Catchfence

Mooresville, NC (August 23. 2010) – Continuing a streak of top-20 performances that began nearly two months ago, Mike Bliss maintained a consistent pace throughout the Food City 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Friday night at the lightning fast Bristol Motor Speedway to bring the Westerman Companies/Key Motorsports Chevrolet home in the top-20 for the eighth week in a row. With Westerman Companies executives entertaining clients and other guest trackside, a festive atmosphere celebrating another milestone in their long relationship with Key Motorsports produced a memorable evening for both organizations.

Starting 41^st after experiencing a loose condition in a qualifying session that sent an unusually high number of cars to the garage for repairs, Bliss stood on the gas at the drop of the green, gaining 11 spots in the first 15 laps of the 250-lap contest. Comfortably holding position for the next 40 laps, veteran Bliss sized up the competition before implementing strategy that would take the Westerman Chevrolet as high as sixth in the running order at mid-point of the race.

Relying on crew chief Gary Showalter and the Key Motorsports pit crew for service to the Westerman Companies No. 40, Bliss stayed in the hunt after each of his visits to the tight quarters of the Bristol pit area, keeping pace in the top-half of the field over the final 100 laps. The Westerman Companies/Key Motorsports team survived the destruction that was responsible for seven of the eight caution periods displayed during the night, improving twenty-four positions by race end to be credited with 17^th in the final rundown.

“We came to Bristol hoping for a better finish,” shared Bliss. “This Westerman Companies Chevrolet ran good tonight, we had a top-10 car but had to come in to repair the right front towards the end and that cost us a lot of track position. The guys on the crew did a good job for us, Gary works hard with them and it is showing every week. We’ll keep working at it and see what happens. I want to thank Curtis Key for providing a competitive car week in and week out and Westerman Companies, we appreciate everything they do. We wouldn’t be here without them.”

Checking up to avoid a lap 218 melee, the Westerman Companies Chevrolet received damage to the right front fender after being drop kicked from behind, forcing Bliss to the attention of Showalter and the crew for repairs.

“We were on track for a top-10 until that unscheduled stop with about 30 to go.” offered Showalter.  We gave up 10 spots to come in but needed to make sure we could finish the race, so what do you do. We held our own on pit stops, the crew did a good job. I am happy with their effort this week and was happy with the car. This is another example of our finish not reflecting how good the car was. We’ll try again next week.”

Key Motorsports team owner Curtis Key says that while he is pleased to continue the recent string of consistency the team is enjoying, he feels Key Motorsports is ready to move forward.

“The consistency we were looking for is coming together with eight top-20’s in the past eight weeks,” said Key. We will continue to work at moving our program forward and are confident we have the people and equipment to accomplish our goals I want to thank every member of our organization for their efforts, especially Westerman Companies for their support at Bristol.”

Key Motorsports with driver Mike Bliss return to NASCAR Nationwide Series action Sunday, August 29 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.

- Key Motorsports, Press Release