Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Chad Little" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Chad Little | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Little in 1999 | |||||||
| Born | Charles Glen Little Jr. (1963-04-29)April 29, 1963 (age 62) Spokane, Washington, U.S. | ||||||
| Achievements | 1987NASCARWinston West Series Champion | ||||||
| Awards | 1986 Winston West Series Rookie of the Year West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame (2013) | ||||||
| NASCARCup Series career | |||||||
| 217 races run over 16 years | |||||||
| 2002 position | 77th | ||||||
| Best finish | 15th (1998) | ||||||
| First race | 1986Budweiser 400 (Riverside) | ||||||
| Last race | 2002MBNA Platinum 400 (Dover) | ||||||
| |||||||
| NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career | |||||||
| 134 races run over 9 years | |||||||
| 2002 position | 69th | ||||||
| Best finish | 2nd (1995) | ||||||
| First race | 1992Fay's 150 (Watkins Glen) | ||||||
| Last race | 2002Sam's Town 300 (Las Vegas) | ||||||
| First win | 1995Goody's 300 (Daytona) | ||||||
| Last win | 1995Ford Credit 300 (South Boston) | ||||||
| |||||||
| NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career | |||||||
| 1 race run over 1 year | |||||||
| 1995 position | 69th | ||||||
| Best finish | 69th (1995) | ||||||
| First race | 1995Fas Mart Supertruck Shootout (Richmond) | ||||||
| |||||||
Charles Glen Little Jr. (born April 29, 1963) is an American former professionalstock car racing driver. He holds a degree inmarketing fromWashington State University and aJ.D. degree fromGonzaga University. While attending Washington State University, he joined theDelta Upsilon fraternity.
Little currently works atNASCAR as managing director for technical inspection and officiating. Little had previously been director of theCamping World Truck Series, as well as the director of racing development for Mexico and theWhelen Modified Tour.[1] He keeps regular office hours in the sanctioning body's research and development center inConcord, North Carolina. He also was a part-time studioanalyst forSpeed Channel. He is the father ofJesse Little.
Little began racing the short tracks inWashington in the mid-1980s. He soon began racing in theAmerican Speed Association West late model series, theNASCAR Northwest Tour Series and theNASCAR Winston West Series. One year after being named the NASCAR Winston West Rookie of the Year, Little clinched that series' championship in 1987.
Little made his NASCARWinston Cup debut in 1986 atRiverside International Raceway, driving the No. 28Ford owned by George Jefferson. He started 25th and finished thirteenth. He ran the other Riverside race that year but finished 35th after suffering engine failure. He ran both the Riverside races the next year, finishing fifteenth both times in the No. 95Coors Ford.
The following year, Little was eligible forNASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors and signed to drive the No. 90 forJunie Donlavey. However, his best finish was an eighteenth, at theCoca-Cola 600, and he was released early in the season. In 1989, he missedUnited Airlines Flight 232. About a third of the passengers aboard the flight perished during itsemergency landing inIowa. In 1990, Little and his father Chuck teamed to field their own entry, the No. 19 Ford sponsored byBull's Eye Barbecue Sauce. He ran eighteen races and had seven top-twenty finishes, garnering a 33rd place points finish. The following season, Little made his first full-time attempt at winning the NASCAR Winston Cup Series Championship, qualifying for 28 out of 29 races and posting a tenth-place finish atCharlotte Motor Speedway, finishing 27th in points.
In 1992, Little signed to drive the No. 66TropArctic-sponsored Ford forCale Yarborough but was released six races into the season. Later, he caught on to the No. 9 Ford fielded byMelling Racing and had an eighth-place finish atTalladega. He also made hisBusch Series debut that year, starting and finishing 29th in the No. 37Maxx Race Cards-sponsoredOldsmobile atWatkins Glen International.
In 1993, Little, along withGreg Pollex and former NFL quarterbackMark Rypien, formedMark Rypien Motorsports, running the No. 23If It's Paper-Bayer Select-sponsored Ford on a limited basis that year, posting a second-place finish atDover International Speedway. The next year, the team went full time and Little had 10 top-five finishes, finishing third in points. He also drove the No. 97 Ford at theDaytona 500 that season, finishing 29th. In 1995, Little broke through and won six races during the course of the season, including the first two races of the season, at Daytona and Rockingham, and finished second in points, behind Johnny Benson. His other wins were at Loudon, Charlotte, Talladega and South Boston. Little did not win a race the following season, however, and slipped to sixth in points. He also ran nine Winston Cup Series races, five in Pollex's No. 97Sterling Cowboy-sponsoredPontiac Grand Prix, and another four forDiamond Ridge Motorsports, posting a twentieth-place finish atDarlington Raceway,

In 1997, Little returned to the Winston Cup Series, running the No. 97 Pontiac for Pollex with a sponsorship fromJohn Deere. He finished seventh at theFood City 500, but the team struggled to make races. Late in the year,Jack Roush purchased the team to be added to his stable for 1998. Little ended 1997 36th in points.
In 1998, Little drove for Roush full time with Jeff Hammond as crew chief. Running 32 out of 33 races, he had seven top-tens, including a second-place run atTexas, finishing behindMark Martin, and finished a career-high fifteenth in points. He was unable to duplicate that performance in 1999, posting just five top-tens and finishing 23rd in points. After just one top-ten in 2000, Roush announced Little would not drive the 97 the following season. Late in the year, Little was pulled out of the car and replaced by his successor,Kurt Busch, with Hammond still as crew chief. During the season, he also ran a handful of races in the Busch Series. Originally running the No. 30 forInnovative Motorsports, he was released and posted a top-ten in a one-race deal withPPI Motorsports.
Little had 217 career Cup starts in all.
In 2001, Little signed to drive the No. 74Staff America-sponsoredChevrolet Monte Carlo forBACE Motorsports in the Busch Series. He had six top-tens and finished ninth in points. He started off 2002 running for BACE, but the team closed after three races due to sponsor issues. He made his final Cup start in a BACE car at Dover that year, finishing 33rd. He has not run NASCAR since.
In 2004, Chad called several Truck and Xfinity races from the booth.
Chad later provided competition support for theNASCAR Mexico Corona Series, and became the tour director for theWhelen Modified Tour.
Starting in 2013, Chad took on the role of NASCARCamping World Truck Series managing director.[2] On February 2, 2015, NASCAR announced that Little would be moving into a new role, as a managing director of technical inspection and officiating. His role as director was replaced by another former driver,Elton Sawyer.[3]
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| Year | Team | Manufacturer | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Donlavey Racing | Ford | 28 | 36 |
| 1990 | Little Racing | Ford | DNQ | |
| 1991 | 30 | 14 | ||
| 1992 | Cale Yarborough Motorsports | Ford | 14 | 39 |
| 1993 | Melling Racing | Ford | 17 | 24 |
| 1994 | Mark Rypien Motorsports | Ford | 17 | 29 |
| 1995 | DNQ | |||
| 1996 | Pontiac | 30 | 33 | |
| 1997 | DNQ | |||
| 1998 | Roush Racing | Ford | 21 | 7 |
| 1999 | 26 | 9 | ||
| 2000 | 29 | 23 | ||
| NASCARSuperTruck Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | NSTSC | Pts | Ref | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1995 | RPM Racing | 11 | Ford | PHO | TUS | SGS | MMR | POR | EVG | I70 | LVL | BRI | MLW | CNS | HPT | IRP | FLM | RCH 32 | MAR DNQ | NWS DNQ | SON | MMR | PHO | 69th | 162 | [29] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | NASCAR Winston West Series champion 1987 | Succeeded by |