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On lap 123 of Wednesday night’s O’Reilly 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the newly re-surfaced Bristol Motor Speedway, rookie driver Brandon Miller and his #40 Curtis Key Plumbing/Westerman Companies Chevrolet were eyeing something special. Two laps later, those dreams ended.
Miller, who had run pretty much in the second half of the pack of 36 trucks during the first half of the race trying to get adjusted to the BMS oval, had the Key Motorsports #40 machine in the 17th position and with a fresh set of tires. He was headed towards the front and in the mind of crew chief Gary Showalter “a top 10 finish”.
Unfortunately, while trying to head off the advances of Regan Smith in the Ginn Resorts Chevrolet on lap 124, Miller’s truck loosened up heading into the fourth turn and Smith, instead of just coasting underneath to make a clean pass, tapped Miller’s machine and sent it careening into the fourth turn retaining wall.
“At first, I didn’t think that the hit was that bad, but after a few laps I was doing everything I could to simply get the truck around the track, ” Miller explained. “It’s a shame, because we really had the truck running well at that time, and with fresh tires, I was definitely going to the front, ” Miller added.
“The hit pulled out the bumper cover on the right rear, lifted the deck lid, crushed the rear bumper and turned in the fenders. There wasn’t much of the race truck’s body that wasn’t affected by the hit, ” Showalter said. “It’s a shame because we definitely had things going in our favor at that time. ”
Twenty laps later, with Miller driving through the corners in dirt track fashion with a race truck that just could not hold the surface, the #40 went a lap down to then race leader Travis Kvapil.
The Key Motorsports crew refused to wilt by the sudden turn of events, however, and after making no less than four pit stops over the next 50 laps thanks to a rash of other caution periods to gradually repair the truck as best as possible, the #40 found itself back on the lead lap and eyeing a top 20 finish. They just ran out of laps.
“The truck was really too loose for me to do anything too drastic, but we did have our sights on some of the trucks directly in front of us. We just didn’t have time to get there, ” Miller said. “I’m proud of the way the guys stayed with me, though, and busted their guts to make repairs to the truck and give me a chance at a lead lap finish. They deserved better than a 22nd place finish, but I guess we’ll take it, ” ended Miller and his first-ever race on the fan-favorite Bristol oval.
The team struggled through Tuesday afternoon’s open practice session and then the first of two regular practices on Wednesday. Tightness in the corners and Miller’s inability to drive off the turns was the culprit and had everyone with the team scratching their heads.
“We must have changed shocks and springs 10 times on Tuesday, and when we thought we had the condition solved, the truck would do something else and still not go very fast, ” said Showalter. “But Brandon never got discouraged and everyone hung in there until we finally focused on a set-up that would work. Brandon showed that he can race with anyone tonight, and one of these days something called luck will be on our side and allow our strategy to pay off, ” Showalter added, again frustrated that the #40 was not able to take advantage of the better track position and fresher tires it had when Miller’s truck struck the wall.
Despite losing two spots and falling down to 28th in the all-important owner’s point standing, the #40 has dramatically closed the gap with several other teams.
Heading into next weekend’s race at the Gateway International Raceway outside of St. Louis, the #40 trails the #13 of driver Willie Allen for the 27th position by only four points, is 23 behind the #47 of Morgan-Dollar Racing in 26th place, 49 shy of the 25th place #08 truck from Green Light Racing, 54 behind the #00 of Michael Waltrip Racing now in 24th place and is just 63 short of the #07 of driver Jay Sauter in 23rd.
“We are picking up some momentum and hope that we can continue to improve, ” said team owner Curtis W. Key, Sr., “Brandon has shown us that he can drive, and if we can get him the equipment he can handle, we should be OK, ” he added.
The Westerman Companies, sponsor of the #40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado in recent races at Kentucky, Indianapolis and Nashville, will return to primary sponsorship of Miller and the team in Gateway for the Saturday night, September 1 test. It is the fourth of a 5-race arrangement that the Bremen, Ohio company has in its first stint with Key Motorsports.
