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Lee Pulliam Wins At Orange County Speedway; Pockets $30,000 Purse

by Brad Newman April 7, 2019 1 comment

ROUGEMONT, N.C. – Lee Pulliam passed Josh Berry late on Sunday at Orange County Speedway to win the $30,000 CARS Tour Late Model Stock Old North State Nationals presented by Orange County.

The CARS Tour put on the largest Late Model Stock race (purse wise) in its history on Sunday. The crowd, the car count, everything about this race lived up to the hype.

Taylor Gray and Brandon Pierce led this field of competitors to the green flag for two-hundred laps of action. Gray pulled out to an early lead over Berry, Brandon Pierce and the remainder of the top-five. A couple of single car incidents went by and Berry finally managed to pass Gray around the midway part of the race. Layne Riggs, Josh Yeoman, and a few others were out of the race at this point due to the damage they had received during this stint.

This was all while Berry paced the field with Corey Heim and the other two LPP cars of Pulliam and Pierce were about a straightaway behind the two leaders. Around halfway, there was a controlled caution. The Nelson Motorsports cars of Bobby McCarty and Timothy Peters pitted for their tires early. Once the green flew, they paced themselves while the leaders continued to duke it out with Berry pacing them. Looking at lap times, it seemed to be a great strategy. Peters could push the car and run very fast lap times deep into the run whenever he wanted to, unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out as they had planned.

Fast forward another 50 laps and the race had its second control caution of the day. Everyone pitted except for Trevor Ward, Lemke and the Nelson Motorsports cars. Once the field took the green, a huge stack up on the restart ended any shot that Heim or McCarty had at winning the event. Both drivers received heavy damage.

Contact between Bradley McCaskill and Stacy Puryear brought out one of the final cautions of the afternoon. Peters had managed to hold off Berry to this point but could never get more than a half car length of separation. Berry gave him a shot almost every chance he got, mainly because he had Pulliam breathing down his neck as well.

The final restart of the day involved the entire top-five dueling for $30,000. Berry ran Pulliam up the track multiple laps in a row but unfortunately for him, it was to no avail. Berry managed to get by Pulliam for an entire half-lap before he was passed in Turn 3. Once Pulliam took over the leader, Gray and Pierce slipped by Berry as well. Pulliam set sail and cruised to the victory.

Taylor Gray, Adam Lemke, Josh Berry, and Brandon Pierce completed the top-five.

Up next on the schedule for the CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car drivers will be The Race at Ace 125 on Friday, May 3. The race at Ace Speedway will get underway at 8 a.m. ET.