Purvis grew up racing on dirt tracks across the southeastern United States. His three World 100 victories at Eldora Speedway — one of the most prestigious dirt-late-model events in the country — established him as a serious competitor before he made the leap to stock-car racing. His relationship with car owner James Finch, which began during his dirt-track days, would prove central to his NASCAR career.
Purvis made his Winston Cup debut in 1990 driving Bobby Allison's No. 12 Raybestos Buick at Martinsville Speedway, crashing out to a 28th-place finish. He subsequently made additional starts through the early and mid-1990s in cars fielded primarily by James Finch's Phoenix Racing operation.
His best result in the Cup Series came at the 1996 Daytona 500, where he finished twelfth — a career highlight that stood as his best Cup finish. That same year he qualified sixth for the Pepsi 400, his best career starting position at the premier level. Purvis also made occasional Cup starts for Bobby Allison and Morgan-McClure Motorsports, as well as a stint for Rick Hendrick in 1995.
After a three-year absence from the Cup Series, Purvis returned for a final campaign in 2001, making four starts in the No. 51 Finch-owned Ford. He did not return to the Cup level after that season.
The Busch Series was the true measure of Purvis's talent. He began competing in the series in 1989 and developed steadily through the early 1990s, earning top-ten finishes with various team combinations.
His breakout came in 1992, when he drove the Finch No. 51 to a seventh-place finish at Talladega — his first NASCAR top-ten. He followed that with rides for Robert Yates Racing, adding further top-fifteen results. By 1995, partnered with Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the Kodak-sponsored No. 4, Purvis posted a career-best third-place finish at Charlotte and claimed the Talladega pole.
The 1996 season was his finest. Running a combination of sponsored and unsponsored entries for Finch, Purvis claimed pole positions at Daytona and Richmond in the opening races. At Richmond he converted the pole into his first Busch Series victory, leading 38 laps and passing Joe Nemechek for the win. He followed later in the season with a second victory at Michigan Mile, holding off Terry Labonte. He finished seventh in the final Busch standings that year with seven top-tens in 26 starts.
A solid 1998 campaign with Lance Snacks sponsorship brought five top-five finishes, including a runner-up at Daytona. A suspension — stemming from an incident at South Boston where he rammed a rival's car on pit road — forced him to miss five races, but he recovered to finish fifteenth in points.
In 1999 at Diamond Ridge Motorsports, Purvis finished sixth in the Busch Series standings — his best points result. The team subsequently merged with Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2000 season, where Purvis posted three second-place finishes and finished eleventh in points despite injuries that cost him some races.
A move to Richard Childress Racing for a handful of 2001 races produced his third career Busch win at Pikes Peak International Raceway, where he dominated and led half the laps — his first victory in nearly five years.
In 2002, driving for Brewco Motorsports, Purvis won his fourth and final race at Texas Motor Speedway — a rain-shortened event where he was running near the front when the race was called. Six events later, at Nazareth Speedway, Purvis blew an engine and spun in his own oil on the backstraightaway. Greg Biffle, unable to avoid the oil, struck his stationary car. Purvis suffered severe head trauma. He made no NASCAR-sanctioned starts after 2004.
On August 5, 2006, Purvis suffered further serious injury when a race hauler he was travelling in blew a front tire on Interstate 65 near Cullman, Alabama, crossed the median, and struck a northbound vehicle. He sustained a broken neck, broken ribs, and other injuries, and was airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. His wife and son were also injured in the crash.
Purvis was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame in its inaugural 2001 class, recognizing his pre-NASCAR accomplishments on the dirt. His career bridged the gap between regional dirt-track stardom and sustained Busch Series competition, and his four wins across more than a decade of NASCAR racing reflected the consistency of a driver who competed across multiple team situations without significant factory support.