High hopes were pinned on the 2002 Truck Champion Mike Bliss, who was at the helm of the #40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet at Friday night’s Casino Arizona 150 that was held at Phoenix International Raceway under the lights. Phoenix International is a well-liked track for Bliss and proof of that was when he ran the #40 Key Motorsports truck12th in the first practice and 5th during happy hour. Bliss then qualified the #40 Key Motorsports / Alice Cooper’stown truck with a respectable 17th place starting position for the night time race.
As soon as the checkered flag was dropped, the competition got serious. Ron Hornaday in the #33 truck and Kyle Busch in the #51 truck bolted at the checkered flag, and ran deep into turn three. Busch took the air off of Hornaday’s truck and sent him careening across the track and into J.R. Fitzpatrick in the #71. The #40 was stopped in the grass when it was rear ended by the #60 of Jack Sprague who pushed the #40 into Ron Hornaday’s driver’s side door, damaging the front clip and equipment.
The #40 truck limped back to the garage area where Crew Chief Lance Hooper set the team to work on the repairs. "What a shame,"
stated Hooper, "we expected to have good run here tonight, it’s unfortunate—and on lap ONE none the less!"
The Key Motorsports truck reemerged onto the race track, only to be plagued by overheating which ended the team’s day in 31st position. "We have one hundred and fifty laps to race, and you have guys racing like it’s the last lap. It just makes no sense to tear up trucks like this"
, stated Key, "we were in possession of a great driver, a great team and a great truck. We could have possibly secured a victory or even a top five finish tonight."
The Key Motorsports #40 team is looking forward to the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami with driver Chad Chaffin at the helm.
