Keller Making His Move with Runner-Up
Finish in Memphis

After a year of ups and downs and many moments of frustration, Jason Keller and his Albertson's Supermarkets / Northeastern Supply Company race team have finally put themselves into title contending position for the NASCAR Busch Series' 2003 championship.

Keller steered his Ford Taurus to a very solid second place finish in Saturday afternoon's Sam's Town 250 race at the Memphis Motorsports Park in Tennessee.  Combined with the finishes behind him by his closest rivals, Keller jumped two spots in the driver's points battle and lies just 34 points out of the top spot with 4 races remaining.  It's the closest that Keller has been to the top of the driver points standing since he finished second at Indianapolis Raceway Park back on August 2nd.

Bobby Hamilton, Jr., one of the Busch Series' hottest drivers over the last half of this season, rallied late to overtake race leader Johnny Sauter and then hold off the advances of Keller to win the Memphis test.  As far as the 2003 driving championship is concerned, however, Keller outdistanced David Green, Brian Vickers, Ron Hornaday and teammate Scott Riggs to make the biggest jump in the standings.

Green, the points leader coming into the Memphis race, experienced late-race engine problems and finished a lap down to the leaders in 19th place.  Vickers regained the point lead after a 3-week hiatus by finishing fifth while Hornaday took the checkered flag in the fourth position and Riggs in 12th place.  The end result? Vickers holds a 23-point advantage over Green, is 34 points better than Keller, and holds an edge of just 40 and 44 points, respectively, over the now fourth place Hornaday and the fifth place Riggs.

"We're doing what we have to do if we are going to have any chance at winning the championship," Keller said after the race.  "We have to qualify up front, lead the races to get those bonus points and finish ahead of the guys we're chasing.  We did that today, and I couldn't be any prouder of the way we competed this weekend.  I'm running for my job, a sponsor and the championship, so we certainly aren't short on motivation," Jason added.

Keller, who qualified sixth for Saturday's race and never found himself outside of the top 10, had a better race car on the longer runs.  During the longest segment of the race that did not get interrupted by a caution flag, Jason steadily knocked off his rivals one by one as he steamed towards the front...even while the cars of Sauter and Vickers dominated the action.

Finally, on lap 159, Keller got inside Vickers to grab the race lead for the first time.  He held it for another 14 laps, even after a series of yellow flag pit stops, and only the Ford of Hamilton, Jr., any better than Jason's machine at the end.  Vickers did lead the most laps, but those leads came mostly during the first half of the race afterwhich Hamilton and Sauter became the strongest cars.

The closest championship battle in Busch Series history will continue next Saturday when the Winston Cup and Busch Series teams converge on Atlanta Motor Speedway.  The Aaron's 312 Busch Series event on Saturday takes the green flag at 1 p.m. and will be televised live nationally by TNT.