November 17, 2003

Dickies Racing Recap: Ford 200

Dickies driver Chad Chaffin qualified on the outside pole for the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Tennessee native went on to finish the race in a respectable 10th position despite a loose No. 18 Dodge. Chaffin also finished 10th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points race.

Before the race started, the driver had nothing but praise for his Dickies Race Team. He said, “This year is the most fun I’ve ever had in racing. I really appreciate all your guys’ hard work. This is our last chance to win guys, so let’s show this series what we’re made of.” And with those words the green flag fell for the start of the race.

Chaffin held his spot in the top five in the first 20 laps. He radioed during this time to Crew Chief Danny Rollins that his truck was loose getting in the corners. By lap 31 Chaffin said, “I’m really struggling with it. It’s pushing from the center off the corners.”

The Dickies driver was forced to pit under green-flag conditions on lap 56 before he ran out of fuel. Once the pit stops cycled out among the rest of the field, Chaffin was posted in the seventh spot.

At this point he got some relief, but only for a little while. On lap 79 he told the Dickies Racing Team his truck was pushing again and still too free on entry. The first caution of the day came out on lap 90 and Chaffin wanted to pit for help. The pit crew changed four tires, adjusted the track bar three rounds and still got Chaffin back on the track in eighth position.

In the final laps of the race, Chaffin tried to help out fellow Dodge teammate Ted Musgrave win the championship by fending off other competitors. He went on to finish the event in 10th place.

"We had a strong year,” Chaffin said. “It was a lot of fun racing out there every weekend. These guys put on a good show for the last race. We were trying our hardest to make sure that Dodge got that championship, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards this year. Hopefully our Dickies Dodge can be one of the contenders next season. We finished 10th this year, which is strong, but we’ll do better than that next year.”

Bobby Hamilton won the Ford 200. Following Hamilton in the top five was Rick Crawford, David Starr, Andy Houston and Jack Sprague. Travis Kvapil was crowned the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion.