{"id":568227,"date":"2026-03-29T08:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568227\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T08:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:01:09","slug":"lee-pulliam-gets-emotional-over-nascar-oreilly-debut-after-causing-massive-wreck-embrace-with-dale-earnhardt-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568227\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Pulliam gets emotional over NASCAR O’Reilly debut after causing massive wreck, embrace with Dale Earnhardt Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Pulliam had a day for the ages going in his NASCAR<\/a> O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series debut. He led the field for several laps, looking to potentially close out the win in the final stage. And what a story that would have been.<\/p>\n

Alas, it wasn\u2019t meant to be. Pulliam misshifted on a late restart and caused a major wreck<\/a> in the field, collecting nearly a dozen cars.<\/p>\n

So the first words out of his mouth during a post-race interview on the CW were apologetic. He wasted no time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I just first off real quick I\u2019d like to apologize to everybody we tore up there,\u201d Lee Pulliam said. \u201cMan, I just couldn\u2019t get going with the older tires there and it\u2019s just a little bit of inexperience. But just so thankful to be here and do this. Everybody on this Folsom Fence Supply Chevrolet, it was just a dream come true today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee Pulliam would finish the race in fifth place, avoiding any real damage to his car as a result of getting hit square in the back bumper on the restart. He had nothing but positive things to say about his experience.<\/p>\n

After all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of chance. Pulliam has an extensive background in late model stock car racing, so he\u2019s no stranger to being behind the wheel. However, he had taken a five-year break from the sport due to the rising cost of racing.<\/p>\n

He returned for a few races at Martinsville in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 in 2024 and 2025, catching Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s eye in the process. That led to the opportunity with JR Motorsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me such a good racecar,\u201d Lee Pulliam said. \u201cWe had a loose tire penalty there and uncontrolled tire and we had to play a little different strategy. I think that was making my restarts a little extra tough at the end. I just didn\u2019t have any rear grip. Not to make excuses, I\u2019ve just got to be better there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Lee Pulliam became extremely emotional as he wrapped up his post-race interview. This after he had shared a lengthy embrace with Earnhardt<\/a>. He choked back tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a dream come true to drive for Dale Earnhardt Jr.,\u201d he said. \u201cMan, the whole experience has been pretty\u2026 pretty special for me. Something I\u2019ve wanted to do my entire life. And just thankful for everybody that led to this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I hope I made your fans proud leading all those laps. That was super cool and driving away. Just wish I could have got going on restarts a little better. But if we ever get another chance to do this I\u2019ll learn from my mistakes and just come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Pulliam had a day for the ages going in his NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series debut. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-568227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}