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Dickies Racing Recap |
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ATLANTA (March 13, 2004) –
Dickies driver Chad Chaffin pushed his way through lapped traffic into the
top 10 in the final laps of the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200 at
Atlanta Motor Speedway. Chaffin finished the event in ninth place after
being placed one lap down due to a green-flag pit stop early in the race.
Chaffin's top-10 finish moved him up to ninth in the championship points
battle. He is only 23 points out of the top five. The Tennessee native started the race in 14th position. By lap seven Chaffin had followed owner Bobby Hamilton into eighth position. Chaffin radioed to Crew Chief Kip McCord that his truck was loose from the center of the corner off the turn. After his No. 18 Dickies Dodge made several more laps on the 1.54-mile oval, it started to tighten up on Chaffin. “Our truck was killer fast in Happy Hour yesterday," Chaffin said. "I was just going to follow Bobby to the front today, but he jumped on the high side. I followed him up to about seventh or eighth and he kept on going. I got loose and couldn’t follow, so I maintained my spot.” The Dickies driver came in for a scheduled green-flag pit stop on lap 44 before he ran out of gas, and unfortunately he got caught on pit road. As the crew members took the right-side tires off the truck, the yellow flag fell for a multi-truck pile up on the back straightaway. Quickly the team placed the tires back on the Dodge and tried to get Chaffin back on the track, but it was too late. The field was frozen as it was according to the NASCAR rule book. “That stinks, and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Chaffin said. “We had a top five truck today hands down. Our lap times were among the fastest on the race track behind Bobby‘s and Skinner‘s.” The race was red flagged for over five minutes on lap 48 so NASCAR could get the track cleaned appropriately before the race restarted. Once the teams were allowed to pit, Chaffin came in on lap 50 for four tires and fuel. The team made an adjustment to the track bar and tweaked the air pressure in Chaffin's tires. The race restarted on lap 54. Chaffin was listed as one lap down in 19th position. He moved up four spots by the second caution on lap 86. This time the Dickies Racing Team pitted on lap 89 and made another adjustment to the track bar and wedge to help Chaffin's loose, then tight condition. Following the restart Chaffin quickly worked his way into the 14th spot where he was next in line to be crowned the “lucky dog” by NASCAR if there was another caution. Sure enough the team got its wish on lap 116 when the third caution came out. “This is the best our truck has been all day," Chaffin said during the caution laps. "I don't want to pit. It feels like we did yesterday in Happy Hour practice when we were so good." So the team did not pit. Chaffin was ordered to the tail end of the longest line and was granted his spot back on the lead lap. He passed truck after truck in 10 laps trying to position himself behind the top 10 trucks. Finally after he passed through the lapped traffic and was trailing the top 10, the final caution came out. This last minute caution forced the race finish under the NASCAR green-white-checkered-flag rule. In the final three laps, Chaffin picked up three spots to finish the event in ninth. "It was so late in the run when we got our lap back, and it was a single-file start," Chaffin said. "I had to start at the very back. It was almost like having nothing. We passed three trucks in one lap on the green-white-checkered finish, and that just showed how strong our truck was. Bobby gave me a great truck. One team finished first and one team finished ninth. If we had been just a little bit better we would have got the Lucky Dog earlier. I promise we would have finished third or fourth with this truck.” Bobby Hamilton won the EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 200. Mike Skinner, David Reutimann, Travis Kvapil and Matt Crafton round out the top five. |
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