Pursley Nets Top Ten Finish at Douglas County

PARKER, ARIZONA (June 9, 2009) – Greg Pursley, driver of the Gene Price Motorsports/Star Nursery Chevrolet, scored his fifth top ten finish in six starts this season in the NASCAR Camping World Series-West. The Toyota/Bi-Mart “150” this past Saturday night at Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, OR was his second ever trip to the tricky half-mail paved oval and despite challenging track conditions and an ill-handling race car, Pursley was able to bring his car home in the eighth position.

Pursley qualified in the ninth position with an inside fifth row starting position for the 150-lap contest. Pursley quickly settled into a rhythm as the field started to string out over the opening laps. Close quarter racing ensued as it usually does on the short-tracks and Pursley found where his car worked best and planned on riding it out over the first two thirds of the race.

While dropping back to as low as 11th, Pursley was able to maneuver his way up to the sixth position in sight of the top five but that would be as close as he would get on this day as the handle on his car went away during the middle portions of the race. After several cautions for debris and contact by other cars, Pursley waged a spirited battle with Jim Warn, Brett Thompson, and Blake Koch.

Pursley finally cleared Warn but Thompson and Koch were able to keep the former NASCAR Whelen All American Series national champion at bay over the closing laps. Pursley took the checkered flag in the eighth position for his tenth top ten finish in 22 career NCWS starts. The finish kept Pursley in sight of the championship point leaders in the fifth position, 111 points behind Eric Holmes.

“The car was really a handful,” Pursley said. “Danny (Crafton) and the team did an outstanding job all day trying to find a set up that worked. We came up a bit short bung in there and finished all the laps and came home eighth. You take them as one race at a time and we are glad to have this race behind us and it is on to Sonoma.”

While Pursley remains in the fifth position in the standings he did lose ground. “There is a lot of racing left to do this season,” Pursley stated. “Anything can happen at any race. We just need to focus on preparing the best car possible and finishing up front. The rest will take care of itself.”

Next up for Greg Pursley and the Gene Price Motorsports team is the annual trip to the wine county of Northern California. The Bennett Lane Winery “200” at Infineon Raceway will be the first of three road course events this season. The race is scheduled for Saturday, June 20 and will feature a full field of series regulars along with several drivers from NASCAR’s other national divisions.

Greg Pursley made his NCWS series debut back in 1999 at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, CA and has 22 career series starts, one win (Thunder Hill 2009), five top five and ten top ten performances. 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. The NASCAR Camping World Series is in its 56th season of competition. The Roseburg race can be seen on SPEED Channel June 18 at 12PM PT.