Lee Pulliam celebrates in victory lane after scoring his first X-1R Pro Cup victory at Southern National Motorsports Park Saturday night. Photo courtesy X-1R Pro Cup Media
The first few X-1R Pro Cup Series races hadn’t gone as well as hoped for two time NASCAR All-American Series Champion Lee Pulliam, driving for the injured Rusty Skewes’ Top Gun Motorsports team.
However, the season finale this past weekend at Southern National Motorsports Park in Lucama, NC made up for it as the series newcomer lead flag-to-flag in a dominating performance picking up his first career win in just third series start.
“What a win this is. We’ve had a lot of them in the late model this year, but to be driving for Rusty (Skewes) and give him and this whole Top Gun Motorsports team a win in this series means a lot,” said Pulliam. “It feels real good to reward them for the opportunity and for me beating guys in this series says a lot, because these guys know how to race. There may not be a lot of them but the competition is some of the toughest there is. What a night.”
While Pulliam did lead flag-to-flag after picking up the MAHLE Pole Award in qualifying, series sophomore Gus Dean gave Pulliam all he could handle in the final few laps. After making up an almost half a second difference, Dean mounted a charge that came up just shy of putting the bumper to Pulliam on the final lap in turns three and four. The runner up finish matched his two finishes earlier this season at both Kingsport events and propelled him to third in the final championship standings.
“I thought we were going to be able to get to him (Lee Pulliam) at the end but we just ran out of laps,” said Dean. “It’s disappointing to finish second again because I feel like we’re so close to getting to victory lane we just haven’t been able to put it all together. Then again we haven’t had the best runs here at Southern National so second is a good run for us.
“My team and my crew chief, AJ Frank, have worked hard all season and we got better as it went on. I really have to thank them and my family for a great year. We’ll be back next year to get that win, you can bet on that.”
Clay Rogers came out of Saturday night’s race with the 2013 X-1R Pro Cup championship. Photo courtesy X-1R Pro Cup Media
Pulliam and Dean’s battle for the win took place in front of Clay Rogers, something that was a bit of a change from normal, who brought his #16 L & R Racing machine home fifth. The finish wasn’t what the Mooresville, NC native had hoped for, but at night’s end it really didn’t matter as Rogers was crowned the 2013 CARS X-1R Pro Cup Champion. The championship was his fifth of his career, breaking his current tie with former Pro Cup Series ace Bobby Gill with four. Rogers concluded his championship season with six wins, two poles, twelve top fives, and twelve top tens in fourteen series starts winning $82,500 along the way.
“First off I have to thank every one of these guys on this Lamb & Robinson race team for their hard work and dedication all season,” Rogers said. “The most important thanks go to the Mosley’s for deciding to bring this car back out and having me drive it. This year’s championship may not have had the cars we’ve had in the past in Pro Cup, but the competition is still tough as it gets and it seems to be getting better. Regardless, winning a championship like this takes a lot and this year to have my daughter by my side and be able to pass a guy like Bobby Gill, who I looked up to when I started in this series, is pretty special.”
Rounding out the drivers taking home the hardware was the Air Flow Research Rookie of the Year title which was tight battle all season between Brady Boswell, Eric Gerchak, along with Reid Wilson early on. It came down to the final race between Boswell and Gerchak who happened to battle nose to tail all race long. Finally on lap 150 the rookie of the year was crowned when Gerchak’s clutch on his #21 ride let go ending his night and handing the title to young Boswell.
“This was our goal all season and tonight we finally made it happen,” Boswell said. “I hate it for Eric (Gerchak) because we’ve battled all year long, but being crowned rookie of the year in a series with the tough competition we race against each week feels pretty good right now.”
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The schedule for the 2014 season is currently being finalized and will be released in the coming weeks. For more info, visit carsprocup.com.
X-1R Pro Cup Series
Southern National Motorsports Park – Lucama, NC
The Finale 200 (Unofficial) – Nov. 2, 2013
1. #41 Lee Pulliam
2. #56 Gus Dean
3. #23 J.P. Morgan
4. #75 Caleb Holman
5. #16 Clay Rogers
6. #1 Dalton Hopkins
7. #62 Andrew Smith
8. #05 Codie Rohrbaugh
9. #2 Brady Boswell
10. #66 Reid Wilson
11. #17 Stacy Puryear
12. #21 Eric Gerchak
13. #58 Rich Gould
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