Dickies driver Chad Chaffin passed points leader Dennis Setzer in a spectacular neck-n-neck combat across the finish line of the Milwaukee Mile to bring his No. 18 Dodge home in second in the Black Cat Fireworks 200. This marks Chaffin’s fourth consecutive top-ten finish since his win in Dover. The runner-up position also enabled Chaffin to pick up four spots in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points battle where he is now sixth.
“This Dickies Dodge has been running great lately,” Chaffin said after the race. “All the BHR trucks have been strong. We just had to get it turning a little better earlier in the race so we could show off this Dodge horsepower. Right there at the end we were coming on great. Kip McCord, my Crew Chief, made a great call and we finished second. We are just tickled to death!”
Chaffin qualified earlier in the day on the outside pole starting position. Once the race started Chaffin radioed he was loose getting off the corners. When the first caution came out on lap 59 it gave the Dickies Racing Team the chance to help tighten Chaffin’s Dodge Ram. Chaffin entered pit road on lap 61 in the ninth position. Trying to stop short in his pit stall which would enable him to get out of the pits faster, Chaffin didn’t put the truck completely in the box. So he had to move the truck forward before the NASCAR official would let the crew work on the Dodge, which cost the team some time on pit road.
On lap 65 when the race restarted, Chaffin was 13th. McCord had called for a track bar and air pressure adjustment to help Chaffin’s loose condition and by lap 100 he was radioing it was much better. Then the pit strategy came into play.
In the first 100 laps, there were only three cautions. So in efforts to save tires until closer to the end of the 200-lap event, McCord called Chaffin into the pits on lap 103 for fuel only. At this same time, some of the field took on four fresh tires, while others either took on two tires or fuel only. The restart happened on lap 107 and Chaffin was third. He made it through two more cautions before the crew called him to pit.
On lap 141 Chaffin pitted. He restarted the race with only 53 laps left in the 18th position. By lap 160 he was in 10th. Only 26 laps later he was in fifth. By lap 197, Chaffin had moved up to third.
Then the eighth and final caution came out on lap 198 with only two laps left in the event. The famous green-white-checkered finish brought the fans to their feet in the grandstands. The race was restarted on lap 203 and Chaffin hit the gas. On the final lap coming off turn four he was side-by-side with Dennis Setzer challenging for second. Chaffin nudged the nose forward on his Dickies Dodge just enough to be granted the second finishing position, a first in his NCTS career.
“We knew we qualified fast, but I was a little skeptical on how we were going to run tonight,” Chaffin said. “At the beginning we fell back a little bit. Flat tracks are probably not my best. We just had a good strategy to save our tires towards the end and when we put tires on that Dickies Dodge, we went from 18th to second in 53 laps. It was fun.”
Ted Musgrave won the Black Cat Fireworks 200. Chaffin, Dennis Setzer, Steve Park and Travis Kvapil followed in the top five.
