June 8, 2003

Chad Chaffin Flying High After Third Consecutive Top Ten Finish

Chad Chaffin and the No. 18 BHR Dickies Dodge recorded their third top ten finish in as many races, after earning an eighth place finish in the O’Reilly 400K at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night.

“We had a good run, but I really think we had a top five truck before that deal with Rick Crawford,” said Chaffin. “I don’t blame him. He saw an opening, and he went for it. I know I would have done the same thing. Bad thing is he got loose when he got under me, and when he came up the track to catch his truck, we got together. It messed up the front fender on the Dickies Dodge, and he crashed. After that, the truck just didn’t drive right. There wasn’t much we could do about it with so few laps left. We just road it out and unfortunately, we lost a few spots right there at the end. I’m still pretty happy with the run, and I can’t wait to get to Memphis. I’ve been there a few times, and I have always run well there.”

Chaffin began the night in the 10th position after rain once again negated qualifying. On the start, Chaffin fell back a few spots, but by lap 15, he had moved back into the top 10. From there, Chaffin continued his assault on the leaders, moving into the top five on lap 48. On lap 55, the caution came out for the first time, helping the team out by allowing them to pit for fuel and tires under caution.

On the ensuing restart, Chaffin began to fall back. He radioed in to the crew and let them know that, for whatever reason, the tires on the truck just were not the same as the first set. He was very loose in traffic. Chaffin decided that discretion was the better part of valor and played it safe. He knew he had a good truck, and the Dickies crew could fix it on the next stop.
On the next stop during the second caution on lap 101, Chaffin brought the No. 18 truck down pit road for service and got four new tires and fuel. When the race restarted on lap 106, Chaffin was in the seventh position. Just 13 laps had passed when the caution flew again, this time Chaffin had moved up to the fifth position. That is when the crew made the choice to pit again. They only put fuel and returned the track in the ninth position.

Shortly after the restart on lap 120 while coming off turn two, the No. 14 truck dived under Chaffin, and that is when the race went south for the Dickies Team. The No. 14 truck got loose when making the pass and slid up the track, hitting the front of the No.18 truck causing damage to the front fender and crashing the No. 14 truck.

After that damage to the truck, Chaffin was unable to keep the three guys in positions six through eighth behind him. Chaffin flashed across the start finish line in the eighth position.

“This was a big weekend for us,” said Chaffin. “This is Dickies home track, and we wanted to give them a good finish. They had a lot of people at the race, and I knew they were cheering me on, so I didn’t want to let them or my team down tonight.”

Race-by-Race Run Down:
Location Start Finish Laps Status Money Won
Daytona 6 17 103 of 106 Running $ 13,015
Darlington 7 5 147 of 147 Running 9,175
Bakersfield 27 20 253 of 255 Running 5,665
Martinsville 23 26 245 of 250 Out of Gas 6,865
Charlotte 10 8 136 of 136 Running 11,075
Dover 12 7 200 of 200 Running 15,375
Texas 10 8 167 of 167 Running 13,900
Memphis (Next Event)
Totals 1251 of 1261 (99.2%) $ 75,070

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