Mechanical Issues Win Chase Purdy’s Battle at Berlin

Chase Purdy’s return to Berlin Raceway ended prematurely on Saturday night when a rear end component failed just before the halfway point, relegating the No. 97 to the garage. It was only the third DNF of the season for Purdy and the David Gilliland Racing team.

 

Familiar with the racetrack from a NASCAR K&N Pro Series event earlier this year, Purdy and his crew unloaded with confidence, focusing on longer race runs with old tires. Despite the aged rubber, he was within touch of the practice leaders, posting times within tenths of the fastest cars who had new, sticker tires on which to post their times.

 

In qualifying, Chase was within two tenths of the pole and tenth-fastest overall. For the strategy and plan the team executed in practice, things began to fall into place perfectly. Once the green flag dropped, Chase began to navigate his way through the field until things slowly began to go away underneath of him.

 

Eventually, the car was too unpredictable for Chase to handle on-track. Concerned about a leaking tire or other issues, the crew called him to pit road only to find a pinion seal had gone bad, dumping rear end grease underneath the rear tires and affecting the performance of the rear end itself. With no other choice, the No. 97 was retired from the race in 23rd position.

 

“Well, the ending to the weekend certainly was not good and not what we wanted,” Purdy commented after the race had concluded. “Up until the rear end had its issues, I felt we were pretty decent and that our race run speed was pretty good. But once things went bad, I couldn’t turn the car without it getting free. Knowing what we know now, it all makes sense. I’m still proud of the car DGR gave me and we’ll bounce back from this and be good again next race.”

 

Chase’s next events are this weekend, a NASCAR K&N Pro Series event on Saturday night at Langley Speedway in Virginia, followed by an ARCA/CRA super late model race at Winchester Speedway in Indiana on Monday.

 

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