Chase Purdy delivered his best finish of the season on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) with a blue-collar effort to earn a 13th-place finish. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro eclipsed his previous career-best finish on dirt and advanced two positions into a tie for 17th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings.
Purdy began the first dirt race of the season from the 33rd position after finishing ninth in the second of four heat races on Saturday afternoon. The 150-lap event began with heavy and tacky track conditions with the surface full of moisture and made passing a significant challenge. Purdy ran 30th on lap 17 and went down a lap after being trapped in slower traffic. A caution on lap 24 gave Purdy the Lucky Dog and put him back on the lead lap and ran 28th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 40.
After crew chief Matt Lucas brought Purdy in for fresh tires under the Stage 1 break, that set up a strategy for the No. 61 team to stay out at the upcoming caution on lap 90. Purdy ran consistent laps and advanced to 25th by the end of Stage 2 on lap 90 and inherited the 11th position by staying on track during the caution period.
Despite having a mob of trucks with fresh tires behind him, Purdy held position inside the top-15 for the majority of the final 60-lap segment. He briefly dropped to 19th but took advantage of restarts and a strong launch on the exit of Turn 2 to pick up positions and rejoin the top-15 in the final 15 laps. Purdy took the checkered flag in 13th thanks to a last-lap pass for position and earned his third top-15 result of the season.
Chase Purdy Quote:
“We started in the very back and realized that we just needed the track to come to us throughout the night. We stayed out at the end of Stage 2 and restarted 11th and finally had some track position. We knew that if we could settle in for about five laps or so into that final stage that we could even out on speed as the track dried out. Some of those cautions towards the end helped us out, gave us some good lines to restart in and came away 13th. I’m really happy with everybody on our No. 61 BAMA Buggies team and everybody at HRE for putting together a good Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for us tonight.”
HRE PR
