The Chrome Shop Mafia cast at Nashville Superspeedway in 2007. (Team Photo)

The severe recession in the United States trucking industry has forced Key Motorsports and the popular reality TV group, the Chrome Shop Mafia, to abandon their marketing partnership plans for the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race season.

The Chrome Shop Mafia is the unique name given to the members of the cast of a popular cable TV reality show that follows the exploits of these characters as they orchestrate in comedic fashion complete makeovers of trucks of all types for needy truckers.

"The extensive downturn in the nation's trucking industry essentially prevented many of the companies that supported this marketing partnership from the start to pull out of consideration, and without these partnerships, the highly anticipated running of the No. 40 Chrome Shop Mafia Chevrolet Silverado for selected races in 2008 will unfortunately not happen," said Key Motorsports Vice President of Operations Rich Rubenstein.

"Our sales staff spent countless hours developing this program since last March. It was a program that nearly 70 American corporations tied directly to the trucking industry embraced and had every intention of supporting for the upcoming season, but when their sales diminished, so did the potential for their involvement.

"Bryan Martin and the other members of the Chrome Shop Mafia, NASCAR officials, our team members and the media were excited about this program when it was created and ultimately announced, but the downturn in the housing market over the last year, coupled with escalating fuel costs and a general decline in manufactured goods, has dramatically affected the trucking industry to the point that promotional opportunities like this one were the first ones to be cut from budgets. All we can do is hope that the industry rebounds so that programs such as the one we helped design can stand a better chance at developing in the future," Rubenstein added.

Key Motorsports sales and marketing staff members recognized the huge popularity of the Chrome Shop Mafia during a trade show excursion in the early spring. The popularity of the unique reality TV show in which the Chrome Shop Mafia members star has made them as popular to those in the trucking industry and the show's viewers as have many NASCAR drivers by their endearing fans.

"What our people saw at this trade show was basically the same treatment given to these guys as that which is afforded a leading NASCAR driver in terms of fans wanting autographs and buying merchandise. The program we had developed to establish the Chrome Shop Mafia within the NASCAR community was on target, and the corporate partners we had lined up to support the program would have benefited from it just as much as the Chrome Shop Mafia and Key Motorsports would have," Rubenstein concluded.