May 18, 2003

Hardee’s 200
May 16, 2003
Lowes Motor Speedway

Chad Chaffin Rebounds with a Top Ten Finish at Charlotte

Chad Chaffin and the No. 18 BHR Dickies Dodge came home in the eighth position Friday night at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, after starting the event from the tenth position. Chaffin had a fairly uneventful night of racing. He ran most of the evening in the top 15 before a late race charge put him in the top five in the running order. Unfortunately, a miscue left him battling his boss for seventh and eighth position after a late race caution came with three laps remaining in the event.

“We had fifth place locked up, and I'm going to blame the driver a little bit,” said Chaffin. “They had that caution, and I got greedy on the restart. If I had just protected my spot, I think we would have come home fifth. It was just a mistake on my part. The Dickies Dodge and the Arrington horsepower were unreal. If we'd had that thing handling right, we could’ve won. Ted had his truck handling right, and Bobby was good. Bobby beat me on the last lap. I tried to run him up in the wall, and he wouldn't let me. Whenever we get out there and race, he doesn't like for me to be ahead of him. The guys made great adjustments tonight, and we had a lot of fun.”

The Dickies team made three pit stops during the race, each time making adjustments on the No. 18 truck to help fix a tight condition entering the turns and a loose condition when the truck exited the turns.

“The boys worked all night to get me right there at the end,” said Chaffin. “I give them a lot of credit for this finish. We had to make a lot of changes during the race, and I think a lot of the problem was happy hour practice being rained out the night before the race. We had to go cold turkey with our set up, and we were just a little off at the start of the race.”

Chaffin began the night in the 13th position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings, but after he and the team’s second top ten finish of the season, they moved to 11th in the points standings. Chaffin sits a mere five points out of the top ten in the standings, and 117 points out of the top five.

“We gained a little in the points, but with one fifth of the season done, we need to start making our run in the points over the summer when we race just about every week,” said Chaffin.

Driver: Chad Chaffin, No. 18 Dickies Dodge Team
Starts Pole Wins Top Fives Top Tens Earnings Points Position
5 0 0 1 2 $ 45,795 11th

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 (Next Event)

Totals 884 of 894 (98.8%) $ 45,795