March 25, 2003

Flat Tire Devastates Chad Chaffin and the No. 18 Dickies Dodge Team

Chad Chaffin and the No. 18 Dickies Dodge team just can’t seem to buy a good break to open the 2003 season. Chaffin entered the event at the Mesa Marin Raceway hot off of a fifth place finish last week at Darlington Raceway, but a flat left front tire ended the team’s hopes for a repeat performance.
“I just can’t believe our luck,” said Chaffin. “We had a good test a few weeks ago at Nashville, and we really felt good about our chances this week at Mesa Marin. We had a truck that could run in the top ten, but not one that could get two laps back after the tire went down. I just hope we’re getting all our bad luck out of the way in the first few races, so we can get this truck up front the rest of the year.”

Chaffin and the No. 18 Dickies Dodge truck looked outstanding through the mid-point of the race, charging from his 27th starting position, all the way to second place. Just after moving into that second position, on lap 94, the truck began to act a little funny. Chaffin fell back in the field, while taking it easy, before he realized he had a front tire going down. Chaffin stayed out on the flat tire for several laps, hoping for a caution, so he and the team would not lose a lap pitting under green.

Unfortunately, entering turn three on lap 140, the front tire blew out. Chaffin went right to the edge of the concrete wall, but managed to save the truck before crashing. He came down pit road and lost two laps, changing the tire under green flag conditions. From that point on, Chaffin and the team’s hopes were pretty much dashed. They tried to get the laps back, but could just never get a break on the restarts.

“We had a solid truck today, but the tire just got us,” said Randy Seals, crew chief of the No. 18 team. “I feel like we had a truck that could have easily finished in the top ten, and Chad was driving his butt off, but once we got two laps down, our day was pretty much over. We did pick up about five spots during the last 100 laps, but it was nothing major. We’re going to go testing over the break during the next few weeks, and we’ll be back with a vengeance at Martinsville.”

Following the event, Chaffin and the No. 18 Dickies team fell to 12th position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings. This sounds a lot worse than it is. The fact that the top 12 drivers in the points standings are separated by a mere 135 points means it is easy to get back in the top ten after the next race.

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 (Next Event)
Totals 503 of 508 (99.0%) $ 27,855

NEXT EVENT: Advanced Auto Parts 250 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia on April 12, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 1:00 PM Eastern Time.