LATE WRECK COSTS CANYON COUNTRY'S PURSLEY.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK  Motor Sports

Canyon Country's Greg Pursley was a lap away from coming out of NASCAR's Winter Heat at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday with a decent finish and some points to start the Southwest Series season.

That's when a car ran out of gas near the end of the 100-lap race. Cars started checking up, and the next thing Pursley knew, another car was landing on top of his and tearing his brand-new touring car to shreds.

``It absolutely destroyed my car. We're not going to be able to make the next race at Madera,'' said Pursley, driver of the No. 70 Frank's Radio Source/Nextel Chevrolet. ``It was a real hard hit. By far, it was the hardest and biggest wreck I've been in.''

Pursley spent a couple of hours in the infield medical center. The crash put a crack on the top of his race helmet. He said the black recorder box in his car and pictures of his cracked helmet are being sent to the NASCAR offices in Daytona, Fla., as part of a report on the crash.

``I'm just really sore right now,'' Pursley said Tuesday. ``I'm sure I'll be sore for a while after that wreck.''

M.K. Kanke of Frazier Park was another driver who got caught up in the wreck. His car already was struggling after an earlier incident, and he was just trying to stay out of trouble.

Kanke, driver of the No. 33 K&M Motorsports Chevrolet, has been to enough Phoenix races to know these kinds of accidents are bound to happen, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept.

The Southwest Series regularly has short-track drivers moving up to the touring division. Several of the drivers never have raced on anything bigger than a half-mile track. Some learn on quarter-miles. Phoenix is a 1-mile oval, and some of the drivers never have reached the speeds that Phoenix can generate.

``This is exactly what happens,'' Kanke said. ``We're just all on top of each other. You see the same thing at Daytona.''

The damage to Kanke's car is mostly on the body. He said his team will be ready for the next race at Madera Speedway in March.

``I like Madera,'' Kanke said. ``I've won there. Cajon (Speedway), Mesa (Marin Raceway), I like all these tracks. I just have to get the car fast and get after it.''

The damage to Pursley's car is substantial. He estimates it will cost between $8,000 and $10,000 to repair it. Since he's lacking enough sponsors on the car, making those kind of costly repairs won't be easy.

The rear frame on the back of Pursley's car was destroyed. Additionally, the body was ripped off the frame and the right side of his car was severely damaged.

``It's going to hurt me for this year,'' Pursley said. ``I can't see any blame. We're going so fast and things happen so fast, bad things happen in a 100-lap race.''

Even though Pursley was unwilling to point fingers, he did question the length of the race. A 100-lap race on a 1-mile track makes for a dangerous mixture with the Southwest Tour cars. Another driver estimated the pit window for fuel at 90 laps. Most of the drivers tried to finish the 100-lap race on one tank of gas. Pursley made a stop with about 20 laps to go to get gas and make adjustments.

But Kanke said drivers need to learn how to manage a race at speedways like Phoenix.

``Phoenix - guys got to respect it,'' Kanke said. ``You got to be prepared for it to run out of gas. On the last lap, a lot of guys wreck anyway and it's not just because of fuel.''

One driver wasn't able to make it to the end of the race on one tank of gas, and it resulted in ruining Pursley's season.

``It was a typical Phoenix deal,'' Pursley said. ``Everyone drives like that at the end of the race. There's just got to be more give-and-take, but you can't do anything about it.''

Eddy McKean won the race, taking the lead on the second lap and never relinquishing it.

Pole-sitter Burney Lamar was black-flagged for jumping the start and was issued a stop-and-go penalty in the pits. It cost him the lead and the race.

Pursley, who struggled through practice and tech inspection, qualified fifth and ran as high as third before falling back. He finished 24th.

Ben Walker of Santa Clarita was the highest-finishing driver among the area entrants. He was 12th after getting caught up in the same wreck that took out Pursley.

Bob Lyon of Agua Dulce was 21st; Kanke was 26th; Keith Spangler of Chatsworth was 29th; and Rip Michels of Mission Hills was 31st.