Breaking in, breaking out.(NASCAR)(NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series)

Chad Chaffin's daughter, Brooke, just turned 16, and he says he now must face that eternal paternal problem. "She always wants the car," he says.

There's some justice in this. "Chad's a nice kid ... who was bugging me for years to let him race my stuff," says fellow Nashville native Bobby Hamilton--who finally relented last season and put Chaffin in the No. 18 Dickies Dodge in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Hamilton certainly hasn't regretted it. After more than a decade of racing around Nashville and picking up a ride here, a ride there in the NASCAR Busch Series or in the NCTS, Chaffin has proved he belongs. He finished 10th in his first full season and has had a breakout 2004 with wins at Dover and Indianapolis.

Chaffin, 36, and Hamilton, 47, both came out of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway incubator, winning late-model championship--and swapping more than their share of paint. "I think the best thing I did was marry Cindy Binkley," Chaffin says. "Bobby raced her family for years, so that was a point in my favor."

Hamilton has had an NCTS team since 1996 but only raced trucks part time while he still was racing in the Cup circuit. Chaffin says that kept his truck hopes on held--until Hamilton joined the truck series full time in 2003. "While Bobby was still Cup racing, he had to keep name drivers (Joe Ruttman and Robert Pressley) in his trucks to keep sponsors happy," Chaffin says. "When ...