Pursley Nearly Perfect

IRWINDALE, Calif. — It was his fifth win of the season for Greg Pursley but it may have been the sweetest.

The Newhall, Calif., native finally got a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West win at his home track, Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Calif. Pursley led 166 laps en route to the victory in the Southern California Toyota Dealers 200 presented by King Taco.

Pursley had collected victories in multitple divisions at Toyota, including the Super Late Model win in the 2007 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown and winning the track’s Super Late Model division en route to theĀ 2004 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national championship. But his best finish in a West race at the half-mile oval was fourth in 2002.

Derek Thorn finished second, followed by rookie Dylan Kwasniewski.

Eric Holmes and Michael Self rounded out the top five. Johnny Borneman finished sixth, followed by Chris Holloway, David Mayhew, Andrew Myers and Jason Fensler.

Pursley won his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season earlier in the day. He padded his championship points lead to 278 over second-place Moses Smith, who finished 12th. Mayhew is third, 336 points behind Pursley, while Self and Luis Martinez Jr. are fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Southern California Toyota Dealers 200 will air on SPEED on Thursday, July 21 at 6 p.m. ET.

The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race will be Sunday, July 10 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash.