• Jeff was in the #34 Front Row Motorsports Chevy at Darlington, but was unable to make the race.
• Jeff qualified 22nd on Friday night for his first race of the year in the Key Motorsports Nationwide Series entry in Richmond. Unfortunately, the team suffered mechanical issues and finished 38th.
• Key Motorsports returns to NNS at Richmond test: For the first time in nearly 10 years, Key Motorsports is returning to Nationwide Series action. Team owner Curtis W. Key, Sr. and his race team will unveil one of its four Chevy race cars during the Series' scheduled open test session at Richmond International Raceway Monday and Tuesday, March 24 and 25. The game plan is to enter the scheduled NNS event at RIR on Friday, May 2 - one of a handful of races Key plans to race in the series in 2008. Veteran driver Jeff Green has been hired by Key to drive the car. Managing the Nationwide Series project for Key will be highly experienced Tommy Morgan, the Director of Competition at Key Motorsports.(Key Motorsports PR)
• Key Motorsports - NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series / Nationwide Series Team

Electrical Problems End Jeff Green's Run Early In Richmond; Key Motorsports' Nationwide Series Return Disappointing  

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA (May 2, 2008) – Jeff Green’s run in Friday night’s Lipton Tea 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Richmond International Raceway ended early with electrical problems and put a disappointing finish to the return to the Series of Key Motorsports.

Green had the honor of putting a Key Motorsports race car into a Nationwide Series starting field for the first time in 10 years, but the night ended just 162 laps into the 250-lap affair for a spirit-dousing 38th place finish.

The engine started to sputter so I switched ignition boxes, and that seemed to solve the problem at the time, but obviously it was something more than that,” said Green. In his phenomenal Nationwide Series career, Green had won 16 of 254 races, earned one title (in 2002), finished second in the driver championship battle twice and amazingly had posted top 10 finishes in half of those starts.

Green started Friday by qualifying the #31 Key Motorsports/Wrapitupvehiclewraps.com Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the 22nd position, giving his race team high hopes in stepping up from its regular stint in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for a weekend of car racing.

Green held his own in the early going despite a tight handling race car, but with the first 65 laps of the race going green, early race leader Carl Edwards started lapping cars after just a dozen laps and put Green and his machine a lap in arrears on lap 45.

“The car was just too tight at the start, and that long green flag run really hurt us,” Crew Chief and Key Motorsports Director of Competition Tommy Morgan said.

Green held steady between the 25th and 28th positions over the next 57 circuits around RIR’s sweeping, ¾-mile, D-shaped oval before losing a second lap, again to Edwards, on lap 122. Green was running 27th on lap 157 when the race’s fourth yellow flag flew for rookie Landon Cassill’s spin in turn two.

Morgan elected to pit his race car for a splash of fuel and a chassis adjustment on lap 161, and when the race re-started two laps later, the #31 was 30th and chasing four other machines for position when the engine again started to sputter. It sent Green and the car to the garage area for the remainder of the race where the problem was diagnosed as electrical. “We won’t know exactly what the cause for the problem was, but it drained both batteries and could be the alternator or a broken wire. We’ll find out when we get it back to shop,” Morgan explained.

In the end, Green was credited with a 38th place finish having completed 162 laps.

The last time a Key Motorsports entry competed in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race was in September of 1998 when former ASA Late Model champ Kevin Cywinski finished 23rd in a Ford and ironically at Richmond International Raceway. Team owner Curtis Key always hoped to return to the Series and was hoping for a good showing.

“It’s a disappointing way to end what we all had hoped would be a really good day for this team, Jeff and Curtis (Key),” Morgan said. “For the first time out, I am really proud of the way everyone worked together to allow Curtis the chance to get back to racing in the Nationwide Series. I’m disappointed for him because he really wanted to give a good showing tonight. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to try racing a few more of these Nationwide Series events before this season is over,” he added.

Key has not determined when he will enter a car in another Nationwide race in 2008.

Key Motorsports will return to its Craftsman Truck Series routes in two weeks with the running of the Quaker Steak & Lube 200 at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte with Chad Chaffin hoping to continue his team’s climb up the point’s ladder.

The #40 has improved its finishes in the NCTS in every race by a handful of positions since starting the season with a DNF and 36th place finish in Daytona due to a wreck. Chaffin posted the team’s first top-20 finish of the season in its last outing at Kansas Speedway with new crew chief Lance Hooper at the helm. They hope to continue that streak in Charlotte on May 16.