K&N West Champion Greg Pursley Bites Back

Greg Pursley (right) is congratulated by Chase Elliott after wrapping up his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship at Phoenix International Raceway. Getty Images for NASCAR

Greg Pursley thought the bad luck of 2010 was long gone. He opened 2011 by winning the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West season opener at Phoenix International Raceway in February, his second straight series win at the track, and was ready to put a rash of flat tires and misfortune in the rearview mirror. There was no reason to think that the No. 26 Gene Price Motorsports Ford wouldn't compete for its first series championship.

But a simple walk across his kitchen floor in the middle of an early April night nearly put not only Pursley's season – but his life – in jeopardy.

Pursley, of Newhall, Calif., was stung twice in the bottom of the foot by a scorpion he never saw. His family was out of town at the time, leaving him facing very real danger. He was eventually airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital and spent three days in the intensive care unit.

“I almost died,” said Pursley, the 2004 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national champion at Irwindale, Calif. “I came home and didn't know if I was going to be able to even go and get in the car. It takes a lot out of you.”

There were other unknowns, too. The team had planned a test at All-American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., only to be informed after the hauler with the race car was already en route that Pursley was in the hospital. Pursley's No. 26 never got on the track for the test, though new teammate Dylan Kwasniewski did manage some laps in his own car.

Just 10 days after Pursley was stung, he was at All-American Speedway facing a lot of question marks.

“I went there to the track and honestly, I hoped to just start the car and maybe park it or whatever,” Pursley said. “I didn't know what would happen.”

CHAMPION PHOTO GALLERY | CHAMPION CAR OWNER: Gene Price | CHAMPION CREW CHIEF: Jerry Pitts

What Pursley did was nothing short of remarkable. He won the first of his six poles of the season, led a race-high 135 laps and finished third. It sparked a run that saw Pursley win five of the next six races on the schedule and sail off to an astounding championship margin of 262 points.

“That was a pretty cool deal,” Pursley said. “We went there and went after it. Nobody gave up, everybody worked hard and everybody was very supportive. I didn't want to get out of the car. I guess it's just the drive in you to want to go win races and win championships.

“I did what I had to do to do that.”

“That really got it going for us,” said team owner Gene Price. “To go there and set fast time and lead 135 laps – Greg said it was best he'd ever felt. That was a big event for all of us.”

Crew chief Jerry Pitts said that Pursley's performance following the serious illness said a lot about his driver and his capabilities.

“He'd been in the hospital for four or five days in all,” Pitt said. “He's extremely headstrong, I guess. He does what he wants to do – and there's not much that's going to stop him from that. He bounced back from that very well. To spend all that time in the hospital, tubes running out of every part of your body, and then to go out and do that (at All-American) and not fall out of speed is a pretty big deal.”

The second half of the 2010 season began to build the momentum Pursley would ride into 2011. After a disappointing first half to that year, with a slew of blown tires and crashes in three of the first eight races, Pursley went on to win two of the final three races of the year.

Time in the hospital aside, Pursley never slowed down this season. He won six of the 14 K&N West races, won as many poles and only finished outside the Top-5 twice.

He likened the run to his incredible 2004 season – when he won 14 of 18 starts in weekly competition at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale to win the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national title.

“I don't think anything was different this year,” said Pursley, who had three career K&N Pro Series wins prior to this season. “We finally had some luck on our side. We didn't have bad luck. Last year, we ran in the front but we'd always have a flat tire or something we couldn't control. This year, we didn't do much different than we had in the past.

“It's pretty cool to be able to say you have a national championship and a West championship. It's really pretty close in the way the two seasons went, too. Everything went right (in 2004), and everything went right this year year. We started out this year, we just really didn't go to points race. We went to win races. When you win races, the points will take care of themselves.”