The fact that Scott is a racer too was critical. “I drive a dump truck for Scott,” he says. “I haul dirt and stone, and sometimes I use my truck and move equipment for him.” Scott doesn‘t directly support Chapple‘s racing operation but, as Isaac notes, “The way he helps me is by letting me race. I give him my race schedule and he gives me that time off. That‘s huge. That‘s hard to find in a nine-to-five job.”
His decision to race extensively with BOSS was governed by two factors: a desire to race at a competitive level and still range a bit from home. “After travelling with USAC for a couple of years, it would be hard for me to, say, go to Putnamville every Saturday. I like going to new places and running different race tracks, so I said let‘s do the BOSS thing. That involves a little travelling, but not too much. They also have a pretty good purse, and I feel my equipment and my budget is pretty comparable to the guys who run that series.”
Even with that, he did not bust out of the gate strong. “I did struggle at the beginning of the year,” he says. “And we changed some stuff at the first of the year to make us better, and it made us worse. I needed to race to figure things out, so I went to race in Pennsylvania and raced with USAC. While I was there, I made a change on the car and I got that comfortable feeling back. I was fast again.
“Sprint car racing is such a head game. When you get that feeling back and you are comfortable again the confidence comes back. Joe Devin (DRC chassis) has been huge for me. I talked to him and he said, ‘Man, just go back to what you know; go back to the basics.‘ Sometimes you have to step away. Sometimes it is easier to see it from the outside like Joe did. Sure enough, I leave Pennsylvania and instantly won a race.”
His first victory with BOSS came in Richmond, Kentucky on June 19th and he liked it so well he kept winning. In succession he won BOSS-sanctioned events at West Virginia‘s Ohio Valley Speedway; Waynesfield, Ohio; the high-banked Atomic Speedway; and at Lernerville Speedway. It was a feat that had never been accomplished in the 11-year history of the series.
As he ponders what has happened, he says with a laugh that after winning his first race in 2021 he thought, “Okay, I‘m not a one hit wonder. Then I reeled off five in a row and it was like holy smokes I went to six career wins real quick.”
It was both a matter of confidence and the ability to draw from his past experiences. “The races I have run the last few years have been some of the toughest races with the toughest racers in USAC,” he says. “So, there were a lot of nights where I ran 10th with USAC. Well, the truth is that is really, really hard to do. So now I am on a little bit smaller stage, so every night I pull into the races now I feel I can win, which I think is huge.”
He also gives a lot of credit to his old friend Mike Martin, who provides help with his engine program. “I met Mike through Bryan Clauson when I was 16. Mike kind of jokes that he is my second dad, and I think of him that way. He has really taken me under his wing, and he does so much for me. He‘s another one of those guys you meet in racing who doesn‘t get the recognition. Mike does so much for people behind the scenes that no one knows about.”
For now, he is committed to BOSS because it checks all the boxes for him. “I have to look at things and see what makes the most sense for my team financially,” he says. “I want to do this long term. I want to do this at least 10 years and outlast some people.” He missed some scheduled BOSS races by competing with USAC at Eldora, and also by participating in the Little 500, but at that point he wasn‘t thinking about a title. There is no question that things changed in his mind after he enjoyed his winning streak. “Right now I want to see if we can come from behind and win the championship,” he admits. “The BOSS point fund is pretty good, which is a huge help at the end of the year. We have some ground to make up, but I feel like if we keep running like we are we can do it. We‘re sure going to try.”
One might logically think that an overarching goal for Chapple would be to put himself in position to be a hired gun and escape the extra burden of being an owner/driver. Not so. “I‘m a little bit of a micromanager,” he admits. “I have a little OCD in me so the whole running my own team is what I have chosen to do. I have done it for so long now. I always worked so hard doing this that I never spent any time trying to find a ride with a different team. I have raced for other people a few times, and on those nights I start out thinking this is kind of relaxing, then I find myself pacing around and wondering what I am going to do. It would be hard for me. It would have to be the right situation, because I have pride in my own team. I like the feeling of keeping it going week after week.”
Because of this, it is not surprising that he looks to people like former racer Tracy Hines and current competitor Robert Ballou as role models. “I looked up to Tracy Hines because it‘s how he ran his whole team and operation. He has a pretty high OCD level too. And I know Robert Ballou gets a bad rap sometimes, but he is a true hardcore racer. I went to Pennsylvania in April to run the USAC swing and I didn‘t have anyone to go with me and Robert took me under his wing. I slept in his toterhome with him. There are not a lot of guys like that in racing. There‘s not a lot of guys who sleep in their toterhome and also open the door and say you can sleep there too.”
One area where Chapple is prepared to branch out is to get back more on the pavement. In this new endeavor he does have some additional help and partners. “Pat and Patrick Rice own the Tin Plate restaurant in Elwood, Indiana,” he says. “And they have sponsored my dirt car. They are diehard fans, and it has always been their dream to have a pavement sprint car. They bought one this year and we ran it at the Little 500. I maintain it, and we have plans to race it some more at Anderson and to run the Little 500 over the next few years.”
Given that pavement sprint car racing has arisen from a moribund state in Central Indiana, there may be more opportunities to race the car in 2022.