In Defense of Chad Little

 In Defense of Chad Little

By Brian H Cotnoir

There are two reasons why any hardcore NASCAR fan knows the name Chad Little:  1.)  The Amazing John Deere Paint scheme he ran in in the Cup Series (it's actually the Best in NASCAR History, in my opinion) and 2.)  His dominance in the NASCAR Busch Series during the mid 1990's.   Chad Little was a great driver in his early days and could have had more success in his career had certain events not taken place.  Despite never winning a race in the Cup Series, he won several races and even a Championship in some of NASCAR's lower tier series and is a part of NASCAR to this day.

Chad Little's career began in the Pacific Northwest.   He was one of a handful of drivers to come out Washington State in the late 1980's to the late1990's.  Along with drivers like 1990 Daytona 500 Champion, Derrike Cope, Larry Gunselman, Tobey Butler, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne.   Little won the-- then NASCAR Winston West; now ARCA Menards Series West--championship in 1987.  He won back-to-back races at Portland and Tacoma.  He won the championship by 50 points over that year's previous champion, Hershel McGriff.  While running full-time in the Winston West Series, Little also made periodic starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, mostly at the Riverside Road Course in California.  In 1989, he made 8 starts for veteran owner Junie Donlavey, but could only muster a best finish of 18th place at the Coca-Cola 600.   The following year, Little and his father started their own Cup Series team and ran about 66% of the races run that season.   In 1991, Little made his first attempt at full-time season.   Little qualified for 28-of-the-29 races that season with a season high finish of 10th at the Fall Race at Charlotte.

During the 1993 season, Little would team up with owners Greg Pollex and former Super Bowl MVP, Mark Rypien and the newly formed Mark Rypien Motorsports to run-part-time in the NASCAR Grand National Series, in addition to a handful of starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.  In his first full-time season with Rypien Motorsports, Little would finish 3rd in the final points standings after finishing in the Top 5 in 10 races.   The following season would be Little's breakout season:  it started off with him scoring his first win in the Grand National Series at the season opening race at Daytona, he followed that up next week with a win a Rockingham.  In total Little would win a season high 6 races that season!. Unfortunately issues with consistency throughout the season was only good enough for 2nd in the final point standings.  Despite winning 4 more races than that year's champion, Johnny Benson, Benson's consistency in throughout the season helped him easily win the Grand National Series Championship by over 400 points! 

The following Season Chad Little and Mark Rypien Motorsports would sign a new sponsor for the season and--in turn--create one of the Best and Most Iconic Paint Schemes in NASCAR History.   With sponsorship from John Deere also came a switch in manufacturer from Ford to Pontiac.  The move did not prove to be very successful as Little did not score a single win and only scored one Top 5 finish the whole season.  Despite a subdued season compared to 1995, Little still managed to finish 5th in the final drivers' standings.   When Little and Rypien made the jump to the Cup Series the next season they hoped to find recapture success but struggled to find their footing.   The team missed the first two rounds of the 1997 season and could only muster one Top 10 finish at Bristol.  Just over halfway through the season Rypien sold his team to Jack Roush, and both Little and sponsor John Deere finished off the season under the Roush banner (despite the fact they continued to race Pontiac's while the rest of Roush's cars ran Ford's).  The switch to Ford & Roush the following season proved to be a good decision: despite failing to qualify for the Spring Race at Atlanta, Little began to earn better finishes.  He scored a career high 2nd place at Texas Motor Speedway (losing to teammate Mark Martin).  Little and the 97 team would score 6 more finishes in Top 10 and finish a career best 15th in the final drivers' standings.  

After two more mediocre seasons at Roush, Little would be dropped by Roush and replaced by Kurt Busch.  Little lack of success at Roush can't be placed squarely on him.  Before even heading to Roush, his team failed to capture on their runner-up finish in the Grand National Series, then after Rypien Motorsports brought the whole operation to the Cup Series they still struggled.   Jack Roush bought the struggling team and added to his stable giving him a total of 5 full-time entries in the Cup Series.   Little had four other drivers he had to compete with at Roush.   At the time the team's two best drivers were Veteran Mark Martin and Jeff Burton.  Drivers like Chad Little and his teammates Johnny Benson and Kevin Lepage wound up being dropped or replaced to make room for development drivers at Roush like Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, and Matt Kenseth, all who would go on to win races and championships for Roush across NASCAR's Top 3 divisions.

Following his dismissal from Roush, Chad Little returned to the NASCAR Grand National Series to drive full-time for BACE Motorsports (the same team that defeated him for the 1995 championship with driver Johnny Benson).  Despite winning three consecutive drivers' championships in the 1990's with drivers Johnny Benson and Randy Lajoie, BACE Motorsports was also beginning to experience a decline in success, despite promising finishes a 3rd place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park & a 4th place finish at Dover, both Little and BACE Motorsports were unable to return to Victory Lane.

Despite his last race occurring in 2002, Chad Little is still involved in NASCAR today.   In 2013, he stepped into a role as Managing Director for the NASCAR Truck Series, and in 2015 stepped into the role of Managing Director for Technical Inspection and Officiating at NASCAR.  Little's son, Jesse, also competes in the NASCAR Truck Series for Young's Motorsports.