NASCAR Model by Rob Spires!!!
(Decals by 3 Amigos - beta-build by Rob! The subject matter was his idea!)
Chad Chaffin was born on July 20, 1968 in the dot-on-the-map town of Smyrna, Tennessee. Smyrna is just below Nashville, a town that has been known for producing top notch stock car drivers. By winning Nashville Speedway Late Model Track Championships in 1993 and 1995, Chad followed in the footsteps of such famous stock car drivers as Coo Coo Marlin, Jimmy "Smut" Means, Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Hamilton, and Jeff Green. Chad even raced aginst Dale Earnhardt Jr., Adam Petty, and Casey Atwood, as they were beginning their careers at Nashville.
In 1994 Chad was selected to drive a limited Busch Grand National season
with Day Enterprises, an underfunded team, and Chad faced very little
success, but lots of torn up equipment. This resulted in Chad returning back
to Nashville and winning the 1995 Track Championship.
After the 1995 season, Chad decided that it was time for him to join a traveling stock car series, and after weighing his options, he decided on the newly formed USAR Hooters Pro Cup series. Chad raced in this series from 1996-1998 driving his brightly painted red and yellow Logan's Roadhouse Thunderbird (model forthcoming)
When the 1997 Busch race at Nashville conflicted with the Winston Cup
schedule, Joe Nemecheck decided to give Chad the nod, in his brightly painted
#87 Bell South Mobility Monte Carlo (once again, model forthcoming). Chad
qualified 13th, and was running towards the front most of the race, until he
was caught up in a wreck not of his own doing. Chad finished a disappointing
18th, but got some valuable TV exposure.
After this race, Chad remained relatively silent until the midpoint in the 1999 Busch season, where he feilded his own car for several races. After some moderate success, he was tapped to drive the #77 car for owner Tony Hall. Chad remained in this car until July 20, 2000. Chad was released from his ride on none other than his birthday. A tough pill to swallow, I'm sure.
Chad was hired by the Long Brothers to drive their truck in the 2000 CTS race at Nashville, where he finished an impressive 3rd in his first ever truck race. After that, Bobby Hamilton selected Chad to drive his #4 truck at Chicago (you guessed it, model forthcoming) , where he finished in the top 15. That got the attention of Team Rensi MotorSports, who selected Chad to drive their car in the 2001 BGN series.
That is the model you see here.
After 6 races with less that stellar results, the Rensi brothers decided
that maybe Chad Chaffin wasn't the driver that would best represent their team,
and they put team driver David Donahue in the seat just before Nashville,
Chad's home track. Yet another bitter pill to swallow. Chad has just
announced that he will be driving for the Long Brothers in the CTS race at
memphis, so hopefully Chad will be able to give his career another shot in
the arm.
This is a Revell 2000 #24 Monte carlo built mostly box stock. The only
change is a scratch built rear spoiler to better fit the shape of the rear
fenders. I used Testors basic black and red for the paint, Slixx 2000
grouped contengencies, rear contengencies off of the #44 Blues Brothers kit
decals, amd a few other odds and ends decals from the decal box. This is a
model that I'm very proud to have in my collection. I only wish Chad's stint
in this car worked as well as this model did.....
This car is the highlight of my collection. I am very proud to have a Chad Chaffin car; I've wanted one for so long!
(Note from Les:
Thanks to Rob for this well-done write-up! It was great to work with Rob and Sam on this project! The only real problem with the sheet is the word "Marines" for
the hood is too large, so "The Few. The Proud." won't fit on the sides. This has been corrected and new decals will be on their way to Rob. We'll be adding this to our "catalog" in a few weeks, so you too can have your very own CHAD CHAFFIN car!!)
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