BREAKS JUST DON’T GO THE WAY OF CHAFFIN & KEY MOTORSPORTS
AS 30TH PLACE HOMESTEAD FINISH BRINGS 2007 SEASON TO A CLOSE

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA (November 16, 2007) – In a race where breaks had to go your way if you were going to have a good finish, driver Chad Chaffin and his Key Motorsports contingent had just bad one that resulted in a 30th place performance in Friday night’s Ford 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Forced to start near the rear of the field following a 33rd place qualifying run earlier in the day, Chaffin by choice ran predominantly at the back of the pack during the early going of the 134-lap event trying to get a feel for how his #40 Westerman Companies/Pollo Tropical Chevrolet was handling.
(Photo to Right: Pollo Tropical Restaurant guests by the race truck before start of race.)

With the race slowed by a caution flag only once during the first 74 laps, the dominant trucks began lapping others earlier than normal, Chaffin lost a first lap on the 51st circuit to then leader and eventual race winner Johnny Benson while running in the 27th position.

Hoping to get his lap back when the lead lap trucks had to make their first pit stops for fuel under green flag conditions, Chaffin, who had pitted to top off his fuel tank back on lap 16 following that only caution, actually found his #40 machine back on the lead lap on lap 57 when those pit stops began.

By lap 68, the #40 was showing in 8th place and back on the lead lap. Now hoping for another caution to be able to make his pit stop for fuel and fresh tires under yellow flag conditions, Chaffin’s hopes faded. That caution never did come and Chaffin was finally forced to make his own green flag pit stop on lap 70. At that point, only the Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch and the Toyota of former Formula One ace Jacques Villeneuve had not pitted and were shown on a lap by themselves. Shortly thereafter, the bad break happened.

The Toyota of championship point’s leader Mike Skinner threw its left rear wheel to bring out a caution on lap 74. Had racing continued under green and the Busch and Villeneuve cars made their stops, the 40 would have been at the tail end of the lead lap at worst. Instead, when the yellow flag flew to freeze the field, 18 drivers who had pitted found themselves one lap down and four two laps in arrears with one of them being the Key Motorsports #40 entry.

“Instead of being on the lead lap and running in the top 10, we somehow found ourselves two laps down and out of contention. That was really tough to swallow,” Chaffin said after the race.

(Photo to left: The Westerman Companies/Pollo Tropical Restaurant Chevrolet Silverado heading to the inspection line at Homestead)

“We had great pit stops and were playing the strategy we needed to play to get back on the lead lap. The truck was really fun to drive tonight, and I passed a bunch of trucks out there, but when you end up on the short side of the strategy because something happens that you can’t control, it hurts.

Over the final 60 laps of the race, Chaffin caught, passed and ran away from several of the top finishing trucks that were not set back as greatly by Skinner’s yellow flag incident. Included in this group was 8th place finisher Justin Marks, 11th place Tim Sauter and 15th place Brian Scott.

“The guys worked really hard to get the truck to handle for me, and it really ran good. We just didn’t get the breaks to go our way tonight,” Chaffin added.

Only seven trucks completed all 138 laps as the event was extended by four laps at the end when the Chevy of rookie driver Chris Jones spun coming off the fourth turn to bring out the night’s fourth and final caution flag on lap 132 and necessitating a green-white-checkered flag finish to the 2007 season’s 25th and final race.

Despite the disappointing finish to the otherwise successful Key Motorsports season, Chaffin and crew chief Gary Showalter were still very upbeat.

“I really had fun driving it for this race team the final eight races of the season, but I had a real blast tonight. It was fun,” said Chaffin who posted the young race team’s very first top ten finishes in NCTS competition with a 7th at Martinsville and 8th in Talladega. Chaffin also was 16th in Las Vegas, but dead last finishes early in races due to accidents twice and the Homestead disappointment tempered the enthusiasm.

“We may have been a little down in the motor end, but I could really kill a lot of the other trucks tonight going through the corners. I know I wasn’t passed by too many trucks tonight and I passed a bunch myself, so it’s pretty tough to accept a 30th place finish,” he ended.

Showalter was very proud of the way the team battled back from mid-season adversity to end the season on a more positive note but wished he had that lap 70 pit stop to do over.

“Our fuel calculations turned out to be off and we could have run 10 laps more than we did when we made that first pit stop under green. Had we not made the stop then and waited, we would have been one of the beneficiaries when Skinner lost that wheel to bring out the caution flag. Who knows we might have had another top 10 finish to brag about,” said Showalter.

“Put some horsepower under the hood of the race trucks we had this year and we’re gonna have a top 10 truck every week,” Showalter bragged. “Everyone worked really hard this season under some tough situations, and we couldn’t have done it without the contributions Chad made for us behind the wheel,” he added.