Daytona Beach News
Journal Sunday, January 19,
2003
Driven to rock Penske boat
By DAN RYAN
News-Journal Correspondent
Last updated: Jan 19, 12:20 AM |
|
DAYTONA BEACH -- Chuck Gafrarar is a lot more relaxed at this year's
Goody's Dash Series testing.
Forget the time he posted Saturday, which was, well, forgettable.
Forget the troubles that kept his No. 52 Pontiac behind the wall
for a good portion of Saturday's afternoon session.
Compared to what the 2002 Dash rookie of the year was going through
last year, this is a Sunday drive that also happens to be his long-time
goal.
" Everything is so smooth now," Gafrarar
said during Saturday's test at Daytona International Speedway.
"I'm
glad everything happened the way it did."
For starters, go back to last year's test session. Gafrarar, a body
fabricator for Rusty Wallace and Penske Racing at that time, was
told he couldn't leave the shop to test at Daytona for the weekend.
Gafrarar came anyway.
" All week long, I had the meetings and I told them
what I had to do, but they were not going to let me," Gafrarar
said.
"On Friday, I locked my toolbox at 5 p.m.,
went home . . . it took me two-and-a-half hours to pack my clothes.
I thought, I can't believe I'm doing this."
It might've been easier for Gafrarar to cover his tracks, not showing
up for two days of work, had he not posted the second fastest time
at Daytona.
" Some of my co-workers were kind of happy,
but I'm sure not everybody thought it was comical," Gafrarar
said.
"I'm sure a few people at Penske
are still upset . . . I knew Rusty was upset for a while.
" That's the business -- and
when you're doing that, you want to give Rusty
110 percent.
" But I had been juggling my racing and my job for 5 1/2 years and I gave
him that 110 percent and my racing suffered through those years. I got the sponsorship
to go racing and I'd be kicking myself if I didn't take the chance."
In addition to starting a race team last year, Gafrarar also got
married. He went on his honeymoon after testing at Daytona.
He had a steady rookie season, with three top-fives and six top-10
finishes in 15 starts. He finished ninth in the standings.
" I screwed up at Bristol, I made mistakes
here, but that's racing," Gafrarar said.
"I'm
just looking forward to putting on the table everything
I learned last year."
Johnny Chapman was fastest Saturday at 163.313 mph in the afternoon
session, followed by Randy Humphrey (163.182) and Kelly Sutton (162.657)
-- all in Pontiacs.
-Team Gafrarar
