Mechanical Gremlins Bites Purdy at Redbud 400

Chase Purdy experienced his first extra-distance race on Saturday night at Anderson Speedway in Indiana during the Redbud 400. Unfortunately, a component of his racecar did not respond to the challenge, forcing Purdy out of the race with only 48 of the 400 laps remaining. 

 

Purdy and the David Gilliland Racing team unloaded for practice on Friday and accomplished their goals of improvement by the end of the day. On Saturday, Chase’s fastest lap was within a couple tenths of the session leader with adequate comfort built-in for the 400-lap distance.

 

Following the lead of his teammate who was aggressive early, leading laps and fighting for the top spot, Chase ran a more mellow race, hanging around the back of the top five, working to stay on the lead lap in anticipation of a late race charge to the front. Within 100 laps of the finish, Purdy reported the car began to feel and act weird, forcing him to the pits for the crew to assess the situation. After discovering a broken track bar, they were forced to retire the No. 97 Bama Buggies Toyota from the event, leading to a 12th place finish, 48 laps down.

 

“We weren’t extremely fast for a single lap in practice, but we worked on changes to make the car better in the race, and we were much better than the speed chart showed, probably a top five car,” he said after the race. “We were running around fourth with 100 or so to go and I felt something break on the car and tried to nurse it around, but couldn’t make it the rest of the way. It was a fun race and experience, just seems we’re not having a lot of good luck lately.”

 

Chase’s next event is the NASCAR K&N Pro Series race on July 1 at Berlin Raceway in Michigan, the first time the series has visited the facility. Following that event, he will be back in the K&N car at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut for the heavily anticipated Busch North Throwback 100 where he will be racing a paint scheme in honor of former series champion Dale Shaw.

 

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