June 30, 2003

Chad Chaffin Battled from 36th Place to 13th Position at Milwaukee

It is hard to believe that when Chad Chaffin and the No. 18 BHR Dickies Dodge team flashed across the start finish line to record a 13th place finish, the team was relieved. It was a tough two days for the Dickies team this past weekend.

It all began on Friday when the engine let go in happy hour erasing, the seventh place qualifying run and relegating them to the 36th position for the start of the race. Then it rained most of the day, making an engine change next to impossible.
When the race finally started at 3:00 PM on Saturday, Chaffin knew he had his work cut out for him. But in the spirit of the team, he battled all day, passing 20 trucks to finish 13th overall.

“I knew when the race started after about ten laps, missing happy hour practice with the engine problem was going to hurt us,” said Chaffin. “We didn’t get a lot of laps in, so we thought we had the set up right, but we just missed it. Then we had a little trouble in the pits, which never happens, so to finish 13th with all the adversity that we faced today and yesterday, it’s a miracle we finished. If this is a bad day and we still get a top 15, then I will take it and get on down the road to Kansas Speedway next week.”

Sometimes when you run a race and win, a driver will get out and look like he just had a Saturday afternoon drive in the country. That is because when the truck is handling good, it is easy to drive, but that was not the case with Chaffin in this race. When he crawled from the Dickies Dodge, he was exhausted. He had taken an ill-handling truck through the field, racing on the edge of crashing several times to a top 15 finish.

“These are the days that make it tough sometimes,” said Chaffin. “You’re not running well enough to win the race, so you know you have to race smart and get everything that you can get. It is mentally harder to do that then to run up front all day and get a top five finish in some cases. I will say that one reason we did get a top fifteen finish was the pit crew. They had a little trouble today, but they never gave up on me all day, and they worked their butts off all weekend to get this truck fixed in happy hour. My hats off to them for their work. They are what make this a great team to drive for.”

Chaffin did not move in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings, remaining in the 11th position. He did, however, make up a few points on Carl Edwards, the tenth place driver. The separation is now a mere four points.

Driver: Chad Chaffin, No. 18 Dickies Dodge Team
Starts Pole Wins Top Fives Top Tens Earnings Points Position
9 0 0 1 4 $ 94,125 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 12 7 200 of 200 Running 15,375
Texas 10 8 167 of 167 Running 13,900
Memphis 2 28 76 of 200 Engine 8,940
Milwaukee 7 13 196 of 200 Running 10,115
Kansas (Next Event)
Totals 1523 of 1661 (91.6%) $ 94,125

NEXT EVENT: The O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas on July 5, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, and also live on MRN radio at 2:00 PM Eastern Time.