DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Phoenix International Raceway is a race track that Greg Pursley (No. 26 GPM Performance Parts/Star Nursery Ford) has always enjoyed visiting. After moving from California to Arizona last year to be near his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West team that is based just 150 miles from the track in Parker, PIR practically became a home track to Pursley.
"It’s late enough in the year, to where it’s probably going to finish around dusk. So, that will change the handling of the car. We’re going to really work on our car hard to make it handle there early in the race."— Greg Pursley
He will put the theory of a home track advantage to the test this week when the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West visits the 1-mile, D-shaped track for the Jimmie Johnson Foundation 100 on Thursday, April 8.
The 100-lap event, the second on a 12-race series schedule this year, will be televised to a national audience on SPEED at 6 p.m. ET on April 22.
Pursley is looking forward to returning to PIR, where he set a track record in winning the Coors Light Pole Award in qualifying for last year’s Phoenix event.
“Since I started racing, Phoenix was always my favorite track to go to,” said the 41-year-old driver, who previously called Newhall, Calif., home. “It’s a big track for us. I always enjoyed going there. We’ve had good success there. It’s probably still my most favorite track to go to.”
Pursley admitted, however, to being surprised in breaking the track record last year.
“I had no clue that we were going to do that,” he said. “We just tried to get a good solid car. We wanted to start in the top five, to be there in the race. We had no clue that was going to happen.”
Pursley went on to finish fifth in last year’s event, equaling the fifth-place finish he had at Phoenix when he previously raced in the series in 2002. He attributes a good chassis setup with being the key to getting a good finish there.
“Working on your car during practice and getting a car to drive good is key,” he said. “You need to make sure you have a good car that you can pass with, either on the bottom or the top. This time it will be a little different, because we’re starting a little earlier. I think that will come into play because I don’t think we’re going to finish in the dark. It’s late enough in the year, to where it’s probably going to finish around dusk. So, that will change the handling of the car. We’re going to really work on our car hard to make it handle there early in the race.”
The 100-lap race distance will also alter their approach, according to Pursley.
“We’ll get one pit stop and one chance to adjust,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll get it pretty close in practice to where if we need to make a little bit of adjustment on the pit stop, we can be there in the top five.”
Asked if a strong performance at Phoenix is critical in contending for the series championship, since the series visits PIR twice this season, Purlsey stressed the need to do well at every race.
“It’s critical at any track, due to the fact that we only have 12 races,” he said. “Throughout the year, you really cannot have a bad race. You’ve got to have a good race every time, if you want to be there for the championship.”
Pursley – who raced motorcycles early in his racing career – was the 2004 National Champion in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, racing Late Models at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.). He also competed in the former NASCAR Southwest Tour.
Although Pursley ran the full schedule of NASCAR K&N Pro Series West events in 2002, it was seven years until he returned to the series full-time when he joined with Gene Price Motorsports team last year. In their first full season together, Pursley registered one win, eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes, while finishing third in the championship standings.
Now in their second season together, coupled with the addition of crew chief Jerry Pitts, Pursley is optimistic about their chances at winning the championship.
“We’re really looking forward to hopefully being there every single race to compete for the win and for the championship this year,” Pursley said. “Jerry Pitts has been around a long time. He knows all the guys on my team very well. He’s worked with all of them before on other teams.
“That’s really our strong point right now,” Pursley continued. “We have a great bunch of guys that have all been together for a long time. They all know each other and everyone gets along great. We have a great leader in Jerry Pitts.”
Pitts is a veteran crew chief who is no stranger to the series. He won the series title with Eric Norris in 2002 and worked with Mark Reed, who was the Sunoco Rookie of the Year in 2001 and finished second in the overall standings.
