Chase Purdy collected a 21st-place finish on Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in his third appearance at “No Limits, Texas”. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro led his first laps of the season and sits 19th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series point standings.
The Meridian, Miss. driver posted the 19th-fastest lap in qualifying and started from the inside of row 10. Purdy immediately went forward on the initial start, advancing as high as 14th, but began to fight a tight condition in both of TMS’s high speed corners. The tight condition grew exponentially during the opening run and relegated Purdy to 23rd at the end of Stage 1 on lap 35.
Crew chief Matt Lucas and the HRE team armed Purdy with wholesale adjustments in an effort to combat the tight condition under the stage break, including wedge, air pressure, spring rubber, and track bar changes in addition to four fresh tires. After restarting 19th on lap 43, Purdy still dealt with a tight condition, but to a lesser extent, and was scored 24th at the end of Stage 2 on lap 70.
Purdy pitted for another batch of adjustments and fresh tires under the second stage caution and restarted 15th on lap 78. The pesky tight balance persisted, and Lucas employed a shrewd strategic tactic under the lap 86 caution. Since Purdy was within the fuel window to make it to the finish, Lucas brought him to pit road for their last set of fresh tires and fuel. A caution on lap 106 foiled Purdy’s plans to have the race run green to the end but stayed on track to lead his first laps of the season. As all but four lead lap trucks had fresh tires, Purdy fell in line in 17th by lap 119 and took the checkered flag in 21st after an overtime restart.
Chase Purdy Quote:
“We were really tight for most of the night, but the guys never stopped trying to tune on our BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. I think we had the right strategy to get a top-10 or even a top-five had it run green to the end, but unfortunately those cautions took away the fuel advantage that we were going to have. We’ll learn from tonight, keep working hard and move on to Charlotte next week.”
HRE PR
