump to the fans at
Martinsville Speedway after winning the 2014 Virginia is for Lovers
300.
Bulletin file photo by Mike Wray
Last fall, Pulliam was about 20 seconds from passing Pembelton and getting the lead in the VSCU300 for what would have been his third win.
He’s finished second at the track six times as a driver, and his team was second with Heim in 2018.
Even though he has two Grandfather Clock trophies of his own, “We literally could have nine,” he said.
While Pulliam added he’s thankful for the two, he was so close to victory last fall he could taste it.
Pulliam is far from the first driver to go from a late model to NASCAR. Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry also made the initial jump by racing for JR in the O’Reilly’s Series (formerly the Xfinity Series).
Queen competes full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Heim, the 2025 Truck Series champion, races part time in Trucks and Cup.
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In this 2014 photo, (from left) Honorary Starter Norman W. Hill
and Delbert Lee Morgan Pres/CEO both with Martinsville Dupont
Credit Union present race winner Lee Pulliam with his ceremonial
check for winning the MDCU300 at Martinsville Speedway. On right is
Clay Campbell President, Martinsville Speedway.
Bulletin file photo
When Pulliam was winning upwards of 20 races a year in the 2010s, he said short track racing didn’t have the national coverage it has now. Throughout the year races are now broadcast nationally on FloRacing, and the VSCU300 is also broadcast on MRN radio.
There are also bigger names in the sport. Former Cup Series stars Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton are parts owners of the CARS Tour alongside Earnhardt.
“It reaches so many people and so many people can watch these drivers at their fingertips now,” Pulliam said. “So I think now is just such a good time to be in a Late Model stock car.
“It's one of those things where a really good driver that does a good job now can really set himself up well.”
Pulliam said it’s been special for him to see Heim and Queen move on and have success on the big stage. He’s proud of the team he’s built and proud of “everybody who works so hard on these cars and has made a lot of dreams come true for a lot of people,” he said.
“It's a lot of cool things that have come from LPP here in Alton, Virginia,” he said.
This weekend, after nearly two decades, he’ll get to live his own dream, too.
“I'm already hungry,” he said. “It's something that that I have taken very seriously and I've poured a bunch of sweat into it. It's going to be fun. It's going to be a lot of support there, a lot of tickets going to be sold for people pulling for us, and that part of it is very special.”
Late model legend Lee Pulliam came home with a second place finish in Saturday's VSCU300 at Martinsville Speedway. Here are photos of Pulliam …
