Bires Qualifies 18th At Talladega
Kelly Bires has qualified in a solid 18th position for tomorrow’s Aaron’s 312 after qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama today.
Bires achieved his best qualifying performance so far on a superspeedway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, making the #47 Clorox Ford Fusion the fourth fastest Ford.
Bires is taking a conservative approach in tomorrow’s race, looking to make a steady start to avoid trouble before moving forward in the latter stages, aiming to hold his position in the top 10 in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings.
Tony Stewart earned pole position for the Aaron’s 312 ahead of Mike Bliss and Jason Leffer.
Kelly Bires - #47 Clorox Ford Fusion
“That’s a pretty good run from us and we are about where we expected to be,” said Bires.
“We did a single car run in practice to see where we we’re at and today in qualifying we backed that up.
“We’ve got a pretty good car and we’re not far off the fastest Ford in qualifying. That’s what we are judging ourselves on in qualifying each week and today we’re not far off the #60 in 11th.
“It’s tough to say how our car is going to run in the draft because we played it pretty conservative in practice and didn’t really run in the big pack. We just stayed in a pack of five or six cars.
“I think we’ve got a solid package. We’re just going to run conservative because we really want to finish. The biggest thing this weekend is not to tear up a car.
“We’ll run a nice, smooth first half of the race and stay out of trouble and then move forward and shoot for a top 15 in the last part of the race.”
RESULTS: Qualifying
1. #20 Tony Stewart 51.676
2. #1 Mike Bliss 51.745
3. #38 Jason Leffler 51.768
4. #40 Dario Franchitti 51.809
5. #88 Brad Keselowski 51.917
6. #2 Clint Bowyer 51.944
7. #5 Dale Earnhardt Jr 51.958
8. #18 Kyle Busch 51.969
9. #33 Cale Gale 51.984
10. #32 Denny Hamlin 51.984
18. #47 Kelly Bires 52.266
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
2008 NNS Prizemoney after 9 races:
Kelly Bires: US$298,002
RACE SCHEDULE
Local Alabama (US Central) Times
Race – 117 laps
Saturday 26 April 2008
2:00pm US Central
3:00pm US Eastern
UNITED STATES TV SCHEDULE
Saturday 26 April 2008
ABC
2:30pm US Eastern
ABOUT TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
Location: Talladega, Alabama
Track Length: 2.66 miles
Race Distance: 117 laps – 311.22 miles
Degree of Banking in Turns: 33 degrees
Degree of Banking in Front Straight: 16.5 degrees
Degree of Banking in Back Straight: 2 degrees
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES RECORD BOOK
Defending Nationwide Race Winner: Bobby Labonte
Defending Nationwide Polesitter: Brad Coleman
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