Greg Pursley Takes the Checkered Flag in the Armed Forces 150 at Kern County Raceway

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West racing under the lights during the Armed Forces 150 at Kern County Raceway

Greg Pursley was looking to repeat as the winner of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Kern County Raceway Park in California.

Davie Mayhew was looking to win his third K&N Pro Series West race in a row.

US Military Members were on site to pay tribute to the United States Armed Forces

In the end, the drivers battled for the checkered flag with a spun out car determining the winner.

Pursley won the race, passing a spun out car in the waning laps of the race. Mayhew was challenging Pursley for the lead, but had to hit the brakes to avoid Bill Kann’s spun out car.

Pursley led the final four laps of the race and won his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race of the season. Mayhew rallied for a third-place finish despite the late evasive maneuvers.

Greg Pursley and Davie Mayhew fought for the lead all race long, swapping positions four times

Pursley took advantage of a caution period with 14 laps to go in the Armed Forces 150 to take the lead from Mayhew and eventually win the race.

When the race resumed with eight laps to go, Pursley and Mayhew ran together before having to make adjustments when Kann’s car spun out.

Bill Kann, in the number 18 Interstate Batteries car, spun out late in the race; which forced the leaders to swerve around him

“It was a good battle with Mayhew again,” said Pursley, the driver for Gene Price Motorsports. “It’s inevitable that you always get a couple of cautions there at the end. We did get a caution there with 10 to go. I thought we were going to get him there on the bottom.”

Mayhew said he was baffled that a yellow flag didn’t come out when Kann spun his car out.

“It was kind of a no-brainer in my eyes that it should have been a caution,” Mayhew said. “You should never have to race through something like that and have that determine the outcome of the race. We had the fastest car.”

Pursley was a little surprised a caution flag wasn’t brought out and said he was fortunate to win the race.

Greg Pursley, racing for Gene Price Motorsports, accepts his 19th NASCAR K&N Pro Series West first place trophy

“We were side by side. I pulled on him a little bit, side by side,” Pursley said. “There was a car that spun out up in two. They didn’t call the yellow. He went up to the top, checked up. I went to the bottom and got by him. They didn’t call the yellow and we got about a four-car length lead on that and got the checkered flag.”

Dylan Lupton crossed the finish line in second place, his best finish of the season.

“A lot of things worked in our favor tonight and we capitalized,” Lupton said. “We tried to stay on the outside all night on the restarts and that worked out for us and then the thing at the end with Mayhew let us get up into second.”

K&N representatives were in attendance that night and presented the Coca-Cola Move of the Race award

Pursley won the 19th NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race of his career. He leads the K&N Pro Series West standings by 18 points over Mayhew.

Purlsey is tied with Bill Schmitt for seventh place on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West career win list. He won the pole for the race, the 18th of his K&N Pro Series West career.

“To get the first win of this year here, it’s a great feeling,” Pursley said. “Hopefully it will start us off for some more this season.”

The next K&N Pro Series West race is the Carneros 200 at Sonoma Raceway in California on June 21.