Point leader hopes to keep momentum rolling
Greg Pursley has had a phenomenal season so far this year - with wins in four of the first five events in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.
That momentum has given the 43-year-old series veteran a huge lead in the championship standings. In fact, the 201-point margin he holds is the largest lead any series driver in the past 20 years has been able to establish five races into the season.
Pursley faces a tough challenge in maintaining that momentum, however. This week, the series heads to Infineon Raceway, where he has never finished better than 20th. The Thunder Valley Casino Resort 200 on Saturday, June 25 marks the annual visit by the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West to Sonoma, Calif., and the winding 1.99-mile road course where Pursley finished 37th in 2008, 20th in 2009 and 27th last year.
Any kind of problems in this event, which typically attracts one of the largest entry fields of the year, can easily contribute to a driver losing ground in points or even losing the lead altogether. Just a year ago, David Mayhew led the standings by 42 points heading to the Infineon Raceway event and came away trailing by 24 points after encountering mechanical trouble and finishing 23rd.
While Pursley would love to win at Infineon, he is also focused on the championship picture.
"It's one of my favorite tracks and we're going there to try to win," said Pursley. "Obviously, the other thing is to be safe and finish in the top five. If the opportunity presents itself, of course, we'll try to win the race - but the main goal is to try to finish the race in the top five."
"We've run well there pretty much every race," said the former Southern California resident who moved several years ago to Parker Ariz., where the Gene Price Motorsports team is based. "As Infineon goes, we've always got caught up in a wreck late in the race. It's always been a mishap of something there at the end of the race. Our goal this time is to really finish the race. We really need to be careful this time."