O’REILLY 400K
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
JUNE 11, 2004
RACE REPORT

Post Win Follow-up in Texas Proves Powerful for Dickies Dodge

One thing is certain—Texans don’t like a beating.  The Dickies Dodge team knew they had something to prove coming into Dickies backyard…and prove they did.

Following a Victory Lane appearance at Dover, Chad Chaffin felt confident and eager to race at Texas.  An eighth place qualifying round, and fastest on the track during happy hour amped up the team and prepared them for a true Texas showdown on Friday night.

“The Dickies Dodge was strong all night,” says Chaffin. “ We had a setup we knew would be loose, but our truck really came through for us.  There were two or three times we were just really mowing them down.” 

The team elected not to take tires on the first pit stop, but Chaffin found his Dodge difficult to handle on old tires and a full tank. 

“We did things a little different tonight.  The first pit stop we took fuel only.  When you have a fuel load and 30 laps on your tires, then you’re real loose.  We fell back to 20th position, but realized we’d have a newer set of tires at the end,” says Chaffin.

A costly mistake in the pits brought the Dickies Dodge back on to Pit Road a second time to attach a lug nut, but from that point forward the team knew it was go-time in Texas.  Chaffin steadily maneuvered his Dodge from 20th place to within the top ten in a matter of laps.  Quiet radios lent to the fact that Chaffin’s team had provided him with a strong, reliable truck.

“The guys get a lot of credit.  They gave me one super fast truck and we were coming on like gangbusters,” says Chaffin of his move to fifth position.  “We were just as fast as the leaders, but there was no way we could run them down.  We wanted to put on a good show for Dickies tonight and I think we did that.”

Bobby Hamilton’s Dickies Dodge team now finds themselves with two top five showings in a row (including a win), and poised to make some ripples in the waters of the Craftsman Truck Series.

Next weekend, the team will head back to their home of Tennessee for the O’Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park—a favorite of Chaffin’s.

Dennis Setzer won the O’Reilly 400K.  Ted Musgrave, David Reutimann, Jack Sprague and Hamilton’s teammate Chad Chaffin followed in the top five.