Keller out at CJM, quickly finds ride at Baker-Curb

DOVER, Del. -- Older drivers getting shuffled aside is a fact of life in NASCAR, but Saturday at Dover International Speedway, for at least one more race day, veteran Jason Keller prevailed, if only in a relative sense.

Despite a series-record 450 starts in the Nationwide Series, Keller, who's totaled 10 wins, 82 top-five finishes, 166 top-10s, an average start of 16.9 and an average finish of 16.1 has found himself a victim of "re-branding."

Ever the professional, Keller put his head down, engineered an opportunity for next season and finally, in a case of the ultimate in professional respect, with the owners' blessing eased out of his seat at CJM Racing, the on-the-rise start-up team that's in its second season and its first full-time effort.

The move creates maybe the best opportunity yet for Scott Lagasse Jr., 26, the second generation racer from St. Augustine, Fla., who has limited experience in the Truck and Nationwide Series, with some ARCA RE/MAX Series racing sprinkled in.

Lagasse sealed the CJM deal earlier this month with a victory in the ARCA event at Chicagoland Speedway, where he triumphed over championship contender Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish for his second ARCA win in as many years.

The first event after the split was Saturday's Camping World RV Sales 200 at Dover, and in the end Keller's No. 27 Baker Curb Racing Ford finished 19th. Lagasse Jr., who was making his first series start since he had two top-10 qualifying efforts a year ago, had his No. 11 CJM Chevrolet involved in an accident and ended up 31st.

Even before the day unfolded, the mood in the two team's pits was upbeat, from the two drivers to CJM's co-owner, Tony Mullet.

"We'd talked to Jason about going in a different direction in '09," Mullet said Saturday at Dover. "And so as we talked through that with him, I said, 'anything that we can do to support you, moving forward, we want to do -- whatever that may be.'"

Even if he was caught by surprise, Keller didn't take long to come up with a solution. In fact, it's somewhat ironic that of all the starts Keller's made in the last two seasons in the Nationwide Series, he's made them for two teams: CJM and Baker Curb Racing, which a year ago operated as Brewco Motorsports. (Continued)