NASCAR BGN: Dover's concrete a welcome feeling for Jason Keller
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
May 30, 2001
This weekend's Busch Series race at Dover Downs International Speedway marks the series' return to a concrete racing surface, a challenge that the teams last faced at Nashville Superspeedway. It's a welcome return for Jason Keller, who is in the midst of a streak of a three top-five finishes, posted a second-place finish at Nashville in April and is the defending champion of the MBNA 200. Keller, who is currently fourth in the point standings, was this week's guest on the NASCAR teleconference and talked about this weekend's race and his season 14 races into the year.
JASON KELLER-57-Albertsons Ford Taurus - YOU POSTED YOUR FIRST CAREER TOP-FIVE FINISH AT CHARLOTTE LAST WEEKEND, A TRACK YOU HAVEN'T HAVE THE BEST OF LUCK AT IN THE PAST. "That's an understatement. I've had trouble most times at Charlotte. It seems like it's been a track that I've never got the hang of. It's really nice to go there to Charlotte, most of the crew's family was there, and their friends were there. It's a good place to run good. We were able to start up front, and I really felt that we were going to have a good qualifying effort, anyway, although it was rained out on Friday. I was able to keep the Albertsons Ford up front all day, and there at the end, we got tight as far as the chassis, but it really was a great day for us. I would have loved to be up there and had a three-car battle at then end, but I wasn't quite able to get up there at the end, but nonetheless, we were running good all day."
YOU'VE BEEN ON A ROLL AS OF LATE SCORING THREE STRAIGHT TOP FIVES. "It's just a lot things coming together. We've been able to find some of the new handling packages with the new Goodyear tire and the new Fords that we're running this year. A lot of things have just come together; it seems like we're really getting into a groove. There's nothing like maintaining a lot motivation and a lot of momentum out of Loudon. When we won at Loudon, it was great, and to get that win under that belt. I think we're just riding momentum now and continuing to build on our setups with our new Fords, and we're doing good. We're trying to keep that Albertsons Ford up front. That gotten a lot of exposure and we're happy about that."
YOU HAD A SLOW START IN 2000, BUT YOU HAD A STRONG SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON. "We really did and I'm glad you brought that up b because I've said all along that we had a great second half last year. I know it was overshadowed by what Jeff did, and it should have been, because of all of the consistency he had. I really felt that we did what we needed to do as a race team from about the 10th race on. We felt like we could race with these guys week in and week out. To come from where we were in the points to finish a strong second, I know it was a distant second to Jeff, but we had to hold off some great guys. Todd Bodine and Harvick were there battling and we were able to beat them on the race track and do the things we needed to do. We had a points battle of our own last year, so we're used to that, it's just spilled over to this year. We had a couple of bad races this year, got in a wreck at Talladega and didn't run that great at California and Richmond, but really, if you set those three races aside, we've done really good at the other 11. I've been really happy with the whole year and I've been really happy with the way we're adapting to change and the way that we're doing things now. "
YOU'RE FOURTH IN THE POINTS AND A VETERAN OF THE SERIES. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR CHANCES TO CONTEND FOR THE TITLE THIS YEAR. "I think Charlotte was a big step for the Albertsons team to say that we can contend for the championship. Charlotte is a track that we've gone there and tried not to lose a lot of points. You have the mindset that you've never run well there and you try not to lose points. To go in there and to run a strong top-three finish, that solidified that we can go to races that I haven't run well in the past and to know that if we can get the car balanced, we can run well. I'm excited about where I am right now, I'd love to be leading, but we're within 100 points of the lead after 14 races and that's real exciting. That's where we want to be and that's where we need to be. I've said all along, too, the guys that we're racing with in points, the 10 car, the 2 car and the 60 car, they're not going to make many mistakes. We're going to have to really race hard on the race track, beat them when we can and finish a close second when we can in order to stay in this points battle."
YOU'VE BEEN IN THE BUSCH SERIES FOR 10 YEARS. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED TO BECOME SUCH A CONSISTENT DRIVER? "I think that as a younger driver, we try to make more of our race cars than we had at the time. We all want to run good and we all want to press the gas hard. I had some success early in my Busch career in '95, and I really thought that it was going to catapult me into the Winston Cup Series really quick, and then I had a new outlook on life and looked at things differently. Yeah, maybe the success hasn't come as fast as I wanted, but I just take each race separately and focus on each race individually. If I have a fifth-place race car then I'm going to make it the fastest fifth place race car that I can this week. I guess I'm getting older and a little wiser. I think the older I get, sometimes, the dumber I get. In that sense, I feel like I'm racing smarter. I felt like before, maybe the communication between myself and the crew wasn't as good. I was a little bit more hotheaded and quick to jump at things, and now we sit down and talk about it. We all understand that we're in this thing together and we want to run well."
YOU OWNED YOUR OWN CAR FOR SOME TIME. DID THAT GIVE YOU A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE? "I think by owning my own car, at the time it was a family-owned car, that was my only way into the sport. I can't say that was a bad thing early in my career, but as my race team grew, it got to be too much. I had major sponsors and I had to do sponsorship obligations and I had to manage the team. I've always had great people around me, but I always wanted to be hands on, too. If you're going to focus on driving a race car, you better drive a race car. It's nice to have some control in owning your own team, but I think it really takes away from your focus. The defining moment for me was when my son Joe was born. I realized there wasn't enough Jason Keller to go around. I could be a race car driver, I could drive really hard, but I was going to try my best to spend quality time with him, and now my little girl Jade. I think that really put everything in perspective for me."
WHAT DID YOU DO FOR MEMORIAL DAY, AND WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR OTHER INTERESTS OUTSIDE OF THE TRACK? "The biggest thing is my family. I've got two wonderful kids that I just really enjoy spending time with. I don't want to look back five years from now and say, 'I missed them growing up.' I think that's what's driving me in my career. To make some of the decisions that I've made is because of my family. I've got a very supportive wife and I'm very lucky to right now to have that support behind me. I used to play more golf than I do now because I enjoy spending time with the kids. They're a lot of fun and I can't spend enough time with them."
A LOT OF YOUR CREW MEMBERS ARE HAVING KIDS THIS YEAR. "I don't know if there's something in the water at ppc Racing or what. They're having a lot of fun with their families and growing them. I just left the shop and I love talking about my kids. There's nothing more fulfilling than talking about my kids. To go around the shop and to see the pictures, and talk about their kids and how they're doing things. Bob Dole, one of my crew members, , his son started walking last week, so we were trading stories. I've got a lot of things in common with my crew. It's a great group of guys. This is mkore ofa team sport than some of the fans realize. Of late, more people are picking up on that and it's really nice to have crew members that really support you and have things in common with."
YOU'VE BEEN DUBBED THE CONCRETE MASTER. "I don't know what the equation is for being comfortable on concrete. I know that I feel real comfortable and consistent on the concrete. I'm real excited about going back to Dover. Dover is a place that I have a lot of confidence going back to. I don't know why I've adapted so well to concrete. I just think it stays really consistent throughout the race and it gives me a really good feel. I just enough it. I enjoy Dover, I enjoy going to the casino for a couple hours a night there. That's something that I enjoy doing, too. It's just a great race. I have a lot of my sponsors which are locally based up there. Northeastern Supply is up there and there's an Acme grocery store, which is one of the Albertsons chains, right out the front gate, so I have a lot of things to look forward to there."
YOU'VE SAID THAT DOVER IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE VICTORIES. "Any time you outrun Mark Martin on the race track is a huge confidence booster. He's done things in the Busch Series in his career that probably no one else will ever do as far as his wins and how consistent he was. We raced hard, we passed him on the race track and held him off to win the race. Any time that you can do that against the best that the series has to offer is gratifying. It was a huge confidence booster to me that we have to work on our cars and get them good, and once I get them comfortable, I can race toe-to-toe with the best in the business. I have fed off of that confidence basically ever since then. Mark is a great competitor, and to this day, that's still one of my biggest victories and I think it always will be."
TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CREW CHIEF STEVE ADDINGTON. "It's really good. Steve goes all the way back to the dirt days I had around the Carolinas. He and I really grew up together. A lot of people laugh when I say that. I was a teenager and he was in his early 20s, we learned a lot of our racing together. We split up in late 1996 and 1997, and we got back together at ppc Racing in '98. We've started building on that since then and a lot of the crew guys, maybe Steve and I will have something that we don't totally agree on and we'll kind of get into it a little bit, and the crew guys will look. We're like brothers, we're going to put our emotions out there and tell each other how we feel, and at the end of the day we're going to give each other a big hug and a pat on the back and tell each other how good we're doing, too. He's really come a long way, and I can't say enough about how much he's accomplished over the last year and a half. He's really matured a lot as a crew chief, and as a person, to know what other people on the race team need and how to maximize that. We've all got a long way to go, as far as it's learning experience everyday on this race team, but I'm really proud of what he's done and I'm working hard on trying to build that relationship now. Steve and I go back a long way and I'm proud that our relationship has been as long as it has."
TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE TRACK AT DOVER. "We can run on the bottom, we can run in the middle, we can run up top. It will be better now because the truck race will be run on Friday. We'll be able to move all around the race track. It will be a lot of fun, and as far as first-time winners, I hope that's not the case on Saturday. Hopefully we can repeat what we did last spring. I never say I conquered the Monster Mile because I did what I needed to do on that day. I don't think you ever conquer that place; you just respect what it is and how fast you're going. I've hit the wall there a time or two, too, so I understand how hard the walls are there."
YOUR TEAMMATE BLEW A TIRE THERE LAST. ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS WITH THE NEW TIRE? "I think what's going to help that a little is that there's going to be a little bit of rubber put down from the truck series race. There's a little bit of concern on my part because Joe Nemechek blew a right-front tire there a few weeks ago testing. I haven't really researched to know whether it was a cut tire, I do know that he made some laps and went back out and blew a tire. It's always an issue when you're running that fast and that far away from the wall in the corners; it's always going to be an issue. Goodyear has done a tremendous job with their tires. I know it's had a lot of media play this year because of the tire, but it hasn't been negative, it's been different. A lot of the race teams have had to adapt and do things differently; I know we have. It's a great tire. Goodyear builds a tremendously safe tire, so I'm not worried about that. We just need to make sure that the camber is right on our cars, and we'll be OK."
WHAT IS CAMBER? EXPLAIN WHAT NASCAR DOES BY LIMITING THE CAMBER? "As race teams and drivers, you want the car to turn in the corner as best you can. The way the camber is, if you visualize a tire standing straight up, lean it into the motor, and the more you lean it in, the more camber you have. So what happens is the inside of the tire builds up a lot of heat and the heat wears out the inside of the tire quicker and there's not a lot of rubber on those Goodyear Eagles anyway, so it's fine line. You want the car to turn, but you want to be safe. You don't need to put a whole lot of camber in the car because it will wear the inside of the tires out and you'll blow a right-front tire out if you're not careful."
YOU CHANGED TO FORD THIS YEAR. HAS THAT BEEN THE RIGHT MOVE? "It was extremely tough over the off-season. To carry that question further, it was extremely tough on us. We had to change everything over from red to blue with our Albertsons sponsorship, and I think both of those changes have been tremendous bonuses for ppc Racing and to myself. I think the Ford program is only going to get stronger. I think that's going to continue to be strong the more we go to these race tracks because we'll have notes to go back to. I think it's going to be good. We had a tough off-season. We were sitting there with eight Chevrolets ready to go at then end of last season. For ppc Racing to decide that that's what we need to do, the switch to Ford has been great, and Albertsons came on board. There were a lot of new things that came to ppc Racing. I commend the guys at the shop. You hear drivers say that a lot, but without their preparation, we would not have success on the race track. That's what continues to happen. They're preparing race cars really good and they're showing on the race track."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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