Key Motorsports purchased four intermediate track Chevrolet Monte Carlos models for the upcoming 2008 Nationwide Series season. (Team Photo)

Key Motorsports founder and owner Curtis W. Key, Sr. is planning a return to the NASCAR racing series in which he first toiled 15 years ago.

Currently a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Key Motorsports took ownership this week of its first four NASCAR Nationwide Series cars. This new race car fleet may soon expand by as many as four additional cars as the organization gears up for the addition of a Nationwide Series program to compliment its truck racing activity.

Key purchased four intermediate track Chevrolet Monte Carlos models from the inventory that became available following the recent merger of Ginn Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. The additional purchase of a speedway car, two short track cars and a road course car is also being planned.

"With NASCAR now going full-time with the COT cars in the NASCAR Sprint Series starting next season, field should open up and allow organizations like ours to compete. We see an opportunity to expand our program into that circuit to provide our sponsors with some alternatives," Key explained.

"We have had talks with some drivers and prospective crew chiefs, and some of these drivers have the potential to bring some sponsorship money with them. If this all happens, Key Motorsports will have a presence in the Nationwide Series in 2008," he added.

Currently, Key Motorsports is in its second full season of Craftsman Truck Series action with its No. 40 Chevrolet Silverados with veteran driver Chad Chaffin now behind the wheel for the balance of the 2007 schedule. Chaffin is one of six drivers who have piloted the No. 40 this year while two other drivers drove the No. 44 Key Motorsports entries in selected races earlier in the season.

In its first full-time truck racing campaign in 2006, the No. 40 truck saw action in 20 of the 25 races with five different drivers having to qualify in to every event. But after several major changes Key made involving the team's motor program, race trucks and personnel, the No. 40 started the final 17 races last season and has qualified for and run in all 20 races this season. Prior to 2006, Key Motorsports had never run a complete NASCAR season on any level.

The organization fielded a race car in limited NASCAR Busch Series races from 1993 through 1998; first operating out of Chesapeake, VA where Curtis Key Plumbing, Key's primary business, is based, and then in a new shop in Mooresville, NC. Key left the industry in 1999 following the untimely death of his brother but returned four years later as Craftsman Truck Series team owner.

"The truck series provided a less expensive alternative for me to get back to being s NASCAR team owner, and it also gave me the best opportunity to re-acclimate myself to the industry and to begin making races and competing. I always wanted to get back to Busch racing (now the Nationwide Series), though, and this new opportunity was just too good to pass on," Key said.

Key Motorsports is situated on a 5.5-acre property in the new Mooresville Performance Park off of State Highway 152 East. Its truck operation is based in one of two shops that sit parallel to each other on the property but the lease for the other building, currently owned by Mac Hill Motorsports, will not be renewed and Key's Nationwide Series team will begin work out of that second shop.

"If we get enough sponsorship to do this thing right, the Nationwide Series operation will operate independently and with its own people. If not, we will enter cars in selected races, hire a few people to manage the cars and use some of our truck team people to make sure we send a car to the race track that will be capable of qualifying and racing," Key added.

Key has had the equipment ready to field a second truck series team since mid-year if sponsorship developed. That equipment could be transferred over to the Nationwide Series program, but if sponsorship is secured for either the Nationwide Series team or the second truck series operation, then additional equipment will be secured and people hired.

SOURCE: Official Team Release