Harvick beats experience to win 11th annual IceBreaker at Florence Motor Speedway

Sunday update: The results of the Icebreaker have been made official. Lee Pulliam was disqualified from his third place finish with a truck arm violation. The delay in results was a byproduct of a scoring system issue exaggerated by a scoring loop being ripped out of the wall after contact by Keelan Harvick.

As for the Pulliam disqualification, it’s an issue that has been increasingly widespread across the discipline over the past year, and has resulted in numerous teams having issues in inspection.

Pulliam said as much in a statement provided to Short Track Scene on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, it appears the manufacturer that supplies Hedgecock Racing with his truck arm blanks has some issues with inconsistency. It was an issue that caught us off-guard as truck arm tech is very normal in our series. The tech guys did everything by the book and it’s suppose to be 3” minimum. Unfortunately, ours were slightly below that and there was really no argument to the fact.

“I have taken pride in never being thrown out as a driver for almost 20 years. Unfortunately, it’s just something that slipped past Hedgecock and then slipped past us as well. After talking with Jay and doing some measurements on truck arms at his shop, there is apparently a widespread probability of this problem with his truck arms. He has 50 truck arms in stock and only 12 check correct. Some are checking right and others are too short. Just unfortunate that it was on my car. I saw the truck arm tool they
are now using before the race and didn’t think anything of it.

“I have only ran standard Hedgecock truck arms on my cars and never second-guessed their legality. The tech guys did what they had to do and I commend them on their job. We know that little bit of height didn’t affect the performance of my car but we accept it and will move forward and be sure to measure every truck arm we purchase from now on. I hate this for everyone who supports and works so hard at Lee Pulliam Performance and Hedgecock Racing.”

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Saturday afternoon’s 11th Annual IceBreaker added another notch in Keelan Harvick’s impressive resume at Florence Motor Speedway — but this one may have been the most hard-earned yet.

In just his third career Late Model Stock start, Harvick held off defending race winner Matt Cox and a late charge from Lee Pulliam to earn his first IceBreaker victory in the division. The win adds to a résumé at Florence that already includes wins in a Legend Car, last year’s IceBreaker Limited Late Model feature, and a Pro Late Model victory last fall.

“Just a lot of practice time,” Harvick said when asked about his success at the track. “This is where I pretty much started racing the legend cars. I raced the legend car here for about three years, then moved up to the limiteds and now I’m here. It’s just a lot of time, effort, practice just has gone into this track, but it’s been worth it and it’s been really fun.”

The day didn’t start smoothly for the Harvick camp. Transmission issues in qualifying forced the team into a thrash between sessions just to make the race. In the spirit of short-track racing, it was Cox’s team — the same driver Harvick would battle for the win — that provided the replacement transmission needed to get the car back on track.

Despite the setback, Harvick never doubted the outcome.

“I wasn’t that worried,” he said. “I knew my guys were going to get it fixed for me and I knew that we’d have the best shot at the race.”

Once the green flag dropped, Harvick showed the poise of his veteran competitors. After Jake Bollman led much of the opening segment of the race, Harvick took the lead on the only restart of the race with 45 laps to go. From there he managed the race up front and fending off pressure from Cox while Pulliam worked his way forward in the closing laps.

Cox, having to work his way up from his 7th place starting position, felt track position ultimately made the difference.

“Yeah, we just got a little bit tight there with about 15 or 20 to go,” Cox said. “We had a good car. I think we needed to start a little bit closer to the front. We could have rode a little bit more at the start instead of having to race and maneuver our way up here to the front. But all in all, a good day for us, and we’ll take second and move on to the next one.”

Pulliam rallied from deeper in the field, coming from as far back as 14th at one point, believing that was the difference between a top 5 and a true shot at the win .

“It was a tough race,” Pulliam said. “These fields are so tight these days and we were just a little bit off — just a little free. I still feel like we had a car that could have won. We may not have had the best car, but if I had qualified a little better and had some track position, we might’ve had a shot. That’s all it takes.”

Before last fall at Martinsville, Pulliam hadn’t been behind the wheel in a year, but after the 300 at Martinsville and the Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National, the recent seat time has helped him get back into rhythm.

“It’s definitely helping me,” he said. “I went a long time without sitting behind the wheel, so things are starting to slow down again. As the weekend goes on, everything gets a little easier. I’m just super thankful to be able to do this and to have the support from Best Repair Company, Folsom Fence Supply and Carolina Drilling to make it possible.”

On lap 112, Harvick made contact with the frontstretch wall, ripping the wiring on the track’s scoring loop. Therefore, the final 13 laps were hand scored. Official results are unavailable at this time. 

Florence URA Icebreaker
Florence Motor Speedway
February 7 2026

1. Keelan Harvick
2. Matt Cox
3. Jake Bollman
4. Carson Brown
5. Parker Eatmon
6. Doug Barnes Jr.
7. Sam Yarbrough
8. Casey Kelley
9. Mason Diaz
10. Jacob Derrick
11. Landon Huffman
12. Helio Meza
13. Ryan Glenski
14. Hudson Sharp
15. Alex Meggs
16. Truett Miranda
17. Mason Walters
18. Aidan Potter
19. Brandon Dean
20. Cody Kelley
21. David Roberts
22. Daniel Vuncannon
23. Lee Pulliam (DQ, Truck Arm)