Martinsville lived up to its reputation once again, and the speedway did what it does best: change the luck of the most successful driver. And it quickly turned sour for Dale Jr.’s debutant driver. Running in second place and firmly in contention, Lee Pulliam looked poised to capitalize late in the race before everything unraveled in an instant.
“All good right there, buddy. Shake that off. We got a lot more,” Dale Jr. told Lee Pulliam at the moment. Sadly, that did not last long.
The JR Motorsport driver had survived a chaotic race and kept himself in the hunt, showing the kind of speed that hinted at a potential breakthrough. But on lap 233, a missed shift on the restart from the front row triggered a massive pile-up that swept up a large chunk of the field and forced officials to red flag the race.
Dale Jr.: “‘All good right there, buddy. Shake that off. We got a lot more.”
Lee Pulliam: “I want to do a good job for you.”
Dale Jr.: “You’re running second. F***ing doing a pretty damn good job, I think.”
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) March 28, 2026
Just a few laps earlier on Lap 225, he spun his tires on another restart, allowing JRM driver Justin Allgaier to seize momentum on the top lane. Even when he briefly held an advantage, he wasn’t able to fully break away as drivers like Connor Zilisch, Corey Day, and Allgaier continued to close in, keeping the battle for the lead tight and tense.
