Late Race Accident Ruins Keller's
Solid Effort at Richmond

Lady Luck just refuses to smile on driver Jason Keller and his Albertson's Supermarkets / Northeastern Supply Company race team.

Running solidly in the top group of cars with just 6 laps remaining Friday night in the Funai 250 NASCAR Busch Series race, Keller was chasing down championship contender David Green in an effort to bypass the former Series champ and move up in the current driver points standing.  Keller was inside Green heading down the back stretch in a heated battle for the sixth position when disaster struck.

The car driven by young driver Shane Hmiel was down near the apron of the track trying to find a way around both Green and Keller when Hmiel's machine broke loose.  Instead of taking his foot out of the throttle to get the car under control, Hmiel elected to stand on the gas to try and straighten out his car as a gaggle of five or six cars neared the third turn. Hmiel's car shot up the track and struck Keller's car in the left rear quarter panel, sending the #57 Ford Taurus hard into the outside retaining wall in the middle of the corner to end Keller's chances of earning a top 10 finish.

The end result was a DNF for Keller, a 21st place finish and a drop of a position down to fifth in the points standings with just 7 races remaining.   Instead of securing that top ten finish and a move into third place in the standings, and within 45 points of the top spot, Keller is now 111 points out of the lead behind new points leader Green as the Busch Series teams take a week off.   They will resume action on Saturday afternoon, September 20, at Dover (DE) International Speedway with the running of the Stacker 2 200 presented by YJ Stinger.  That race will be televised live by the TNT Cable Station.

Johnny Sauter outpushed Winston Cup Series points leader Matt Kenseth on the next to last lap to take the Richmond victory with another Winston Cup regular, Kevin Harvick, finishing second.  Rounding out the top five was Bobby Hamilton, Jr. in third, fourth place Brian Vickers and Green in fifth.

Green now leads Vickers by 48 points in what is the tightest points battle in NASCAR Busch Series history.  Scott Riggs, the points leader over the last four weeks, had a terrible night in Richmond with a 29th place finish after being involved in several altercations and dropped to third in the standings but is still just 64 points out of first.  Ron Hornaday finished seventh in Richmond and moved past Keller into fourth place in the standings, 74 behind Green.

An all-time record crowd of more than 65,000 to see a Busch Series event at RIR was on hand during a moonlit night to see the thrilling race.