Jeff Purvis has spent three decades on a career roller-coaster ride, from basking in NASCAR’s Victory Circle to fighting for his life after a near-fatal crash. Now he’s going back to where it all began. Purvis ran his first race 30 years ago on Clarksville Speedway, a little dirt track, and that’s where he plans to return for a race Memorial Day weekend. “I chose 15 for my first car number because of how old I was when I started racing,” said Purvis, 45, who won an estimated 350 dirt-track races before moving into NASCAR’s big leagues. “It is my home track. I’ve run a lot of races there and it’s going to be fun to come back.” The May 29 race will be the second dirt track race for Purvis this year. In February he entered a race in Brunswick, Ga., and ran as high as eighth before blowing a tire. Last spring Purvis made national news when he returned to racing after a two-year recuperation from a near-fatal crash. After running the NASCAR Busch Series race at Nazareth, Pa. the site of his crash he said he would “sit down and decide” whether to race again. “I’m having trouble deciding what people do without racing,” Purvis said this week as he joked about his “second comeback.” Purvis, who became independently wealthy through business ventures, said he “began racing for the fun of it, not to make a living, and that’s what I’m doing now. I’ve always loved this sport and I guess I always will. I didn’t know how much it meant to me until I lost it.”(Tennessean)(5-18-2005)
