In his second trip to Bristol Motor Speedway this season, Chase Purdy captured a top-ten finish in the inaugural Short Track U.S. Nationals presented by Vore’s Welding and Steel on Sunday night. Racing in the co-sanctioned super late model event, Chase worked his way up from an eleventh-place starting spot to finish ninth at the end of the 100-lap contest.
Purdy and the David Gilliland Racing team were consistently one of the fastest entrants on the speed charts during Friday and Saturday’s practice sessions. Qualifying set the lineup for two 35-lap qualifying races where Chase clocked in 19th fastest, good enough to start the first qualifier in ninth. At the end of the event, he had nearly worked his way into the top five but was forced to settle for sixth, starting him inside of the sixth row for the 100-lap feature on Sunday.
Despite lingering showers which delayed the start of the race by nearly six hours, Chase proved his car had race-winning speed early by quickly working his way to fourth just after the halfway point. A classic, bump-n-run maneuver by one driver allowed a handful of cars to get around Chase as the laps wound down later in the race. Ultimately, Chase was able to fight back to ninth before the checkered flag flew.
“We lost a lot of spots with around ten to go, and it’s so hard to pass at Bristol that we simply ran out of time to recover,” Chase said about his first super late model run at Bristol. “I felt like we had a really strong racecar on long runs, probably top three for sure, but we didn’t have everything work out like we needed to. I was impressed with how smart everyone drove, except maybe the guy who got into me to get around me. I still thought it was a great show and I’m hoping it becomes an every-year event.”
Chase’s next race comes in a NASCAR K&N Pro Series machine on June 3 at Memphis International Raceway. Following that event, he will be back in a super late model with the CARS Tour at Anderson (SC) Motor Speedway on June 10.
For more information on Chase Purdy, visit his website at ChasePurdyRacing.com and follow him on Facebook (@ChasePurdyRacing), Twitter (@ChasePurdy12) and Instagram (@chase_purdy).
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