The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season will culminate on Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway as Chase Purdy brings his career-high best streak to the “Tricky Triangle”. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho Toyota Tundra TRD Pro has momentum at his back with five top-15 finishes in the last six races and returns to the venue where he restarted his career in 2020. The Meridian, Miss. native returned to competition at Pocono in June 2020 after a nearly two-year absence from racing to make his third career start. Two years later, Purdy returns to the 2.5-mile tri oval looking to extend a career high streak and improve his average finish of 14.3 over the last six races.
Track Best Track Record … Purdy’s has seen remarkable progress throughout the 2022 season, and a key factor in that is his ability to improve in return visits to multiple venues. The 22-year-old has tallied track best finishes at six different racetracks at which he’s made multiple starts, including the most recent oval event at Nashville Superspeedway. On those six occasions, Purdy has tallied four top-15 finishes and looks to replicate that steady improvement on Saturday in the Pocono Mountains. He has two prior appearances at the “Tricky Triangle”, including a 15th-place result last season.
Season to Date … After 14 starts in his sophomore season, Purdy has tallied several career high statistics, most notably his nine top-15 finishes and a 17.6 average finish. He currently sits 15th in the driver championship standings and can earn his first-career playoff berth should he score a walk-off victory at Pocono.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Matt Lucas and the BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho team have prepared chassis No. 018 for Purdy’s third start at Pocono. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro has three straight top-15 finishes under it’s belt after competing at Nashville Superspeedway (13th), Charlotte Motor Speedway (15th), and Kansas Speedway (13th).
Tune In … FOX Sports 1’s coverage from Pocono begins on Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET with practice and qualifying. NASCAR Raceday kicks off race coverage at 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday on FOX followed by the regular season finale at Noon ET. Stay connected with the No. 61 BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Chase Purdy Quote:
On continuing to elevate his performance at Pocono:
“I’ve really been looking forward to Pocono for the last couple weeks. We’ve had a dirt race and road course mixed in recently, so it’s nice to get back to a place where I have some experience and feel comfortable. The BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho Toyota Tundra TRD Pro that were bringing this weekend has been really fast the last few times we’ve raced it, so our group has a lot of confidence we can compete for a top-10 this week and keep our consistency going. We’ve been doing a good job of knocking down finishes over the last month and a half, so hopefully we can continue that at Pocono this weekend. Qualifying will be really important this weekend with it being such a short race. We’ll have to get everything we can on the restarts and try to give ourselves as much track position as possible throughout the day.”
HRE PR
