Purdy Leads Most Laps, Collects Career Best K&N Finish at South Boston

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Chase Purdy once again achieved a milestone in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series career on Saturday night at South Boston Speedway. The Mississippi native led 116 of the total 200 laps and contended for the win during both twin 100-lap events, bringing home a career best finish of second in the first race.

Purdy and the David Gilliland Racing team unloaded on Friday at South Boston as one of the fastest cars on the property. They practiced second-fastest and qualified second fastest during time trials for both of the twin 100-lap contests. After starting the opening twin race from the front row, Purdy worked his way to the front by lap 20 and led through lap 59. Despite his best efforts to re-take the lead, he crossed the line in second, a career-best finish in only his fourth event in the series.

“The first race went pretty well for the most part,” Purdy explained. “I mean, we started second, led a large portion of the race and got back to the leader after he got around me. I almost wrecked a couple of times but gathered it back in and still finished second. I just wish we had a few more laps because I think I could’ve got the win.”

In the second race, Chase’s team made minor adjustments to account for variations in the weather and he found his way to the front much faster, just five laps after the green flag waved. He dominated the majority of the event until he was bypassed for the lead on lap 82. A late-race caution with seven laps remaining set up a crucial restart where Chase was given the inside line by the leader. In a rare rookie mistake, he misfired on the restart, beating the leader to the restart line and forcing series officials to penalize him to the end of the lead lap per series rules.

“The team did everything right and we really came together during the whole weekend to perform,” Chase said after both races had completed. “I learned a lot about giving feedback and focusing specifically on my racecar. Unfortunately, I learned I need to work on restarts in these cars, but I’m confident I’ll get there and learn as we go down the road. We’ll get there and this weekend proved we have the capability to win races going forward.”

Chase’s next race comes in a super late model and is scheduled for May 21 at Bristol Motor Speedway as part of the US Short Track Nationals. The next time Chase climbs into his NASCAR K&N Pro Series ride is June 3 at the .750-mile Memphis International Raceway.

For more information on Chase Purdy, visit his website at ChasePurdyRacing.com and follow him on Facebook (@ChasePurdyRacing), Twitter (@ChasePurdy12) and Instagram (@chase_purdy).

PMG PR

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