Heating Up … As the summer temperatures heat up, so is Chase Purdy. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro enters his first event at Sonoma Raceway fresh off of his best finish of the season last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway (WWTR) where he scored a 10th-place finish. In the past four races, Purdy has scored three top-15 finishes and is constructing his most consistent performances of his young career. Since finishing 13th at Kansas Speedway on May 14th, Purdy’s average finish over the last four races has been 14.75, which is a career-best over any four-race span in his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career. He’ll look to continue that trend in his fourth road course start on Saturday in wine country.
Road Course History … Only three of Purdy’s 40 starts in Camping World Trucks competition have come at road course venues. The Meridian, Miss. driver has competed at two different road course venues, and his best result came at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this season where he tallied a 16th-place finish.
Season to Date … Purdy has made 10 starts this season and gained three positions last week in the championship standings thanks to his first top-10 of the year, and a season-best stage finish at WWTR. He currently resides 15th in the point standings, which is the highest position he’s held since running full-time in the Camping World Trucks. In 10 races, Purdy has earned one top-10 and six top-15 finishes.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Matt Lucas and the No. 61 team prepared chassis No. 004 for Purdy’s debut in Sonoma. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro made its most recent appearance at COTA in March and was the primary road course truck for HRE’s No. 16 team until last season. Beginning at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2017 through 2020, chassis No. 004 had a streak of four consecutive top-five finishes at road courses with three different drivers.
Tune In … FOX Sports 1’s coverage from Sonoma begins on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET with qualifying, followed by the green flag at 7:30 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 61 BAMA Buggies team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Chase Purdy Quote:
On returning to road course racing at Sonoma:
“Our team has made a lot of progress over the last month or so, and it really showed last week at Gateway. We’re starting to put some finishes together, and even with that, I feel like our results could have even been a little better at Kansas and Charlotte. We’re making a lot of improvements and we’re really excited for Sonoma this weekend with our BAMA Buggies Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. We had a lot of speed at COTA earlier this year but just made a couple mistakes that cost us. I think if we keep things simple, stay on the pavement, have the right pit strategy and keep our tires under us, we’ll hopefully put ourselves in position for another solid finish at the end of the day.”
HRE PR
