Dickies driver Chad Chaffin was a victim of circumstance in this weekend’s UAW/GM Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park.  On lap 109 Chaffin was forced to slam on the brakes when two fellow competitors tangled in front of him.  The Dickies team fought back to fix the damage and finish the race in 31st position.

Qualifying for the new venue was rained out on Saturday, so Chaffin was placed on the starting grid in 12th position according to last year’s owner points.  He quickly jumped into the top 10 holding his position for the first 70 laps.  “Our truck was getting loose in the corners, so we decided to pit in case we had a tire going down,” Chaffin said.

As it turned out the tires were fine on the Dickies Dodge, but it gave the team a chance to make an adjustment to the track bar to help Chaffin’s loose condition.  He pitted on lap 71, coming into the pits out of sequence with other teams and restarted the race in 22nd position.  In only 30 laps he was already back in the eighth spot.

Then on lap 109, Matt Crafton pinched Hank Parker Junior in a tight racing battle which ran Parker up the race track.  Parker slammed on his brakes in front of Chaffin who was racing his truck wide open and had nowhere to go.  Chaffin’s right front fender suffered extensive damage when he hit the back of Parker’s truck.  As he entered pit road, the team realized the radiator was busted.

Quickly the Dickies team, with the help of teammates from the Square D Racing team, started replacing the radiator to have no DNF’s (did not finish) this season.  They cut enough sheet metal off to get Chaffin’s truck back on the race track.  On lap 167 Chaffin reentered the race in 32nd position.  It panned out for the Dickies team as Chaffin picked up two more positions to finish the race in front of past champion Travis Kvapil, who retired after a busted radiator blew his engine in the same accident as Chaffin’s.

“It wasn’t the finish we expected,” Chaffin said.  “The track is a fine little track, but it is really hard to pass on.  Our Dickies Dodge was very, very fast.  Track position was real important.  We started 12th and were able to jump on them early.  We got up to seventh at the first of the race.  Then I was having trouble getting around Andy Houston, who was really loose.  I was just loose enough where I couldn’t pass him, but was buying my time until fuel burned off to do it.

“We pitted early,” Chaffin continued.  “That seemed to be a real good strategy because we got back toward the front quick.  Then Matt Crafton got into Hank Parker Junior in front of me.  Hank hit the wall and he just stopped in front of me.  Then Travis Kvapil ran into the back of me because I had nowhere to go.  It ended up putting Travis and I out, but we didn’t give up.  We came into the garage area and changed the radiator, losing several laps before we could go back out.  It was really disappointing.  We had some back luck today, but we’ll get them next week.”

Jack Sprague won the UAW/GM Ohio 250.  Dennis Setzer, Terry Cook, Bobby Hamilton and Tracy Hines followed in the top five.