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Keller Dominates Thunder Valley
Jason Keller claimed his second career Busch Grand National victory in dominating fashion. The win is the first for Keller since 1995, where he won at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a stretch of 102 races.
Keller's number 57 Team Flemming/IGA Chevrolet was strong, leading three times for a total of 182 of the race's 250 laps. Keller started from the pole and would easily distance himself from the field on green flag runs, eleven cautions would help the field catch up to the dominant car.
Keller would only loose the lead twice, both times when cars would choose not to pit under caution. It would not take Keller long to get back to the front either time.
When Keller would make his final pit stop, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would assume the lead because he was out of sinc on pit stops, a strategy that almost worked for Earnhardt. When the cars would restart at lap 179, Keller would begin picking of cars one by one, until he would get in second place and see the race's eleventh and final caution.
The race would resume on lap 225 and Keller would get caught up behind lapped traffic, allowing Earnhardt to open up a healthy lead. Once Keller cleared the lapped traffic, there was no stopping him, cutting into Earnhardt's big lead on each lap. Keller easily passed Earnhardt on lap 233 and never looked back, beating Earnhardt to the checkered flag by .313 seconds.
Keller, a native of Greenville, SC, moved to third in the BGN point standings, behind second place Earnhardt and new leader, Elton Sawyer, who was making his 300 BGN start at Bristol.
The win was the second in a row for Progressive Motorsports, teammate Jeff Green won last week in Nashville. The team was founded last season and added the second team this year.
