Restart Violation Relegates Chase Purdy to 22nd-Place Finish

Chase Purdy was in a must-win situation in Saturday night’s Worldwide Express 250 and despite having a Bama Buggies Silverado that had the speed it needed to bring home the victory, was relegated to a 22nd-place finish after NASCAR deemed that he pulled out of line before the start-finish line coming to take the green flag at the start of Stage Two.

Purdy qualified ninth and finished the opening stanza in the eighth position before being called for the restart violation at the beginning of Stage Two. After having to serve a pass-through penalty, he returned to the track two laps down in the 30th position. After taking the wave around at the end of Stage Two, the Mississippi native drove from the back of the field into the Lucky Dog position with just over 50 laps remaining, but another caution never occurred and he had to bring his truck to pit road with 25 laps remaining because he was about to run out of fuel.

The 23-year-old driver finished the regular season 13th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings and did not make the playoffs.

Talk about your race.

“It was a really frustrating night. I feel like we had one of fastest trucks here tonight – ab0ut the only truck I felt that was as fast as us was the 98. We got called on the penalty early in the race, that I don’t really think should’ve been a penalty, and we just weren’t ever able to overcome it. Jimmy (Villeneuve, crew chief), played all the different strategies to try and get our laps back and at one time we were able to drive up to the Lucky Dog spot, we just never got the caution we needed.”

·Carson Hocevar won Saturday’s Worldwide Express 250. It was his third victory of 2023 and the third of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. Ty Majeski finished second, while Zane Smith, Jake Garcia and Matt Mills rounded out the top five.

·There were four cautions for 27 laps and nine lead changes among four drivers.

Purdy leaves the final race of the regular season 13th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings. He was 76 points below the cutoff line for advancing to the playoffs.