Veteran driver Jeff Green has been hired by Key to drive the car. Green was the 2000 NASCAR Nationwide
Series champion who also finished in the runner-up position in the battle for driving honors in the series
in 1999 and 2001. Green has earned 16 career NASCAR Nationwide Series victories and 87 top five finishes in
254 career starts.
The last race in this division (formerly called the NASCAR Busch Series) in which a Key Motorsports car ran
was ironically at RIR when American Speed Association Series late model champion Kevin Cywinski qualified
19th and finished 25th in a Ford in September 1998. It was the 35th and last start for a Key Motorsports
car in this division, a program that spanned parts of six seasons and came just a few months before Key was
forced to shut down his race business in 1999.
Key, who returned to the NASCAR ranks in 2003 and has been a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series since 2006, purchased the four intermediate cars from the inventory that remained after the
merger of Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. last year. Three of four cars were driven for a few faces in
2007 by Regan Smith while the fourth has never been on a race track.
Returning to the NASCAR Nationwide Series is something that Key had been hoping to do for a long time.
“I really loved the Busch Series when I first got into the business of NASCAR team ownership, but a lot of
things happened along the way that forced me to leave the sport in 1999 and return to Chesapeake (his
Virginia home) to concentrate on my business (Curtis Key Plumbing Contractors) and my family,” Key
explained.
“I did learn a lot while I was down here (Mooresville, NC where he based his team for four of those first
six seasons), and one of them was that you needed a pocket full of money if you were going to be able to
compete against the big teams. I was able to increase my plumbing business considerably over a 3 ˝-year
period and that is when I decided to get back into racing and opened the truck team. But I am thrilled to
once again be able to race the cars,” he added, alluding to this anticipated return this season though on a
part-time basis.
Managing the NASCAR Nationwide Series project for Key will be highly experienced Tommy Morgan, the Director
of Competition at Key Motorsports. Morgan was the NASCAR Nationwide Series crew chief at Roush Racing in
the late 1990s and early 2000s when Jeff Burton was dominating the Series in the No. 9 Fords. Key
Motorsports’ existing NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crew chief, Gary Showalter, will remain at that level.
“We’re going to give it our best shot for a few races and see what happens,” Key said. “The cars all have
been to the wind tunnel and posted some pretty good numbers, and when Regan (Smith) drove them in
competition last year, they performed quite well. I’m really curious to see how well we can do with them,
but Richmond is my home and favorite race track and I want to make the race and compete. I will hire a
driver that we know will race hard and get everything he can get out of the car,” Key added.
Key has not indicated what other races he plans to enter with his NASCAR Nationwide Series cars this season
but will have a better idea after the test and race at Richmond.
Some of the former series’ most talented drivers had driven for Key during that initial, six-year stint
headed by former series champions Tommy Ellis, Chuck Bown and Larry Pearson. Jeff Burton also drove one
race for Key at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1996 where he qualified seventh and was running up front when
the motor sprung an oil leak.
The best career finish in his team’s 35 previous NASCAR Nationwide Series races was a fifth by Ellis in
1993 at Hickory Motor Speedway and a 9th place finish in Charlotte with Bown behind the wheel in 1995. All
of Key’s race cars then were Fords.
ABOUT CSD
