DAYTONA TEST BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF TALLADEGA

The 2007 Key Motorsports #40 Chevrolet Silverado went through its initial paces this past weekend with the season’s opening test session at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The end result brought back memories of how the truck performed at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama last fall.

With rookie Clay Rogers and NASCAR Busch Series driver Shane Huffman sharing the driving duties during the 3-day test, the #40 Key Motorsports machine was not fast by itself but quick during drafting sessions.

Rogers drove the truck on Friday, turning in the 29 th best time in single truck laps out of the 32 trucks that made onto the track for the first day of work. Rogers’ time was 52.252 seconds for a speed of 172.242 miles per hour – nearly two full seconds and six miles and hour off the best time and speed that was turned in by Roush Racing’s Travis Kvapil.

Kvapil, the 2003 Craftsman Truck Series champion who is returning to the Series full time after a few years in Nextel Cup Series competition, also was the fastest in the drafting session on Friday with a best lap of 48.252 seconds and 186.521 mph. Rogers was 10th best at 49.206 and 182.905 mph.

Huffman, who drove in four races for Key Motorsports at the end of last season but none on a super speedway, topped out on Saturday with the 27th fastest regular test run at 52.085 secondson but none on a super speedway, topped out on Saturday with the 27th the fastest in the drafting session on Friday wit and a speed of 172.420 mph but jumped well up in the standings during drafting with the 13th best lap (49.146 seconds) and speed (183.128 mph).

In Sunday’s final day of work, Huffman clocked a best normal lap time of 52.198 and 172.420  mph and was 9th in the drafting phase with a time of 49.339 seconds and 182.411 mph. Kvapil again topped the charts at 48.707 seconds for a speed of 184.778 mph.

In the final composite marks for the three days, 34 trucks tested with Huffman standing 17th best overall with a composite time of 49.15 seconds and 183.13 mph while Rogers was 20th with 49.21 and 182/.91 mph. Fourteen of the 34 trucks were Chevrolets with Huffman finishing fifth overall and Rogers seventh of the red bowtie brigade. Kvapil’s Ford was clearly the best performing truck overall with marks of 48.25 seconds and 186.52 mph.

Key Motorsports would certainly love to duplicate, for the most part, the run it had with its Chevrolet last October at Talladega when veteran Derrike Cope had the #40 in prime position for a top five finish on the race’s final lap. That’s when the Toyota driven by eventual Craftsman Truck Series champion Todd Bodine hit Cope’s truck from behind coming off the second turn, sending it hard into the outside retaining wall and out of the race….destroying the race truck in the process.

In that race, Cope started the race in the 32nd position, again showing a lack of individual speed, but in just four laps vaulted all the way up to fourth thanks to the draft. After dropping back in the field to cool down a motor that began running hot, and then to repair a left rear fender damaged when a tire blew, Cope again forged his way back to the front in the late stages of the race and was running sixth when the incident with Bodine occurred.

The Daytona and Talladega tracks are NASCAR’s two, true super speedways measuring 2.5 and 2.66 miles in length, respectively, with high banks and long back straight-aways. It provides the ideal conditions for generating some of the fastest speeds thanks to often breathtaking drafts that often have 30 or more trucks running nose to tail and side by side. That draft again showed this past weekend that this brand new Key Motorsports Chevrolet has the same ability to use it effectively to turn some of its best laps during competition.

“We went down there (Daytona) to shake down the new truck, and we accomplished that with mixed results,” Crew Chief Barry Dodson said. “Though we didn’t run the way we would have liked by ourselves, we do know that it can run well in the draft. We at least know the things that we need to work on over the next month so we are better when we head back down there for the opening race,” he added.

Dodson wasn’t specific about the exact work that needed to be done but let it be known that the suspension and body were amongst the main concerns. The #40 Chevy will also have a new motor under the hood when the 2007 season opening race practice begins on Tuesday, February 13.

The season opener will get the green flag on Friday night, February 16.