Bires Shows Grit and Potential In Road Course Debut

Kelly Bires has turned in a commendable performance in his NASCAR road course debut in the Corona Mexico 200 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City today.

Bires was classified in 31st position at the end of the 80-lap race, but that result does not reflect the effort and potential shown by the 23-year-old in today’s race.

Bires ran in the top five in the #47 Clorox Ford Fusion for a good portion of the race, acquitting himself well against accomplished road course racers and NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars alike. Bires was as high as third position at one stage and in the hunt for a strong finish.

Pit strategy and a series of cautions did not aid Bires’ cause, seeing him fall down the order. Bires charge was eventually ended by transmission troubles, leading the Wisconsin native to finish one lap down in 31st position.

Bires maintains his position in the top 10 in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings after today’s ninth race of the season, with race 10 at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.

Kelly Bires - #47 Clorox Ford Fusion

“Well, we were going to have a good day,” said Bires.

“We had our pit strategy worked out where we would have easily have been a top 15 car if the cautions didn’t come. All those cautions at the end of the race hurt us.

“We still would have been a top 20 car and probably finished 15th or so and just broke the clutch.

“I think it was with one lap to go, down the back short shoot and just lost the clutch. There’s nothing you can do. It was a part failure.

“Otherwise we did a good job. My first road race, I learned a ton. We’ll come back and go to Montreal and we’ll be a lot better.”

“I am pleased with how we ran. But I’m disappointed in the end result with our finish, because it we should have had a solid day. It hurt us in points, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

“We ran hard all day and we were on the track all day. We did everything we needed to do. We just didn’t get the luck on the last two laps to get to the end. Otherwise it was a good day.

“I just concentrated on hitting my marks and driving smooth. Road racing is all about being smooth and consistent. We had a pretty darn good car at the end we got a little bit free on both left-handers and right-handers which slowed us down a little bit, but it was a pretty solid car all day.

“It was good enough to be a top 15 car. We’ll learn from this, go to Montreal and be that much better.”

RESULTS: Corona Mexico 200 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Race 9 of the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series
1. #20 Kyle Busch 80 laps
2. #59 Marcos Ambrose
3. #40 Scott Pruett
4. #60 Carl Edwards
5. #9 Patrick Carpentier
6. #2 Clint Bowyer
7. #29 Scott Wimmer
8. #88 Brad Keselowski
9. #1 Mike Bliss
10. #66 Steve Wallace
31. #47 Kelly Bires 79 laps

RESULTS: Qualifying
1. #16 Colin Braun 88.217
2. #40 Scott Pruett 88.307
3. #60 Carl Edwards 88.432
4. #59 Marcos Ambrose 88.600
5. #25 Boris Said 88.805
6. #20 Kyle Busch 88.939
7. #9 Patrick Carpentier 89.067
8. #2 Clint Bowyer 89.090
9. #111 Jason Keller 89.119
10. #86 Antonio Perez 89.160
18. #47 Kelly Bires 89.510

2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Standings - After Race 9 of 35
1. Clint Bowyer 1339
2. Car Edwards 1330
3. Kyle Busch 1273
4. David Reutimann 1192
5. David Ragan 1165
6. Brad Keselowski 1153
7. Mike Bliss 1136
8. Jason Leffler 1062
9. Mike Wallace 1036
10. Kelly Bires 1008