After two straight outings of disappointment and bad luck, veteran driver Chad Chaffin and his Key Motorsports team is hoping for a reversal of fortune beginning this weekend as NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series action moves to Phoenix, Arizona.
 
Chaffin lost the splitter to his #40 Westerman Companies-sponsored Chevrolet Silverado early in last week's Silverado 350K at the Texas Motor Speedway avoiding a 2-car wreck that forced him to drive through the infield grass. He finished the race without further incident but had to tip-toe his way to a very disappointing 24th place finish; five laps in arrears.
 
This came a week after Chaffin's race machine was swept into an unsuspecting accident in Atlanta that ended his race day after just 43 laps and resulted in a 36th place finish.
 
"We need to get Lady Luck back on our side," said Chaffin, who had consecutive, top ten finishes under his belt coming into the Atlanta test and had helped generate tremendous excitement, enthusiasm and momentum for his still young Key Motorsports organization.
 
"I have been given good trucks to drive in every race since rejoining Key Motorsports in September, and the really good runs we've had at Talladega (an 8th place finish), Martinsville (7th) and even in Las Vegas (16th) proves that out. Those efforts gave all of us some momentum.
 
"But what has happened to us the last two weeks just killed us, but there is little time to sit and mope. We just have to be as prepared as we can in Phoenix and in the finale at Homestead to end the season on a high note," Chaffin said.
 
Key Motorsports is completing only its second full-time season of truck series competition, but the team's performances in 2007 have shown a dramatic change for the better from what the team experienced in 2006.
 
Last year, using six different drivers, the #40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet started 20 of the 25 races and had just two top 15 and five top 20 performances to show for their efforts.
 
Thus far in 2007 with Chaffin being the sixth driver to work for team owner Curtis W. Key, Sr., the #40 has posted the team's first-ever top ten finishes with three of them, a trio of top 15's and six top 20's. In addition, the truck's average starting and finishing position averages have improved by nearly four positions to 25.3 and 22.5, respectively, from a year ago There is little doubt that Key has continued to build a competitive organization, and ending the '07 campaign on a positive note is important.
 
"A year ago at this time we had about five decent trucks and seven motors to race with. Today we can pick from 11 good race trucks and 10 motors," said Director of Competition Tommy Morgan. "We have more experienced guys in the shop, and Gary (Crew Chief Showalter) has done a great job in organizing them and getting them to all work together as a cohesive unit.
 
"Everyone was really jacked up following those top ten finishes, but it will be a huge motivator for this team to finish strong in these last two races and to have some momentum heading into 2008," added Morgan, who moved from Shop Foreman to his new position back in May when the race team went through a near total revision that brought in Showalter and five new shop employees.
 
"Curtis has given us pretty much everything we needed to turn our race trucks around and get them to run more competitively," said Showalter. "Bringing a veteran back in Chad (Chaffin) to drive our trucks the last third of the season finally showed how far our equipment and team have come and we need for it to continue right through Homestead. Everyone has done a great job," he added.
 
Unlike Talladega, Martinsville, Atlanta and Texas, Chaffin approaches this week's Phoenix race without a really sound performance history at the unique and very challenging 1-mile track.
 
In four career NCTS starts at PIR, Chaffin's best finish was an 18th in 2003 and his average finish in these four outings has been a 26,5. That hasn't deterred the Murfreesboro, Tennessee pilot in any way, however.
 
"I like pretty much every track we race on, and Phoenix is no different. I just have not had good finishes there in the past, but that doesn't mean that I have trouble there. Give me a good truck to drive and I'll get the most out of it no matter where we are racing," Chaffin stated.
 
"Just like the other races, we're gonna go to Phoenix with the goal to win the race, and if we can't do that, then it will be to get a top five or a top ten finish," he added.
 
The #40 machine that Chaffin will drive this weekend will carry associate sponsorship support for the first time from the Phoenix-based Alicecooperstown Sports Bar & Grill along with the Westerman Companies and Curtis Key Plumbing.