Keller scores first Bud Pole since 1999

FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- As dominant as Jason Keller has been at times on race day during the past several seasons, one might assume he's experienced similar good fortune during time trials.

Not so.

	Jason Keller captured his first Bud Pole in nearly 100 races Friday at Pikes Peak. Credit: VPS Motorimages

Prior to Friday's Bud Pole-winning 27.314-second circuit at Pikes Peak International Raceway, Keller hadn't earned a NASCAR Busch Series Bud Pole since August 1999 -- a span of 96 races.

Interestingly enough, the last time Keller led the field to the green flag -- at Indianapolis Raceway Park -- he also won the race.

"I didn't realize it'd been three years," said Keller with a hearty chuckle. "I'm not shocked, though. We've qualified second a number of times (five) this year and our qualifying average (seventh) is the best in the series. So we've been qualifying good, just haven't been able to get the pole position.

"We did have the talk before qualifying that it'd been so long, so I don't know if mentally I tried a little harder, or what."

Whatever it was, it worked. Keller's 131.801-mph lap just nipped second-place qualifier Mark Green. Green, driving the No. 38 Ford, shocked the field with a 27.355-second lap at 131.603-mph, which was just four-hundredths of a second off of Keller's quick lap and tied his career-best qualifying run.

Green last qualified second six years ago at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

"We were fast in practice there, sixth quick, and actually tightened it up too much. But too tight was a lot faster than loose," Green said. "To run a .35, I thought was really more than we could do. We run a .61 this morning so I'd have been happy running a .50. Running a .35 is overwhelming."

Ashton Lewis felt much the same after placing the No. 46 Chevrolet third on the grid -- his career-best qualifying effort. Prior to Friday, Lewis' best career effort was fifth at Las Vegas last season, and his best run this year was eighth at Milwaukee.

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"We felt really good coming into qualifying, thought we had a shot to run well," Lewis said. "Most of the guys, once they put stickers on, started slowing down. Actually, our fastest lap was about our fourth time out of a set of stickers. It's just a really good car and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow."

Kenny Wallace, last year's winner here, will roll off fourth, while Bobby Hamilton, Jr. placed the No. 25 Ford fifth on the starting grid. Stacy Compton, Ron Hornaday, Kevin Grubb, Ricky Hendrick and Todd Bodine make up the six-10 slots, respectively.

"It was a handful," said Keller, who finished fourth in last year's affair here, of the lap that earned him career pole No. 8. "We made some adjustments as the practice went on, and about our third time on our qualifying run we were the fastest. I thought we had a good shot at them. I didn't think we'd run quite that fast, though."

Though quick, Keller's lap fell far short of Jeff Purvis' track record lap of 26.543-seconds, set last season. After five events at Pikes Peak, there has never been a repeat pole winner.

Championship contenders Scott Riggs and Greg Biffle qualified 17th and 19th, respectively, but Keller isn't buying much into it.

"Biffle will come to the front, I'll guarantee you that," Keller said. "He'll probably be up front by halfway."