It’s no doubt a tough act to follow Brad Sweet and Eric Prutzman but Daison Pursley and Jarrett Martin are in it together with the full support of team owner Kasey Kahne.
To wit, the debut season for Pursley in the NAPA Auto Parts No. 9 has been a challenge, but there seems to be a lot of patience when talking to both the driver and owner in advance of the Knoxville Nationals.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, the old adage says, but neither are teams capable of contending in both High Limit Racing and the World of Outlaws. And ultimately, this level of commitment from Kahne is identical to Sweet winning six national championships with Prutzman.
It’s just a matter of Pursley, who previously worked with Martin in Midgets at Keith Kunz Racing, building momentum and synergy into the figurative dog days of summer.
“The obvious is that we haven’t ran as great as we had hoped, just because Kasey has surrounded me with a group that has been successful in every discipline of racing with Jarrett, Ryan (Boyd) and Tayte (Williamson.)
“They’ve each won as drivers and crew members, and I’ve been successful where I’ve previously aced too, so everything here was put together with that potential in mind. Kasey also understands that it takes time.
“He’s sat us down numerous times and said he is understanding of the process. He just gives us the information and tools we need to keep growing.”
Pursley won last year in his rookie season in the Buch Motorsports No. 13 at Lernerville Speedway and finished seventh in the standings. This year has been tough, sitting ninth in the standings with just four top 5s, with all the expectations that there would be something that resembled Sweet and the old No. 49 team.
But again, Kahne knows better.
“Jarrett, Tayte and Ryan are doing a really good job,” Kahne said. “These are just younger guys who want to be here and they’re learning together. They’re putting in the time and I’m really excited to see them grow.
“We’re slowly getting better and hopefully they maintain that.”
And yeah, Sweet and Prutzman’s success was the byproduct of time and experience that this current foursome do not have together yet.
“If you look back at all the great KKR years, the longer a crew chief and driver has been together with their crew members, the results reflect that,” Kahne said. “Joey Saldana, Daryn Pittman and then Brad Sweet where they just keep getting better every year they stayed together.
“But that doesn't always last forever either so as a team owner, I have to be ready to make changes and move on as well, and that’s what we had to do, start over.”
For Pursley, he’s still trying to find a comfort level as a 410 Sprint Car driver, because there are times where he’s uncomfortable but fast and comfortable but slow. He doesn’t quite have the full confidence to tell Martin what changes to make like when they were in Midgets.
“I just don’t know what that looks like,” Pursley said. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can in a short amount of time. We’re not like other sports where we can go outside and shoot hoops and get better. We get better by getting our butts kicked time and time again.
“The difference in Sprint Car racing now is that every race is on television and they see the struggles and can talk about it. But at the end of the day, this is hard. This is the highest level and we’re a different team than the one Brad took to six championships and everyone was built around Brad.
“We’re young and trying to find our footing.”
On the bright side, Pursley really believes the results are poised to turn around starting on Thursday with his Knoxville Nationals preliminary effort. After the Nationals, the High Limit schedule will resume with some of his favorite tracks, California bullrings, and that has him excited.
“And then going into California to me, I like those tracks,” Purlsey said. “Small bullrings, take the dirty air out of it, just get up on the wheel and get the job done is kind of like my thing.
“So, I’m looking forward to the California swing. I think our work is about to pay off and then you even look at going to Port Royal, we ran pretty good at the Weikert Memorial. Hopefully we start getting some results and this is where we can start to build some confidence within ourselves.”
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