Pursley Settles for Seventh in NASCAR K&N Pro Series Opener
Gene Price Motorsports & Driver Greg Pursley Settle for Seventh Place Finish Despite Running Third on the Final Lap
PARKER, ARIZ (March 29, 2010) – Greg Pursley, driver of the GPM Performance Parts Ford in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series-West, battled a tight race car all race long in the season opening event for the West Coast marquee series and was in contention for a podium finish heading into the last lap at All American Speedway Saturday night. Looking to wrap up a third place outing, Pursley was tagged in the left rear quarter panel exiting turn four on the final lap and had to settle for a seventh place finish.
"I was not real happy about the incident but that is racing," Pursley said. "We had a good car but we were just a bit off the entire race as the car got tighter and tighter. The cautions helped but we pretty much just hanging on and riding it out the finish."
Pursley qualified and uncharacteristic 11th for the "150" lap race. "We really pride ourselves on qualifying and we just missed it," Pursley offered. "We knew we could make it up during the race."
Pursley wasted no time in making up the ground he lost in qualifying early in the race and by lap 10 he was running seventh. By the halfway point of the race he had moved up to third where he stayed until the final restart when the race went extra distance setting up a green, white, checkered finish.
At the drop of the green, Pursley nosed his Ford inside Jonathon Gomez to battle for the second spot but the tight condition hampered his efforts so he dropped back into third. A fierce battle was being waged for fourth on back and the battle ended up collecting four cars on the final turn of the final lap including Pursley.
"I am not sure what happened but all I know is I got tagged," Pursley said. "It was disappointing but the team worked real hard all day and we were not hurt to bad by it. On to Phoenix."
Greg Pursley embarks in his third full season of competition in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and is coming off a third place performance in last year's point standings. Pursley has 30 career starts, one win (Thunder Hill 2009), with ten top five and 17 top ten performances along with two Coors Light Pole Awards. Pursley is the 2004 NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Champion where he competed at Toyota Speedway and was a multi-time winner on the now defunct NASCAR Southwest Tour where he competed for many years.
Greg Pursley is sponsored by GPM Performance Parts, Star Nursery, Ron’s Rear Ends, and Finish Line Signs & Designs. The GPM team operates out of a state-of-the-art facility in Parker, AZ. The race at All American will be broadcast on SPEED Channel on Thursday, April 8 at 3PM PT. The next event for GPM is Thursday, April 8 at the one-mile paved oval of Phoenix International Raceway for the Jimmie Johnson Foundation "100" NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. For all the latest news and information on about Greg Pursley and Gene Price Motorsports, log onto www.genepricemotorsports.com. Gene Price Motorsports operates a full-service race shop and performance parts store. Log onto their website or email Greg at greg@genepricemotorsports.com for details. Log onto www.racingwest.com for coverage of all things racing on the West Coast.
