Chase Purdy

For Purdy's third full season in the truck series he makes a pretty tremendous leap in teams. He leaves Hattori Racing Enterprises where he finished 16th in last season's driver standings and moves to the strong KBM No. 4 truck. This is the same team that Chandler Smith piloted to three victories and 16 Top-10 finishes last season. While they will be changing manufacturers from Toyota to Chevrolet for 2023, the change in performance shouldn't be too noticeable. Purdy is just 22-years-old but has over 50 starts in this division of NASCAR. He should take a quantum leap in terms of performance this year.

Hattori Racing Enterprises expands to two race teams in the 2022 season. After successfully anchoring one team in this division of NASCAR, the team has decided to expand. They have tabbed up-and-coming talent Purdy to pilot the new No. 61 Toyota Tundra. Matt Lucas has been retained to perform as crew chief for this new truck. The 22-year-old Purdy showed some flashes of skill last season with GMS Racing. He nabbed two Top-10 and six Top-15 finishes in the No. 23 Chevrolet last season. Purdy still has a lot to learn, but he's headed in the right direction. HRE believes this young driver is the pilot to carry this second team into the future.

Purdy's seven-start 2020 campaign yielded just one Top-10 finish, but the team have deemed him worthy to take on a full schedule in 2021. This No. 23 GMS Racing team is just one season removed from propelling Brett Moffitt to one victory and 16 Top-10 finishes, but they'll take a few steps back this season to help break in this young driver. Purdy will be teamed with crew chief Jeff Hensley and the two will pursue Rookie of the Year honors for this driver. The 58-year-old Hensley has quite a resume with well over 800-starts between the Xfinity and Truck Series and 29-total victories. That experience will help Purdy to settle in and find his groove in 2021. But keep in mind this will be his first full season of action and there will be a lot of lessons learned along the way.