Keller Even Fools NBC TV With
4th Place Kansas Finsih

Maybe Jason Keller's luck is finally starting to change for the better after all as a result of his solid fourth place finish in Saturday's Mr. Goodcents 300, NASCAR Busch Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.  Jason even had the television broadcasters from NBC fooled and confused.

Saturday's wild race finish, one that saw race dominator Michael Waltrip blow a tire and hit the wall while leading with five laps remaining and then Bobby Hamilton, Jr., spun around and crash on the final lap after he grabbed the lead when Waltrip crashed, left the Busch Series points race in a real tizzy.  It also confused the heck out of the TV commentators.

Keller was running 6th in his #57 Albertson's Supermarkets / Northeastern Supply Company sponsored Ford Taurus when Waltrip crashed, moving Jason up a notch to the fifth spot on the track.  When the race was restarted with just one lap to go, Keller was obviously behind then leader Hamilton, Jr., the third place car of Greg Biffle clipped the left rear quarter panel of Hamilton's US Marine Corps machine sending it spinning and hard into the outside retaining wall in turn two.

Keller dove down to the apron of the track to avoid the incident and continued around to take the checkered flag in fourth place.  For whatever reason, NASCAR scoring did not pick up the satellite transmitter feed from Jason's car, and when TV ran the race's finishing order at the end of its broadcast, Keller was shown finishing in the 18th position.  When the driver points standing was also displayed on the TV screen, Keller was listed in fifth place, 110 points behind new points leader David Green who ended up winning the Mr. Goodcents 300 following the late-race craziness.  The head scratching only lasted for a few minutes, however, until the mistake was found and the finishing order corrected with Keller in the fourth position.

"We dodged a few bullets today," Keller said after the race after starting in the 23rd spot.  "Our car was really tight out there during the first half of the race, and I never could get any kind of charge mustered.  Then we had that vibration in the car that required us to pit and change four tires late in the race when most of the leaders stayed on the race track.  This is one tough place to try and get back to the front when you're way back in the field," he added.

That problem dropped Keller from the 8th position back to 19th with less than 60 laps remaining, but changing the tires worked.  Keller used his experience and patience to methodically pick his way around and through the field and finally back into contention.  He just happened to be in the right spot at the right time when Waltrip and Hamilton, Jr., their problems and took advantage of them to notch his 9th top five finish of the 2003 season.

Jason remained in fifth place in the ever changing driver points standing but crept to within 59 points of leader Green, who won for the third time this season.  Green was fourth in points coming into the race.  The points leader coming into the Kansas City fray, young Brian Vickers, crashed hard in a 2-car incident early in the race but was able to get his badly battered car back onto the track later in the day to pick up a few extra spots.  Vickers finished 32nd and dropped to third in the standings, although just 46 points behind Green and now only 13 ahead of Keller.  Jason's ppc Racing teammate, Scott Riggs, remained in second place in the standings, 21 points out of the lead, with a 13th place finish after hanging around the top five most of the afternoon.  Ron Hornaday dropped a spot to fourth in the standings after finishing 14th and is just 11 points ahead of the charging Keller who has posted three top 10 finishes now in his last four starts.

"We're coming to the track prepared and confident each week, and the breaks are starting to fall our way, Keller stated.  There are a bunch of races left (6 beginning next weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte), and anything can happen.  We just have to continue working hard and being ready to race hard each week so we can continue applying some pressure during each race.  We're confident that we can win this thing yet," Jason added.

Rounding out the top five finishers were Winston Cup regulars Kevin Harvick and Biffle in second and third place, respectively, and former Northeastern Supply Company sponsored driver Hank Parker, Jr., fifth driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Next week's race in Charlotte, the 29th on the 34-race 2003 Busch Series schedule, is the first ever Busch race to be run under the lights at Lowe's Motor Speedway and on a Friday night.  The event takes the green flag at 8 p.m. but will not be televised live.  It will be a delayed broadcast by TNT on Saturday afternoon, and you should check local TV listings for the time of the broadcast in your area.  However, the race will be broadcast live on syndicated radio across the country on the Performance Racing Network, and you should also check your local NASCAR station for the on-air schedule in your market.