There are times when NASCAR driver Chase Purdy wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t kept that expired ID card on him.
But a foot in the door is a foot in the door. And that fateful day at Talladega nudged the door back open for a then-college student who wanted nothing more than to bust it all the way down.
Purdy — born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but largely raised in Meridian — grew up watching racing with his grandfather. He got his first go-kart when he was about 9, and from that point on, it’s been “anything with four wheels,” Purdy joked.
When he was about 15, Purdy realized he wanted to make a career of racing. He also knew that it would require his entire being to be successful at it. At around 16, he was competing in stock cars rather than in smaller races (he won his very first stock car race) and he eventually made his way into the ARCA Racing Series, which is one of NASCAR’s developmental series.
This was what he was meant to do.
“I’ve never really had any other dreams than that,” Purdy said.
But even the most straightforward dreams get derailed from time to time.
So much of professional racing is about sponsorships. And, for much of 2018 to 2020, Purdy didn’t have any. Things fell through, he said, and the waiting game kept him waiting. It’s about the right opportunities being open at the right time, and neither was in his favor. Purdy went nearly two years without racing at all and, in that time, took the opportunity to go to college at Ole Miss.
Purdy went from racing cars himself to watching his friends compete as he watched on a Friday night.
“It was different for me because I always felt like I should be at a racetrack. It was weird,” Purdy said. “(My friends are) racing at a racetrack right now. I’ve got a Michelob in my hand.”
The annual races at Talladega took place in October 2019, and Purdy wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. He knew it would be brutal to watch his friends do the thing the yearned to be doing. But he sucked it up and went.
Purdy still had his NASCAR identification on him, and he decided to test his luck with a few friends to see if they could get into the pits. He made his way in, saw some people he knew and began chatting. An industry manager wanted to help Purdy get back into racing and got him in touch with a member of a team. Purdy was just there to have fun, he told the man, but absolutely wanted to chat. So they talked. And they talked again. And they had meetings.
And finally, after about two years, Purdy was back doing what he knew he needed to be doing.
“I think all the time, ‘What if I didn’t go? What would have happened? Would I have found a way back in? Would I be finishing up school and having some other job that I do?’” Purdy said. “ … It is crazy that I got talked into going and ended up meeting with someone when I was down there. And then a few weeks later, I’m back, getting back into racing. So, that is kind of crazy, now that I think about it.”
Purdy, who races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports Chevrolet, is preparing for the first races of the 2023 season in Daytona, where he will race Friday night in the NextEra Energy 250.
There are three main series in NASCAR: the trucks series on Fridays, the Xfinity Series on Saturdays and the Cup Series on Sundays. The Cup Series is where the biggest names have resided and earned their accolades: the Dale Earnhardts, the Jimmie Johnsons, and the owner of Purdy’s current team, Busch.
For two years, Purdy was just like any other student at Ole Miss — he went to class (he was a finance major with a minor in accounting), he hung out around Oxford and he was told by his father to find a job. Purdy wasn’t used to having the months of February through November to himself. He had weekends.
It was cool for a while, he said, but it never felt right. He was supposed to be out there racing with the friends he was watching on television.
After that fateful meeting at Talladega, Purdy got back to racing in the summer of 2020 as part of the Craftsman Truck Series. He hadn’t driven competitively in any capacity for about two years, and now he was going against some of the best in the world as part of NASCAR’s biggest series.
Because there were COVID restrictions in place, there wasn’t time for practice at the track, either. Given that racers hit the first turn at about 200 miles per hour, it was a lot to take in, even though he had driven the track previously a few years before.
Purdy had also driven a truck competitively only a handful of times.
“I didn’t know what the hell to think. I was like, man, this is either going to be really good or really bad. So, there was no in-between. … I was sent to the wolves,” Purdy said. “ … I came away with a pretty decent finish. So, I guess it was then that I realized, hell, maybe I still got it.”
Purdy signed a contract with Chevrolet his junior year at Ole Miss. He raced five or so times while he was still a student, he said. He felt like he was “living on a plane”; nearly every Thursday, he flew from Memphis to Charlotte at 4 a.m. It was a highwire balancing act that required him to make a decision — he had just one year left in school, but he also knew that in order to be the best racer he could be, it needed all his attention.
“It came down to, how good did I want to be at racing? Obviously, (it was) my dream, I’m going to go and pursue this,” Purdy said. “But I still keep Ole Miss very close to me.”
The last week or so leading into Daytona has seemed agonizingly long, Purdy admitted. He’s ready to get out there and execute the plans his team has created after watching film. And yes, drivers watch film just like other professional athletes do. They also train in heat rooms to better withstand the nearly 150-degree summertime temperatures in the car and work out four days a week.
Cardio and strength training are crucial, Purdy said — gripping a steering wheel is a similar sensation to holding a five-pound weight in front of you for hours on end.
Purdy’s goal is to eventually be racing on Sundays with his boss, but that path looks different for everyone: some drivers take stops at the truck and the Xfinity series before going to the Cup, while others go straight from trucks to the Cup Series.
A few times a year, a driver like Busch will come race in the trucks. And those sorts of instances are prime opportunities to change one’s trajectory. Chase Elliott, for instance — the 2020 Cup Series champion — competed in Friday’s NextEra Energy 250.
Those are opportunities that can change everything.
“Those guys are the best of the very best, and they come and run with us. So when we go out there, and we get to compete with them, and we beat them — if you beat them, you’ve just changed your career,” Purdy said. “Obviously, my goal is to take in from my boss Kyle as much as I can, and learn as much as I can and use him as a great tool to learn.
“But when we go to the racetrack, I want nothing more than to beat him.”
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