SHANE HUFFMAN LOOKING FORWARD TO “NEW” TEAM EFFORT
IN KEY MOTORSPORTS #40 RACE TRUCK AT DOVER THIS WEEKEND

Shane Huffman will have more than normal interest in his Key Motorsports NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series entry for this weekend’s AAA Insurance 200 race at the Dover International Speedway as the JR Motorsports Busch Series driver makes his second start of the season in the #40 Curtis Key Plumbing/2FatGuys American Grill Chevrolet Silverado.

The race will mark the first for the 33-year-old Hickory, North Carolina pilot under the new Key Motorsports racing brain trust of Crew Chief Gary Showalter and Director of Competition Tommy Morgan.

Huffman finished 24th in his initial outing of the 2007 season in the #40 two weeks ago at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, but it came at a time when the entire Key Motorsports contingent was competing in a fog. Veteran Barry Dodson and several other crew members quit the team an hour prior to the start of the Quaker Steak & Lube 250, forcing Morgan to step in and direct the reeling team.

It took half the race for Morgan to get his team’s race truck running well enough for Huffman to drive it competitively, but it may have also showed the signs that Huffman and everyone else on the team were looking for – a series of changes that will end up being better for the team.

“It was a difficult night to be sure,” Huffman said of the Charlotte situation. “But Tommy (Morgan) jumped right in and got everyone to forget about the problems and to focus on the race. By the end of the night, even though we were two laps down, we had the truck running well, had decent pit stops with a makeshift crew and everyone believing that we can all get through the problems,” added Huffman who has remained committed to the Key Motorsports truck effort to aid his Busch Series program.

What has happened since that night in Charlotte is a total revamping of the Key Motorsports performance infrastructure. Under the leadership of Morgan and Showalter, the basically new and much more experienced team has worked extremely hard to get race trucks prepared for this current, seven consecutive race week stretch in which the NCTS teams are now engaged.

“Tommy has a ton of experience, and he did a great job in Charlotte. I haven’t worked with Gary (Showalter) yet, but from what I have heard about him and seen for myself in the race shop, he knows how to build these race trucks and make them competitive. I’m excited about racing for them at Dover,” Huffman added.

The fact that one of Huffman’s good friends and long-time USAR Hooters Pro Cup competitors Clay Rogers enjoyed a solid run in the #40 last Saturday in Mansfield, Ohio may also be contributing to Shane’s anticipation, but with the most recent race being the very first one at which the new management team provided direction, there is additional justification.

“Though few of us thought this way when everything came down at Lowe’s, the incident actually helped improve this race team,” team owner Curtis W. Key, Sr. said. “We had been out looking for ways to get better and all the Charlotte deal did was make it happen sooner.

“I’ve always known how much experience Tommy had, so moving him from race truck preparation to the position of overseeing our performance operation was easy to do. On top of that, Gary and Tommy had worked together in the past and have had a good working relationship, so with those two calling the shots and providing organization to this team that we haven’t really had, we’ve become stronger. Having Gary bring over several of the men who worked with him at the 7 truck before they were all dismissed is what really made us more experienced,” Key added.

Shane Whitbeck, Gary’s son Bobby, Matt Eberly and Brad Neely have all joined the Key Motorsports contingent to replace the three who left with Dodson.