CHAFFIN, KEY MOTORSPORTS LOOKING TO DAYTONA OPENER
TO GET OFF TO GOOD START TO 2008 TRUCK SERIES SEASON

MOORESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA (February 10, 2008) – Key Motorsports owner Curtis W. Key, Sr. will see his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team open the 2008 season next Friday night, and veteran driver Chad Chaffin is hoping to give his owner something good to watch.

When the 2008 NCTS campaign unfurls at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida with the running of the Chevy Silverado 250, the #40, black and white Key Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado will be amongst the 36 starters. That is guaranteed as a result of the team finishing the 2007 season in the top 30 in owner points for the very first time after two full seasons of competition.

Not having to worry about qualifying into the season’s biggest race will provide a totally different feeling and mindset to the team that will again be directed by Crew Chief Gary Showalter and Director of Competition Tommy Morgan. It will mark the very first time that the growing race organization will enter a new season with the same combination that it ended with the season before. (Picture Right: The PRIMARY #40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado for the 2008 season opener in Daytona.)

“Our first year (of full-time competition), we went into the Daytona event without the benefit of owner points, a handful of untested crew members and a lot of question marks,” Key explained. “We ended up going home because of the top 30 rule in owner points despite qualifying 28th fastest overall, and that’s why I hired Mike Bliss (a former NCTS champion) last year to make sure that we made the field.

“We never had to use that past champion provisional to make any of the first four races, and we actually became a guaranteed starter for the race when two top 30 teams from 2006 did not race in 2007…..that moved us up into the top 30.

“We got off to a decent start and were able to maintain a position in the top 30 in owner points the rest of the season to put us into the position we are in now heading to Daytona. Knowing that we don’t have to time trial into the field is definitely going to help us,” Key added.

Also going for the team this February is a driver who has raced with the organization before, knows the race trucks and personnel and who already owns a top 10 finish in super speedway competition in the #40 Chevy. Chaffin also realizes that the chips aren’t stacked quite as much against his Key Motorsports team as they had been in the past.

“We have three proven super speedway race trucks, and the one that I’ll be running this week will be the same one that I finished 8th with at Talladega last fall. The team has actually improved the truck during the winter, and they said that the motor we’ll be running is going to be better, so we expect to run as good if not better than we ran last year,” Chaffin explained.

Waiting for the manifolds on its own engines to be approved by NASCAR for this new season was one thing that cost the team pre-season testing opportunities at Daytona and Atlanta, but the fact that the team already has proven equipment for those tracks and a veteran driver in Chaffin does not cause much concern for the team heading into the ’08 campaign. “We’re not concerned,” Morgan stated.

Daytona’s 2.5-mile high banked tri-oval doesn’t race the same as the 2.66-mile behemoth at Talladega, but neither Chaffin nor Showalter believe that it will make much difference this time around.

“Chad did a heck of a job using the draft to get us that top 10 finish at Talladega last year, but we were running with a motor that is 30 to 40 horsepower less than what we’ll have this year in Daytona. I truly expect us to qualify in the top 15 and contend for the win if everything works in our favor, and at Daytona that is always a big if,” Showalter explained.

Under a different administration last season, Bliss drove the #40 into a contending position in the Daytona opener and was shown in the seventh position with less than 30 laps to go when the motor started running hot. Bliss was forced to give up that position to drop into the field to cool down the motor and that is when a 2-truck incident involving two rookies down the front stretch caught Bliss’ machine and ruined any chance at a top 10 finish.

In every race that Key Motorsports has run a truck in Daytona or Talladega since joining the circuit in 2004, the #40 has run near the front of the pack. With an improved race truck, motor and an experienced driver behind the wheel in Chaffin for the 2008 season opener, expectations are high.

“I know how hard the team has worked over the last six months to improve these race trucks, and Curtis (Key) has again invested a lot of money to get our motors to show similar improvement,” Chaffin stated.

“Last year when I drove for them, I said that we’d be gunning for a top 20 finish every race and with some luck a top 10 or 15. We ended up getting two top 10’s (the 8th at Talladega and a 7th in Martinsville a week later) and nearly three top 15’s over the last eight races. This year, I’m actually looking at entering every race knowing that we should finish in the top 15 but with equipment capable of putting us more regularly in the top 10 and maybe top 5. We just need the breaks to go our way,” Chaffin added.

The 39-year-old Chaffin has been signed to initially run the first four races of the 2008 season for Key Motorsports but is expected to drive in far more as the new campaign unfolds.

“We’re going into this season with the best equipment we have ever had, and we just hope that it shows and that we stay away from bad luck,” said Key who will be entering his 11th season as an owner in NASCAR competition with the last five coming in the Craftsman Truck Series. The 12th overall start by a Key Motorsports entry in 2008, whether it be in the trucks or in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in which the organization will compete in selected events with the four new race cars (Chevrolet Monte Carlos) it now owns, will mark the 100th overall in the team’s history.

Question marks had been the mindset for the Key Motorsports organization heading into the 2006 and 2007 race seasons. That has been removed in favor of anticipation heading into 2008, and the Daytona race this coming weekend will hopefully provide a better feel for what lies ahead.