Chase Purdy earned his second-best result of the season with an 11th-place finish on Saturday afternoon in his third appearance at Pocono Raceway. The driver of the No. 61 BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho Toyota Tundra TRD Pro extended his career-best streak with his sixth top-15 in the past seven races, and set a new career best average finish over a three-race stretch of 12.3 in the past three events. Purdy continues to hold the 15thposition in the point standings at the end of the regular season.
The Meridian, Miss. native started 15th after weather washed out practice and qualifying on Friday afternoon. While three cautions littered the first 15-lap stage, Purdy managed to run as high as 12th under green on lap five. After electing to restarting in the bottom lane on lap 11, Purdy was scored 14th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 15.
Crew chief Matt Lucas brought Purdy to pit lane under the stage caution for four tires and fuel along with track bar and air pressure adjustments to amend his tight balance. Purdy restarted 17th on lap 19 and took advantage of pit strategy to put himself in position to earn stage points on lap 30. As many trucks elected to pit before the end of the stage under green, Purdy stayed on track to secure four points in seventh position at lap 30.
The stage caution allowed Purdy to make his final pit stop for four tires, fuel, as well as wedge and air pressure adjustments. He lined up 13th on the lap 37 restart but fell back to 16th one lap later after being pinned on the bottom lane. Another quick yellow on lap 42 allowed Purdy another chance to restart and selected the bottom lane in 13th. Purdy took full advantage of the event’s final restart on lap 47 to gain one position. He took the 11thspot on lap 55 and held that position to the checkered flag to earn his third straight finish of 13th or better.
Chase Purdy Quote:
“We had a great BAMA Buggies, Toyota Tsusho Toyota Tundra. I really felt like if the race was a little longer and we had another chance to find some more track position that we could have finished somewhere around sixth to ninth. All the guys at HRE that work on our Toyotas have done a great job and it’s great to keep progressing and being consistent with our finishes. I was looking forward to coming here and I knew we had this in us. I love short track racing, so hopefully we can have another effort like this next week at IRP.”
HRE PR
