Kelly Bires Looking To Avoid Trouble At Bristol Motor Speedway

Second-year driver Kelly Bires brings his No. 47 Clorox Ford to Thunder Valley this weekend, otherwise known as the legendary Bristol Motor Speedway. Known as one of the toughest—and exciting places to race, drivers tend to spend as much time avoiding trouble as finding Victory Lane.

Kelly Bires streaks into the ½ mile bullring on the heels of a 12th place finish last weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. The finish marks the third time in four weeks that the No. 47 Clorox Ford finished in the top-15. He only had four finishes in the top-15 in all of 2007. Improvement has definitely been on the team’s menu so far this year, and they’re looking to order up another round of success this Saturday during the Sharpie MINI 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series event.

Crew Chief Scott Zipadelli has selected Chassis No. 28 for this weekend’s event. This short track car has seen action in one event last year—the fall Dover event in which Bires was forced to start at the rear of the field after mistakenly being accused of missing the pre-race driver’s meeting. Bires still drove the No. 47 Clorox Ford up to 12th place in the running order before an accident, not of his making, ended the day.

Bires has one start at the Bristol Motor Speedway, a 34th place start with a 29th place finish, coming last year in August. Bires learned a lot of lessons that night—primarily, the need to avoid trouble to do well at the end of the day.

Though the No. 47 Clorox Ford team continues to ride a crest of optimism, success and confidence so far this year, there is no place like Bristol Motor Speedway to tear down the most carefully-prepared plans. Kelly Bires & Company will no doubt have to keep their guard up.

WHAT THE TEAM HAS TO SAY:
Kelly Bires, Driver of the No. 47 Clorox Ford:
“I’ve been waiting to get back to Bristol since I left the parking lot last August. It took us the whole race just to figure out what we needed to run well and be competitive. And you have to worry about survival on top of how the car is running. But lately the cars have been so good, that we should be able to outrun the trouble spots out there. The car we’re bringing is great, it handles well and I really like it.

I think that everything has really been coming together for the Clorox team this year. We’re competitive—we’ve been bringing top-10 cars to the track every week and we easily could have had four top-10 finishes. Since we don’t, that’s what we’re continuing to shoot for. It’s going to be a lot of fun Saturday.”

Scott Zipadelli, Crew Chief of the No. 47 Clorox Ford:
“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far this year. I do think that we’ve brought a top-10 running race car to the track every week. We’ve had the time—and luxury—to plan things, and execute. We’re not playing catch up right now, but that can all change on a week-to-week basis. Kelly has been running very well and we’ve been getting excellent feedback on setting up our cars at the track and back at the shop.

Chassis 28 is a pretty good little car for us. We passed a lot of cars at Dover last year using it and I hope we can pass a lot of cars here [Bristol], too. Bristol is tough. Things can change in an instant. I think Kelly’s got some great reaction time and he’ll have to be on top of that kind of effort come Saturday.”

FAST & FUN FACTS:
-Kelly Bires finished 12th last week in the Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The No. 47 Clorox Ford team has three finishes inside the top-15 in four 2008 events. They had a total of four in all of last year.
-Kelly Bires will drive the No. 47 Clorox Ford in Saturday’s Sharpie MINI 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
-The No. 47 Clorox team will be taking Chassis No. 28 as their primary Bristol car. Chassis 28 was previously used at Dover International Raceway last September.
-Qualifying for the Sharpie MINI 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway is slated for Saturday, 9:40 a.m. EDT and will be shown live on the SPEED Channel.

NEXT EVENT NEWS:
WHERE: Bristol Motor Speedway; Bristol, TN
WHAT: Sharpie MINI 300 (300 laps, 160 miles)
WHEN: March 15th, 2008; 2:00 p.m. EDT
NETWORK: ABC Network; PRN & Sirius Satellite Radio Networks