I was busting my butt through the baggage claim area at Chicago’s Midway Airport a couple of weeks ago when I heard someone calling “John, hey John.”

I turned around to see Jeff Purvis, an old friend that I worked with in 1994 when he drove the No. 51 Country Time Lemonade car in the then NASCAR Winston Cup division. Despite running late, I immediately did a 180 and headed Jeff’s way.

It had probably been two years since I had seen him, but Jeff Purvis is someone you’d always make time for – a person that when you were friends with him, time and distance never mattered. We spent about 10 minutes chatting about everything from old times to what was happening with each of us in present day life.

We reminisced about the 1994 season when he took over the seat in the Country Time car after Neil Bonnett had died during practice at Daytona that year. Thinking back now, the times I spent with Jeff and his James Finch racing team that were some of the best I have ever had in racing.

Purvis loved a good joke, enjoying the simplest things like tormenting people on pit road with a rubber snake during a rain delay to gluing a quarter to the pavement and then sitting back and watching people try to pick it up. Certainly, Purvis and Finch saved the 1994 season for me.

A rookie PR person in my first full year in Cup, I worked the Maxwell House deal with driver Bobby Labonte. It sucked. I didn’t really know what I was doing - a dumb ass rookie in the garage area - and Labonte never really gave me the opportunity to learn. We battled most of the year and to say I was miserable was an understatement.

When Bonnett was killed at Daytona, Country Time scaled back their efforts and because it was a sister company to Maxwell House at Kraft General Foods, I was often put in a position of handling both teams when they competed in the same event. With my relationship with Labonte and the Maxwell House deal in the crapper by midseason, it was going to my first big-time victory lane with Purvis in an ARCA race at Pocono and working on a promotional deal with Jeff, the team and TV star Crystal Bernard (Wings) at Phoenix that proved to be the highlights of my year.

I would have never experienced those things – along with countless other good times – had it not been for Purvis and Finch. It’s not a stretch to say they saved me from quitting, giving up and going back home to Wisconsin.

As good as Purvis was in sharing a joke or carrying out PR directives, his driving skills were even better. A champion in the dirt stock car ranks winning top shelf events like the World 100 at Eldora (OH) Speedway, Purvis drove to a slew of short-track wins for Finch before capturing graduating to the pavement wars where he won eight ARCA races and four NASCAR Busch Series events in 187 career starts. Throw in a Snowball Derby victory and 50 NASCAR Nextel Cup starts, and you have a career any driver would be proud to call their own.

Purvis’ stats would surely be even better had he not been seriously injured in a Busch race at Nazareth in 2002. By the time of that accident, Jeff and I hadn’t worked together for a long time of the accident, but we had still stayed great friends stopping to catch up on each other’s doings when we crossed paths at the race track. I can remember feeling sick to my stomach when Jeff’s crash at Nazareth left him with life threatening injuries. I also remember the elation I felt when his remarkable recovery returned him to the cockpit at that same track in 2004. I experienced that same happy feeling when we said our goodbyes and hugged before going our separate ways in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.

Last week, I was deeply saddened to see that misfortune had again stuck Purvis. Finally totally recovered from the 2002 crash, Jeff had returned to what he loved best – racing dirt late model stock cars. En route to a race at the Talladega (AL) Short Track on Saturday, August 6, Purvis was again seriously injured when the race rig he was driving blew a tire, crossed the median and crashed into another vehicle on Interstate 65 near Cullman, AL.

Purvis suffered a fractured neck and back in the accident and was airlifted to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, TN after a brief stay in a regional hospital near Cullman. Fortunately, his wife Margo and son Clay, along with three others riding in the rig and the driver of the other vehicle, were not seriously injured.

The race transporter, which burst into flames and burned, along with two race cars and all the support tools and equipment, were a total loss.

To know that Jeff Purvis is again battling significant injuries and faces another long recovery period is heartbreaking. One of the nicest people I have ever meet in racing, Purvis never deserved any of this. No one would.

While none of us have the power to change what has happened, I would like to ask the personal favor to all reading this to keep Jeff and his family in your hearts and minds. Please remember that those heroes you cheer every week at the race track are just normal folks trying to get along with their lives the best they can every day – just like the rest of us.

Jeff Purvis is now back at his Clarksville, TN home recovering from his injuries. He has had more than his share of pain and suffering. Here’s hoping our positive thoughts and prayers can get Jeff back to living his life without injury and discomfort as soon as possible.

Get well soon, buddy. We'll have a cold one the next time our paths cross.

Photos used in this story courtesy of www.genewasher.com