Chase Purdy: Driver, No. 4 Bama Buggies Chevrolet
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Overview:
Event: Love’s RV Stop 250, Race 21 of 23, 94 Laps- 20/20/54; 250.4 Miles
Location: Talladega Superspeedway (2.66-mile, tri-oval)
Date/Broadcast: Sept. 30, 2023, at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR 90
‘Chase’n Wins:
Chase Purdy and the No. 4 team head to Talladega Superspeedway for Saturday’s Love’s RV Stop 250. Purdy is looking to close out his debut season with KBM strong to gain momentum towards a championship run in 2024. He has qualified inside the top 10 in five of the last six races, including earning his first career pole at Kansas Speedway two races ago. The Bama Buggies driver is coming off a solid effort in the Truck Series’ last stop at Bristol Motor Speedway where he qualified third and finished eighth.
The 23-year-old driver has gained two positions in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point standings since the start of the playoffs and now ranks 11th, which is the highest that a non-playoff driver can finish. Purdy entered the 2022 season having never earned a top-five result in Truck Series action but has produced two across 20 races in his first season at KBM, including a career-best runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway in April. He has also produced a career-high nine top-10 finishes this season, after posting just two each in 2021 and 2022.
The Mississippi native had a strong run in last year’s Truck Series race at Talladega, which he considers his home track, leading six laps and bringing home a season-best seventh-place finish. Purdy also scored a top-10 finish at the 2.66-mile tri-oval in 2021, when he came home ninth. He qualified second and led four laps in his lone ARCA Menards Series start at the Alabama track in 2018 but was relegated to a 25th-place finish after a late crash.
The No. 4 team will be rolling out KBM-13, which is the same chassis that John Hunter Nemechek captured the pole and led 20 laps with for last year’s Talladega race. Nemechek also piloted this chassis at Talladega in 2021, when he led 11 laps and was leading coming to the checkered flag when he got turned by another competitor, relegating him to a fourth-place result as he slid across the start-finish line.
Purdy is in his third full-time season in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and first with KBM. He finished 16th in the Truck Series final standings in 2022 after competing in 22 of the 23 events. He posted two top-10 finishes and nine laps led.
Jimmy Villeneuve is atop the pit box for Purdy and the No. 4 Chevrolet team this season. Prior to being promoted to crew chief for the 2023 season, Villeneuve had served as a Truck Chief at KBM since the 2017 season and in that role was a part of 18 wins, a driver’s championship with Christopher Bell in 2017 and the 2019 owner’s championship with the No. 51 team. This will be Villeneuve’s second race calling the shots for a race at Talladega. He earned a ninth-place finish with John Wes Townley in the 2016 event.
Bama Buggies, your one-stop shop for all the biggest names in powersports and utility vehicles, will be the primary sponsor on Purdy’s No. 4 Chevrolet Saturday and for the majority of the events on the 2023 schedule. They are Central Alabama’s powersports experts, serving as an authorized dealer of Polaris, Slingshot, and Seadoo.
Chase Purdy, Driver Q&A:
After leading laps there last year, how excited are you to get back to Talladega?
“Absolutely. Obviously, it’s a home race for me. It was special last year to have my school, where I went to college, on the truck and have a good day. We hope to go back there this year and do the same, but this time be seven spots better. I feel like I always have my best foot forward going there since it’s my home track and I’ll have a lot of family and friends there. I’ll be staying there the whole weekend, so I have a lot of expectations for it.”
The KBM trucks had great speed at Daytona. Do you feel like that will carry over to Talladega?
“We were upset with how qualifying went earlier this year at Daytona after we felt like we were in great position to get the pole but cut a tire in the first round and weren’t able to make a lap in the second round. It would be a big deal for me to get the pole at Talladega and go up there and lead laps, being that I consider it my home track. The Daytona truck was probably the best speedway truck I’ve ever had. We will bring that same package on our Bama Buggies Silverado to Talladega so we should be really good.”
How does the racing differ between Daytona and Talladega?
“Talladega just seems to be wider. The second lane just works better for the trucks at Talladega than at Daytona. I think you will see more two and three-wide racing than what you saw at Daytona in February.”
Chase Purdy Career Highlights:
- Across 72 career Truck Series starts, has produced one pole, 21 laps led, two top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. Posted a career-best runner-up finish at Texas Motor Speedway in April of 2023. Earned first career pole in September of 2023 at Kansas Speedway.
- Finished 16th in Truck Series championship standings in 2022.
- Finished fourth in the 2018 ARCA Menard’s Series championship standings after recording 84 laps led, 10 top-five and 14 top-10 finishes.
- Earned the 2017 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East rookie of the year honors and finished fourth in the championship standings after posting four poles, 200 laps led, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes across 14 starts.
- Won the prestigious Snowflake 100 Pro Late Model race at 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., in Dec. of 2018.
- Chase Purdy’s No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado RST:
KBM-13: The No. 4 Bama Buggies team will unload KBM-13 for Saturday’s race at Talladega. Purdy qualified 10th and finished 17th in this year’s Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway with this Silverado. This chassis has won two pole awards at Talladega, with John Hunter Nemechek last year and with Christopher Bell in 2017. KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch captured KBM-13’s lone victory at Daytona in 2014.
KBM Notes of Interest:
- KBM drivers have collected two wins, three poles, 116 laps led, 10 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes resulting in an average finish of 12.0 across 34 starts at Talladega. Raphael Lessard collected the first victory of Truck Series career at the 2.66-mile tri-oval in 2021 and owner-driver Kyle Busch was victorious in the 2010 event when he finished 0.002 seconds ahead of Aric Almirola in the closest finish in Truck Series history since electronic scoring was instituted.
- KBM holds the Craftsman Truck Series records for most career wins (100) and most wins in a single season (14 in 2014). KBM owner-driver Kyle Busch picked up his organization’s first-ever win at Nashville Superspeedway in April of 2010 and also picked up its 100th Truck Series victory at Pocono Raceway in July of 2023. In addition to collecting a series-record seven owner’s championships, the organization has produced two championship-winning drivers: Erik Jones (2015) and Christopher Bell (2017).
- The No. 4 has 18 career victories at KBM and was the number for both of the organization’s driver championships.
