COMPTON PERSEVERES WITH LEFT FRONT WHEEL PROBLEMS
 TO FINISH 24TH IN O’REILLY 200 TRUCK RACE IN MEMPHIS

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (June 30, 2007) – Veteran Stacy Compton used all of his NASCAR driving experience to offset a problem with his left front wheel and post a 24th place finish in the O’Reilly 200 Craftsman Truck Series race Saturday night at the Memphis Motorsports Park.

Pressed into service by Key Motorsports just a few days before practice opened on Friday due to fellow driver Chad Chaffin’s commitment to his new Nextel Cup Series ride, Compton worked tirelessly with crew chief Gary Showalter and Director of Competition Tommy Morgan to solve handling problems in the #40 Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet. Though the effort failed to attain optimum results, Compton did appreciate the effort.

“Everyone really worked hard to solve the problem we had getting the left front to work,” Compton said. “No matter what we changed, I just could not get the left front to respond to the point that I could drive off the corner instead of the truck being so tight. It was also a shame to lose those last few spots at the end,” added Compton, who was referring to the passes for position made by Brendan Gaughan and Willie Allen with just two laps to go.

With just seven laps remaining, eventual race winner Travis Kvapil turned Brad Keselowski’s Toyota around coming through the fourth turn while battling for the lead. It brought out the race’s seventh caution flag and gave the Key Motorsports crew one final attempt to give Compton a little advantage to gain some spots over the final laps of the race.

Showalter brought the #40 down pit road at the last second to put on right side tires and sent Compton back out onto the speedway three positions better than the 25th spot he held when the yellow flag flew.

It appeared that the strategy was working with the #40 clearly holding Gaughan and Allen at bay until the Ford driven by Joey Clanton suddenly slowed coming down the front stretch on lap 198. Compton was directly behind Clanton’s machine, and when the 09 truck began to sputter, Compton got boxed in by heavy traffic and helplessly watched as Gaughan and Allen passed on the outside going into the first turn to relegate the #40 back to its final 24th place finish.

“I thought that I was in pretty good shape there when the 09 just basically stopped. There was nothing I could do”, Compton explained.

“Stacy did a heck of a job for what we gave him”, Morgan explained. “He did an awesome job under the circumstances and we certainly hope to have him back in out truck again when we can really give him something that he can drive and race with,” Morgan added.

“We’ll head back to shop and put the truck on the pull-down rig to see if we can find out why the truck was binding up like that and not allowing the left front to work,” Showalter said. “I think that it was a ball joint issue, but we can’t be sure. But having Stacy do the job he did for us tonight despite the finish is really encouraging,” Showalter said.

Compton, who qualified a disappointing 30th earlier in the day, ran in the 25th position for most of the night and finished a lap down to Kvapil at the checkers. Despite the handling issues, it did take 150 laps for then leader Keselowski to put the #40 down. Compton was one of seven trucks to finish one lap in arrears with 17 of the 36 trucks to start the race completing all 200 laps around the slick ¾-mile Memphis oval.