Gary Showalter Excited About His Team’s Chances at NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race

Gary Showalter Excited About His Team’s Chances at NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race

Jun 06, 2007

Key Motorsports

Gary Showalter, the new Crew Chief at Key Motorsports, is normally a quiet, reserved person who seldom is boastful. A powerful motor, some set-up changes and revisions to the team’s #40 Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet Silverado for this weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race has Showalter a little bit excited about his team’s chances at the Texas Motor Speedway.

“Our motor has produced some pretty impressive numbers on the dyno, ” Showalter said about the power plant that rookie driver Clay Rogers will have underneath the hood of his race truck for Friday night’s running of the Sam’s Town 400K event.

“We also have found some things in the chassis that we have changed that will be worth a few more tenths, so Clay should have something really good to run with this trip, ” added Showalter who is now managing the Key Motorsports at-track effort for the third race since coming on board just after the race in Charlotte.

Rogers had a respectable run at Mansfield, Ohio a few weeks ago in his second race of the 2007 season for Key Motorsports. A 16th place finish in that rain-delayed test wasn’t good enough for Rogers, however, who felt that he needed just a little more motor to get the job done coming off of the corners.

“My race truck handled really well at Mansfield, but I just could not get underneath another truck and power through the corner to get by. That was frustrating, ” Rogers explained. Since then, Rogers recorded another USAR Hooter’s Pro Cup Series victory and is yearning to have one of those same performances at the higher NCTS level.

“We have good equipment, and Gary (Showalter) and Tommy (Director of Competition Morgan) are working really hard to give me the kind of race truck that I can really have fun with and be competitive. I’m hoping that what Gary is telling me about this Texas truck pans out so we can finally run up front and move the #40 up the point’s ladder, ” Rogers added.

Rogers and NASCAR Busch Series driver Shane Huffman are now sharing the ride in the #40 for the time being with Huffman finishing 24th at Dover last week thanks to some pit road violations and a lost alternator belt. Rogers will be behind the wheel again next weekend in Michigan before Huffman returns for the Milwaukee race on June 22.

“Our goal is to improve every one of the race trucks we have and give the drivers something that they can really enjoy driving and race with, ” Morgan said. “We don’t want to go through what we went through in Dover, so everyone is working extra hard to focus on Texas and give our driver every chance to race for a reason, ” he added.

Clay Rogers will be the first to find out if the plan is working.