Chase Purdy continued his domination of NASCAR Whelen All American Series action at Greenville Pickens Speedway, running his season win total to five after a sweep of Saturday night’s Twin 75s for the track’s Division I Late Model Stock Cars.
With the Southeast Limited Late Model Series co-headlining BIG Four Night, a program featuring 315 laps of main event action was completed in just under four hours on a wild night under the lights.
Blair Addis (SELLM Pro Division), Anthony Miller (SELLM Daytona1 Challenger Division) and Buck Simmons (Pure Stocks) were also winners in their respective divisions during the historic half-mile’s 10th week of competition.
Two-time Martinsville 300 winner Tommy Lemons and rising star Landon Huffman led the field to the green flag from the front row of the first Late Model Stock Car Twin 75, and it was Huffman quickly edging out in front to lead the opening stages of the event as Lemons fell back to fourth behind Cody Haskins and Purdy.
Purdy would dispatch Haskins for second by the seventh round, and would methodically pace himself behind leader Huffman as the top three ran single-file to conserve their tires. Behind that battle, three-time season winner Trey Gibson was the man on the move, as he charged from seventh to fourth at the 13-lap benchmark.
Huffman’s first challenge for the lead came on the 18th circuit, when Purdy took a look down his inside entering turn one before falling back into line behind the No. 75 machine. From there, the field largely remained single-file through the halfway point of the event, at which Huffman led Purdy, Lemons, reigning track champion David Roberts and Gibson in the top five.
Following the crossed flags being displayed, Purdy turned up the wick. On seven of the next 11 laps, he gave a shot to the back bumper of Huffman’s Toyota before making the pass at lap 49 to assume the point for the first time in the opening race.
However, five laps later and before Purdy could open up a large advantage, the No. 112 of Gibson slowed dramatically down the backstretch and drew the first Whelen Engineering caution flag of the night with 21 circuits remaining.
Gibson would be unable to finish the first Twin 75 with his issues, but the scrap for the lead would be the story when the green flag waved again. Lemons would dispatch Huffman for the runner-up position with 19 laps remaining before setting his sights on the Meridian, Mississippi teenager for the lead as the laps clicked off of the scoreboard
Despite Lemons’ best efforts, Purdy was able to edge away to a 0.747 second margin of victory in race one for the Late Model Stock Cars. Roberts, Huffman and Ryan Walker completed the top five.
Roberts then led the field off for the second Twin 75 from the pole, but he would only be out front for the first three circuits before Purdy made a mammoth move to the inside in turn one, grabbing the point quickly this time around in his pursuit of perfection.
The field went largely single-file through the first half of the race, and by the time 38 laps were on the board and the crossed flags came out, it was Purdy leading Lemons, Gibson – who made a quick rebound from his race one issues and had moved from 10th to third – Roberts and local favorite Dylan Hall, with the top five spread out over an eight-second margin.
The only change for position in the second half would come from Hall, who passed Roberts for fourth on lap 57, but up front it was all Purdy as he completed the clean sweep in the end for his track-leading fifth victory of the season.
Lemons finished a distant second, with Gibson, Hall and Roberts completing the top five in race two.
Meanwhile, for the red hot 16-year-old who stood in ‘Call Double Aught’ Bryan Ramey Victory Lane twice on the night, the sizzling performance both extended his lead in the track points standings and marked a potential turning point in his quest for control of the season-long title chase.
