CHAFFIN, KEY MOTORSPORTS CREW OVERCOME MANY OBSTACLES
TO RECORD TEAM’S BEST-EVER 8TH PLACE FINISH IN TALLADEGA

TALLADEGA, ALABAMA (October 7, 2007) – Chad Chaffin and his hard-working Key Motorsports crew refused to let a few gremlins ruin their race weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway – overcoming them to post an impressive eighth place finish in Saturday’s Mountain Dew 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

In recording the best-ever finish for the fledgling race team, Chaffin first withstood a broken motor in practice and a dismal qualifying run to get into the starting field of 36 trucks. He then failed to let an overheating race engine, two near-fatal race track incidents, a malfunctioning cooler unit to his helmet and a damaged right fender and flat tire foil an otherwise stellar race effort to score the noteworthy finish. ( The #40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet sits on the staring grid for the Talladega assault. )

“What a way to end a really crazy weekend,” Chaffin said after the race. “We ran hot almost the entire race, and even though I could catch the draft and hang on, once I tried to make a move it was like I was running with a parachute. I just couldn’t go anywhere.”

Chaffin’s veteran ability to work the air and the draft, however, became the saving grace for the Mooresville, North Carolina-based race team that had a 10th place finish in California early this season with Mike Bliss driving as its previous best-ever finish in NCTS competition.

Key Motorsports race trucks have shown an uncanny ability to suck up in the draft in every super speedway race the team has ever run in its short history, and Saturday’s race was no exception.

Chaffin started the race at the rear of the field due to his practice day engine change, and working the strategy that he and the Key Motorsports brain trust of crew chief Gary Showalter and Director of Competition Tommy Morgan decided to employ, drove at the rear of the field in the early going anticipating a big wreck.
(Tommy Morgan watches a NASCAR inspector check 
engine parts.)

The big one didn’t occur in the early phase of the race, however, so Chaffin began to use the strength of the draft to start moving up in the running order.

He was 31st just eight laps into the 94-lap event on the 2.66-mile, high-banked and very fast Talladega tri-oval, and despite running with an engine temperature that started to rise, moved up to 26th by lap 19.

Just five laps later and running 3-wide most of the time in a pack of more than 25 race trucks at times, Chaffin’s Chevrolet caught fire and was 17th on lap 24. Only on a few laps did the #40 show worse than that on the scoreboard as Chaffin put his machine solidly in the hunt. He was 15th at the halfway mark, but on lap 50 the temperature in his engine rose significantly and Chaffin had no choice but to drop out of the main pack in the lead draft and back in open air in en effort to cool the engine down.

“I really didn’t think that the engine was going to make it,” Chaffin confessed, but breaks began to come to the Key Motorsports contingent to prevent that from happening and to give Chaffin the opportunity to remain in contention.

The first break occurred on lap 54 when three trucks crashed in turn four to bring out the third of the race’s seven cautions. That was the lap that the #40 and almost every other lead lap truck was scheduled to pit, and with fuel critically low, Chaffin began running on the apron of the track to prevent from running out of gas and even shut off the motor to coast under the yellow flag before finally being able to pit on lap 57 for a bunch of work.

The first job was to get some cold water back into the engine to cool it down, while another crew member drilled holes in the bottom of the nose to get more air into the engine compartment. Fuel was added and the #40 headed back onto the track 20th on the grid. (Crew members getting the race truck ready for pre-practice inspection.)

With more time needed to clear the track, Chaffin brought his race truck back down pit road for a second time on lap 59 to change tires and top off the fuel and re-started in the 22nd position on lap 60.

Break number two occurred just six laps later when another yellow flag flew for debris on the track. Spotter Morgan informed Chaffin that the debris was somewhere in the tri-oval, but by the time Morgan said that, Chaffin said he had just run over it. Not knowing what that piece was, the team prepared to bring Chaffin down pit road once more to change tires, but when Morgan discovered that the piece that Chaffin ran over was the side plexi-glass window from another race truck, it was believed that it shouldn’t have caused any problems with the tires and the #40 remained on the track, now all the way up to 11th place.

Chaffin broke into the top 10 when the race resumed on lap 70 and did lose a few spots as race action continued. A big break in Chaffin’s favor occurred just four laps later when the Toyota of then race leader Jack Sprague cut a tire in front of the field and precipitated the “big one” for this race that involved no less than a half dozen tracks and eliminated four of the front runners. Chaffin was 15th at that point.

On lap 80, however, Chaffin had his most decisive break take place when the Toyota of rookie driver Josh Wise lost control directly in front of Chaffin in turn three. Wise’ truck cut right across the nose of the Key Motorsports machine…sending it sliding down the track and hard onto the apron, damaging the right fender and flattening the tire. It could have been worse.

“We should have taken out half the field on that one, but we really dodged a big bullet there,” said Chaffin, who basically ordered the tire change and repair of the right front fender from the cockpit as he drove his damaged truck around the track and down pit road.

Showalter had everyone on the pit crew ready, and in quick fashion the tire was changed, the fuel was topped off and the fender put back together with some manpower and tape, sending Chaffin back into the tussle still in the 15th spot with just 12 laps to go. (Tire specialist Clint Myrick checking tire pressures in pit area. )

Chaffin was 12th on lap 89 when the final caution came out for a spin by Mike Wallace, and at that time the trucks of two other front-runners, the Toyota of Mike Skinner and Chevrolet of Matt Crafton, were forced to visit pit road for repairs moving the #40 up into the 10th position when the final re-start was waved for a green-white-checkered flag finish on lap 91.

Chaffin stayed in the gas and used his veteran skills to draft by two more trucks over these final three laps to earn the eighth place position to the delight of everyone in the Key Motorsports pit.

“This is what can happen when everyone sticks together and doesn’t give up,” Showalter said. “Chad did a tremendous job out there today and he deserved that finish, but this is one that everyone on this team had a hand in earning. We’re thrilled!”

The performance marked the first back-to-back top 20 finishing effort ever for a Key Motorsports team that rallied for a 17th place finish in Las Vegas two weeks ago that began the team’s quest for a top 25 finish in owner’s points by the end of the 2007 season.

The #40 moved up one spot in those standings to the 27th position and is now just 41 points behind the 07 of driver Tim Sauter in 26th. Current 25th place truck #13 of driver Willie Allen, who finished sixth Saturday, is just 65 ahead of the 40 which now is also within hailing distance (and 89 points) of the 24th spot currently held by the #50 truck of Roush-Fenway Racing with five races remaining.