Chase Purdy on Fan4Racing Radio, Monday, May 21, 2018, at 9:30 pm ET. Photo – Rey Del Rio/Getty Images
Chase Purdy is our guest on Fan4Racing NASCAR & Race Talk, Monday, May 21, 2018, at 9:30 pm ET. Call 929-477-1790 or tweet @Fan4RacingSite with any questions or comments during our LIVE broadcast.
Taking the lead on the last restart of the race, the two-time NASCAR Next driver, Chase Purdy was on his way to a victory in the ARCA Racing Series’ Menard’s 200 at Toledo Speedway on Sunday. He was five car lengths ahead of his nearest competitor until lapped traffic gave his teammate, Zane Smith a chance to make a big move with nine laps left in the race to get his second straight victory. Purdy was still happy with his best career finish of second-place.
“I had to work so hard to get back to Chase (Purdy)…he got me on that last restart,” said Smith. “Our cars were pretty-much dead-even. I knew we were going to catch lappers sooner or later. When we got there, I just thought it through and split him and a lapper going into (turn) three.”
In his No. 8 Bama Buggies Toyota, Purdy passed Smith from the outside on the lap 175 restart, then put a gap of five lengths between him and his teammate, making it challenging for Smith to regain the lead. In the end, it was the lapped traffic creating the challenge for Purdy to keep up the lead. With a lapped car to his inside, Smith was inside of Purdy making it three-wide heading into turn three. Once they cleared the lapped car, Smith took the lead leaving Purdy in a chase for the lead.
“I knew I was going to have to beat my teammates out there today,” said Purdy. “He (Smith) caught me in lapped traffic going into (turn) three…got inside me and that was that. We were so fast today. It’s my best finish so far. We’ll take this and move forward. Congratulations to Zane (Smith)…he drove a great race. We always come to the track knowing we’re going to have to beat our teammates. Big thanks to all my guys at MDM and my sponsor Bama Buggies.”
The week was memorable for Purdy after graduating from high school and as one of nine drivers in the NASCAR Next class of 2018, This is his second season in the NASCAR Next program identifying up-and-coming stars of the sport.
Joe Graf Jr finished third in his first Toledo start with the pole sitter, Chandler Smith finishing fourth after dominating early in the race. Smith recorded the fastest lap of the race and made history as the first driver in ARCA history to earn three poles in his first three starts. Bret Holmes rounds out the top-five finishers
Zane Smith took over the series point standings with Sheldon Creed in second and Chase Purdy in third. Riley Herbst and Natalie Decker round out the top-five.
The ARCA Racing Series is right back at the track in the General Tire 150 on Thursday, May 24th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. FOX Sports 1 race coverage starts at 9 pm ET with live timing and scoring available at arcaracing.com.