Where is ... Jeff Purvis?

Jeff Purvis is an incredibly fortunate man.

Twice, Purvis has stared death squarely in the face and come away able to talk about it. Just knowing a fraction of what he's been through, it's hard to believe that Purvis is still around. Talking to him on the phone comes across as nothing short of a miracle.

"It's kind of humorous in a way, but I'll start talking to somebody and I'll say, 'The first time I broke my neck ...'" Purvis said. "I've been totally blessed. My health is good now. Physically, I can do pretty much anything, within reason, that I would've been able to do if I'd never had either one of the wrecks."

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Jeff Purvis

And what unimaginable wrecks they were ...

Five years ago, on May 18, 2002, Purvis blew an engine going into Turn 1 at Nazareth Speedway in Pennsylvania. He glanced off the wall, and slid back down the track, directly into the path of an oncoming Greg Biffle. Their cars met in an instant, Biffle's nose to driver's-side door of Purvis' Brewco Motorsports Chevrolet, the worst possible kind of impact.

The hit was so hard, Biffle's helmet was cracked when it struck his head rest. After briefly losing consciousness himself, Biffle was able to walk away from the accident and win just two weeks later in Dover.

Purvis, on the other hand, sustained a contusion to the base of his brain, fractures to the first and second vertebrae and a broken left leg. Listed in serious but stable condition early in his hospital stay, Purvis spent time on a ventilator to aid his breathing. He was also placed in a halo to stabilize his neck.

If nothing else, the Nazareth accident caused Purvis to realize that he had to get his affairs in order. He had to, for his family.

"If I had died at Nazareth -- and there was times, according to my wife, they thought I was going to -- [wife Margo] would've been in a cluster," Purvis said. "My will was not taken care of ... like it should be. There were so many loose ends. I just went on with my daily business, and I just never thought anything like this could ever happen.

"The first thing when I got physically and mentally able, I straightened up all these different situations that I had just left untied."

The Tennessee native would race just once more in Busch Series competition, two years later at the same track that nearly cost him his life. For Purvis, it wasn't a return to the scene of the crime. He never felt the track owed him anything, or that he had anything to prove to himself.

It was simply the result of a suggestion made by his longtime car owner and good friend James Finch. (Continued)