Busch Grand National Series

Keller and the Albertsons Team Keep Title Hopes Alive

Jason Keller

CHARLOTTE, N.C. --- Jason Keller and the Albertsons team have remained focused on the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the season... winning races. While they have tried not to get caught up in the frenzy that surrounds contending for the NASCAR Busch Series championship, they find themselves in a two-way battle with just six races to go.

Following a disappointing finish at Kansas, the team loaded up two cars and headed to Lowe's Motor Speedway to test on the Tuesday and Wednesday immediately following the race. Keller considers the two days on track the team's best test session ever.

"We had an amazing test session at Charlotte," said Keller. "It was scary how well everything went, especially on the first day. We took two cars with us. The car that ran well at Charlotte in the spring and the car we ran at Dover. The car we ran in the spring wasn't near as fast as the Dover car and package. I am cautiously optimistic and excited about this race.

"The team and I have improved tremendously at Charlotte. I used to dread going to the track because we never had a good handle on it. We've run pretty well in the past four races at Charlotte. If we didn't have the overheating problem in the spring, I'm confident we would have had a least a top-five finish."

Focused on the big picture and the upcoming six races, the Albertsons team is testing at Atlanta this week in preparation for the October 25th race. Keller's best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway came in March of 2001 where he finished seventh.

"I think it's a fair assessment to say Atlanta isn't my best track," said Keller. "We've never had a great set up for there. ppc Racing has three teams testing with computer data recorders on each car and engineers to sort out that data. This allows each driver and team to try similar things and overlap the data to figure out what package works best. When we go back in a couple of weeks, we should have figured out a thing or two about the track."

The Albertsons team is holding tight to their championship hopes. The No. 57 team knows that they cannot make any mistakes between Charlotte and Homestead if they intend to win a second championship for ppc Racing.

"It's doesn't do us any good to think about the championship now when it's really out of our hands," said Keller. "Before Kansas we could race head-to-head with Biffle and his team and know whoever ran the best would win the championship. Now, we have to continue to run well, but wait for him to make a mistake. If we win every race for the rest of the season and Biffle finished fifth in every race, he still comes out on top.

"We know that we have done the best that we can all season, and we will continue to do that and let the cards fall where they may. I've been in the Busch Series long enough to know anything can happen. Look at what one race did in the Winston Cup points standings last weekend. Biffle and I have seen the tides change enough this year to know the points race is far from over."

Keller has already captured four wins and 16 top-five finishes this season, both career bests. Keller and Albertsons team know this has been their most successful year, regardless of the championship outcome.