Unable to solve a tight handling condition that plagued their #40 Chevrolet Silverado, the Key Motorsports NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team and driver Ryan Moore were forced to settle for a frustrating 31st place finish in Saturday night's O'Reilly 200 at the Memphis Motorsports Park.

Despite a host of adjustments that the Barry Dodson-led crew made during and after Friday's practice day, the handling problem persisted during the race for Moore who was hoping for a much better scenario when the team first unloaded.

"I was OK on cold tires, but once they warmed up and we got some laps on them, it was basically junk….especially through turns 3 and 4," rookie Moore said after the race. "We really thought we were coming here (to Memphis) with a good package that would allow us to really compete, but it never happened."

When the team unloaded on Friday afternoon and ventured out for its three practice sessions (two for all the competitors and one for rookies only), Moore was fighting the race truck throughout. Despite a host of spring and shock changes and air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustments, the race machine failed to respond.

"Barry (crew chief Dodson) pretty much changed everything under the hood after we finished practice on Friday," Moore explained. "The truck was so tight that it was difficult to drive. The changes did help during qualifying and in the race but not enough to allow me to drive through the corners to where I could race anyone. It was a frustrating weekend," added Moore.

Moore, making a very conservative pair of qualifying laps trying to get a feel for his radically adjusted race truck, ended up earning the 32nd starting spot in the 36-truck field and was hoping to start picking off positions once the race started.

He improved to the 28th position in just a handful of laps, but once his tires got some wear on them and heated up, the #40 machine began backing up.

By lap 38, then leader and eventual race winner Jack Sprague put Moore a lap down. After finally being able to pit for fresh tires, gas and some adjustments to his ill-handling truck on lap 63 following a yellow flag, Moore did exhibit some signs of strength and the ability to hold his race truck down in the lower groove through turns 3 and 4. At one point he was in a position to get his lost lap back if another caution flag would fly by being the first truck a lap down, but an uncharacteristic period of green flag racing foiled that chance and he again began to slide back into the rear of the field.

Moore lost a second lap on the 135th circuit and then a third on lap 168 to cap off one of his most disappointing efforts for Key Motorsports since Ryan took over the ride full-time in late May.

Dodson, always the optimist and a veteran of many other similar situations during his 30-plus years of NASCAR experience with most of them as a crew chief and pit boss, was also frustrated but more for his driver than himself.

"Ryan deserved better tonight and we failed to give it to him. However, I have a pretty good idea of what the problems were tonight, and we will get it right before we bring this truck out again," Dodson said.

The now history, 9-week stretch that the Craftsman Truck Series team have been on since May is now over and it was the longest and most grueling in Key Motorsports' history, even dating back to the organization's days as a Busch Series team from 1991 through 1999. Dodson is glad that the trek is over.

"This fortunately is the end of the 9-week string of races we have been on, and we have three weeks to regroup before heading to Indy (O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis on August 4). We'll make the changes we need to make to get us back to where we were a month ago, and hopefully we'll be able to test them before we have to head out to Indianapolis. The rest, though, will do everyone good," Dodson added.

With just one top 15 finish (a 14th at Texas), a tenth place qualifying effort at Kansas and some brilliant racing by Moore at times, Dodson knows that everyone has to step up if the team is going to achieve its goal. That is to move into the top 30 in team owner points that guarantees a starting berth in every race.

"We have been fighting an uphill battle ever since I got here," Dodson explained, pointing to the fact that previous driver Chad Chaffin had only qualified for one of the first four races under the direction of then crew chief Lance Hooper.

"Not being able to race early this season and accumulate points put this team way behind, but with Ryan behind the wheel and a better motor program, we have been able to make nearly every race since and are closing in on the top 30 in owner points," Dodson detailed. "That remains our goal, and everyone is focused and committed to that. We've made progress, but we have taken a few steps backwards the last few weeks after we had closed in on a bunch of race teams. But we'll have to work harder now over the next few weeks to make corrections and be in a position to start cutting our deficit again starting with Indy," Dodson explained.