Keller Wins at Talladega

Lady luck and a little speed is all that Jason Keller needed Saturday to win the Aaron's Rents 312 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama.

Keller had moved from his 12th starting position up to second after just 14 of the race's 117 laps around the 2.66-mile high banked Talladega tri-oval when teammate Scott Riggs was tapped by Kenny Wallace coming off the second turn and ignited a mammouth wreck that involved 25 of the race's 43 starters. Amongst the victims were Series points leader Jack Sprague, second place Randy LaJoie and sixth place Greg Biffle.

Only 15 cars took the green flag on the restart of the race following a 50-minute red flag, and it left just three cars to battle it out for the win over the remaining 101 laps.

Stacy Compton was the leader at that point followed by Keller and Wallace, and the three stayed pretty much nose to tail over the next 60 laps until the leaders all pitted under green flag conditions. Keller ended up being the big winner here, coming out with the lead when the field recycled with Compton now second and Wallace third. It stayed that way right to the end with only Wallace bowing out of the fray 10 laps from the finish when his motor soured. Keller beat Compton to the checkered flag by a full car-length for his second win of the 2002 season...the most wins in any one season in Keller's long Busch Series career.

"The only way that we were gonna win this race was to either beat Stacy out of the pits or hope that something happened to his car. The latter didn't happen, but my pit crew came up real this week and got me out in front after that last pit stop. That was the difference", Keller explained.

"When Stacy was in front, I could run up on him but could never muster enough to get past him. That made beating him out of the pits the thing that had to be done and my guys did it. I've been pretty tough on them the last few weeks, and today they showed just how good they can be because that's how we beat Stacy today, along with being out in front of that big wreck. Thank the good Lord for keeping everyone safe", Keller ended.

Never one to mirror drive, Keller did admit that he did that a lot over the final 20 laps as Compton tried everything to try and get by. "I watched Dale Earnhardt win a lot of races at Talladega by keeping the car(s) behind him with all kinds of blocking techniques. I did a lot that today, but that's what I had to do to beat Stacy, because he was strong. I'll do it again if I am put in a comparable position", Keller ended.

Jason's win in his #57 ppc Racing/Albertson's Supermarkets/Northeastern Supply Company Ford Taurus, coupled with the misfortunes by all of the other frontrunners enabled Keller to break his tie for third in the points standings and up to second all by himself after 8 of the 2002 season's 34 races. Jason now trails points leader Sprague by just 22 points as the schedule continues next Saturday at California Speedway. LaJoie dropped to third, 90 points behind the leader and 68 behind Keller with Wallace now fourth and Riggs fifth.

Keller's win was his very first at one of NASCAR's true superspeedways, besting his previous best of seventh recorded in February this year in the season opener in Daytona.