Chase Purdy Comes Home Sixth in Milwaukee Mile Debut

Making his first career start in any series at the Milwaukee Mile, Chase Purdy and the No. 4 team improved the handling of their truck late in the race and brought home a respectable sixth-place finish in the Clean Harbors 175, the first NASCAR event at the Wisconsin track since 2009.

Purdy started the race in the seventh position following a strong qualifying effort earlier in the day and battled inside the top 10 for the majority of the 175-lap event. The 23-year-old driver finished ninth in the opening stage and 14th in Stage Two. After crew chief Jimmy Villeneuve improved the handling of the Bama Buggies Silverado with handling adjustments across two pit stops in the Final Stage, Purdy was able to gain eight spots and bring home his best finish across the last five races.

Talk about your race.

“Interesting day. I thought going into the race we had a really good truck – we qualified seventh, so we felt good about ourselves. Started the race and the first 10-15 laps were ok and then the truck just got way too free. We weren’t really sure what we were trying to fix but we knew what we were fighting. That last stop we threw some big changes at it and the truck just came to life. The tough part about it is, I wish it would have driven like that the whole day – we would have been way better off. Other than that, it was overall a solid day for us, but we want to win races and contend for wins and be up front sooner. We will gather ourselves back up and go to Kansas, a place that was really good to us earlier this year. We will hopefully have our redemption there.”

• Grant Enfinger won Sunday’s Clean Harbors 175 and locked himself into the Round of 8 of the Truck Series playoffs. It was his third victory of 2023 and the 10th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. Carson Hocevar finished second, while Christian Eckes, Corey Heim and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five.
• There were seven cautions for 44 laps and five lead changes among four drivers.

Purdy’s solid performance advanced him to 12th in the Craftsman Truck Series driver point standings with five races remaining this season. With the playoff drivers being locked into the top 10 in the final standings, 11th is the highest that Purdy can finish.