Whether it was Michael Schumacher equaling Ayrton Senna’s all-time wins in 2000 or Dale Earnhardt Jr. announcing his retirement in 2017, drivers haven’t been shy to express their raw and emotional moments with the media. And the story is similar for the 37-year-old Lee Pulliam, who is set to achieve a remarkable goal in his racing career at Martinsville, a track that he is no stranger to.

Lee Pulliam breaks into tears

“I’ve had a long, hard journey to get to this spot, and man, it’s surreal, really. I mean, it’s everything I could have dreamed of and more, said a lot of hard work and a lot of good people that led to this spot,” Pulliam said, as he broke into tears while discussing his upcoming debut in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at the Martinsville Speedway.

Despite being a four-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series champion, Pulliam has had an incredibly difficult career trajectory. From race suspensions to financial issues, he seemed to have taken the worst of motorsports’ tough side. At the same time, while he was a good driver, he did not make any exceptional performances to catch the eye of the major NASCAR powerhouses. All in all, it was quite tough for Pulliam to make it to the top of stock racing.

However, his breakthrough finally came this year. Dale Jr’s JR Motorsports signed him up for his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut race at Martinsville, a track where he has won multiple times previously. Understandably, his expertise in the track could guide him to a competitive finish right at his debut. He is somewhat of a short-track master, having run many late model series races on similar layouts.

More recently, he also won the Late Model Stock Car Tour and has generally been rather competitive in the series. Dale Earnhardt Jr., being a co-owner of this series, spotted his talent and gave him the opportunity to race. However, Pulliam would have perhaps gotten this same opportunity years ago if things had gone right with him that one time at Bristol.

The lost NASCAR opportunity that Pulliam lost his sleep over

Lee Pulliam had the chance to run the K&N Pro Series East championship back in 2014, and as expected, he pulled in some impressive performances. However, that shortly came to an end after a crash at Bristol, caused by a lapped car that spun right in front of him. He later got into his backup car; however, it was made of a different material, which made it hard to compete with the race leaders. This was a particularly tough point in his career.

“It was tough because there were big plans there. We planned for me to get in the Nationwide car because they had just bought some cars from Kyle Busch or Joe Gibbs, and Ross Chastain ended up driving it later that year.”

“A lot of people don’t know that part of the story, but I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights over it,” he said.

This could have been the breakthrough race for Pulliam, as this was where Ross Chastain impressed the upper ranks, and well, let’s just say that he’s got himself right up there, locked within the Cup Series.

So understandably, losing out on a race because of a lapped car wasn’t a remarkable event in Lee Pulliam’s career. Especially considering the fact that he could’ve had a shot at the NOAP Series at that time itself. However, now that he finally makes that debut with Dale Earnhardt Jr., it is quite natural for him to shed some tears.