Aw, (Corn) Shucks Purdy Bridesmaid Again In Iowa

For the third time in the last four races, Chase Purdy captured a runner-up finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, this time at Iowa Speedway in the Casey’s General Store 150, a combination event with both the east and west divisions of the series. Unlike his other finishes, Chase had to claw his way from outside the top ten to challenge for the win late.

 

Chase was one of the top ten fastest cars in practice, routinely just a few ticks of the stopwatch off the top of the board. He was fourth fastest in the opening round and improved that time in the second and final round immediately before qualifying. While attempting to win his fifth consecutive pole in the series, Chase was slightly off, qualifying 11th fastest and forcing himself to pass a number of cars in order to contend for the win.

 

Undeterred, the team had a meeting following qualifying with Chase to discuss race strategy and the plan was put into action swiftly. Soon after the green flag waved to start the race, he began passing cars and methodically working his way forward. Ultimately, he worked his way to second when a late-race restart placed him on the front row with quasi-teammate Todd Gilliland. The pair raced into turn one side-by-side with each driver on the edge of control, though ultimately Chase lost the advantage exiting turn two and was forced to settle for second at the checkered flag.“Surprise, another second!,” Chase laughed mildly after the race.

 

“I knew we had a pretty solid race run car even though it wasn’t top of the board in practice. I really thought it was an awesome race from our perspective, coming through the field like we did after starting 11th. After this weekend, I love Iowa and I’m really pumped up for Watkins Glen, too. If we keep this kind of performance up, the wins are bound to come. The DGR guys bust their butts every week to turn out cars capable of winning and they deserve one before the year is out.”

 

Chase’s next event is the NASCAR K&N Pro Series race on August 4 at Watkins Glen International, a road course in Watkins Glen, N.Y., the first road race of Chase’s stock car career. Following that event, he will be making a trip west to another track two days later to compete in a 200-lap race before climbing into a super late model later in the week for an ARCA/CRA sanctioned contest on Wednesday at Kalamazoo Speedway in Michigan. 

 

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