Chase Purdy has continued his career-best streak and consistent performances through the summer months and into Friday night’s event at Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP). The driver of the No. 61 AISIN Toyota Tundra TRD Pro is fresh off of an 11th-place finish at Pocono Raceway last weekend and has tallied three straight finishes of 13th or better with an average finish of 12.3 over those races, his best three-race span of his career. Dating back to Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Purdy has constructed a stretch of consistency that includes six top-15 finishes over seven races.
Short Track Record … Purdy has long been a proponent of short track racing and is one of the few drivers in the field that has experience at Indianapolis’ 0.686-mile short track as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to IRP for the first time since 2011. The Meridian, Miss. native has one ARCA start under his belt at IRP, which occurred in 2018 and resulted in a fourth-place finish. That event in 2018 showcased current Camping World Trucks competitors occupying five of the top six finishing positions. Purdy is no stranger to bigtime short track victories as he earned the 2018 Snowflake 100 trophy at Pensacola, Fla. He’ll look to parlay his short track roots into building on his consistent stretch as the Camping World Trucks tour begins a stretch of three short track races over the next four events.
Season to Date … After 15 starts in his sophomore season, Purdy has tallied several career-high statistics, most notably 10 top-15 finishes and an average finish of 16.8, which is seven positions better than 15 races into his rookie campaign. He currently sits 15th in the drivers’ championship standings with seven races remaining.
Chassis Selection … Crew chief Matt Lucas and the AISIN team have prepared chassis No. 014. This Toyota Tundra TRD Pro has one previous appearance this season at World Wide Technology Raceway where Purdy earned a season-best 10th-place result.
Tune In … FOX Sports 1 has live coverage from IRP on Friday, beginning with qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET, followed by the green flag at 9:00 p.m. ET. Stay connected with the No. 61 AISIN team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Chase Purdy Quote:
On entering consecutive short track races on a consistent streak:
“I grew up on short tracks so I’ve always enjoyed short track racing since I got to ARCA and the Truck Series. It’s cool to be back at IRP this weekend and to have some familiarity there in an ARCA car. I feel like our team continues to get stronger and we’re gradually getting better finishes and more speed as the year has gone on. We have a new look on our AISIN Toyota Tundra TRD Pro this weekend and have a lot of folks coming out to watch on Friday. This is the same truck that we ran so well with at Gateway, so hopefully we can have a similar run and give everyone from AISIN something to cheer for on Friday.”
HRE PR
