CONCORD, N.C. – It has been a few months since 15-year-old Alex Murray strapped into his INEX legends car and took to the track under racing conditions. Last weekend at Concord Speedway, he made his return with new colors and nearly stole the show, finishing second to Chase Purdy on the tight 1/4-mile oval.
Starting second alongside Purdy in the feature, Murray drag raced him into turn one and then slipped up just enough off turn two to allow Purdy to gain the advantage. That was all Chase needed
A lap 18 caution gave Alex one last shot. “I ran with him for three laps and then my left rear brake started locking up,” the driver said. “The car just got too loose in. I had a great race near the end with Blake Spears. Thankfully, I was able to keep him behind me!”
The result was highly satisfying for Alex and his team, given the flurry of activity that has taken place since the end of the Winter Heat series at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he last raced.
“We’ve had a lot going on to get ready for the Summer season,” Murray explained. “Especially the Summer Shootout at Charlotte. We ended up getting in a wreck the last race of Winter Heat, so we had to fix some things. We went completely through the car, rebuilt the motor, changed colors and even got me a new helmet. It’s been busy!”
Explaining the reason behind the color change, Murray added, “My father changed the name of his business to Shamrock Auto Care, and we didn’t figure that red and green would go too well together on the car. We made the car black, and we really like the way it looks. I feel like that run on Saturday gives us a real boost of confidence going into the Shootout. We were fast right off the trailer.”