Race/Date:  Scotts Turf Builder 300 / March 20, 2010

Location:  Bristol Motor Speedway

Start Position: 19th

Finish Position: 10th

The JR Motorsports brigade of Scott Wimmer and Kelly Bires both turned in exceptional efforts in Saturday's Scott's Turf Builder 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Wimmer made his 2010 Nationwide Series debut in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in impressive fashion, leading 21 laps, the most by any JRM driver in 2010, and maintaining a position inside the top 10 for most of the day. Wimmer went on to finish 10th, earning the No. 7 Chevrolet its first top-10 finish of the year. Kelly Bires qualified the Hellmann's Chevrolet in third place - his best start of the year - and rebounded from a mid-race accident to finish 12th. Penske Racing teammates Justin Allgaier and Brad Keselowski dueled for the lead in the closing laps, but Allgaier prevailed, earning his first career Nationwide Series win. Following the pair to the line were Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick to round out the top-five finishers.

No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Key Moments
Start - 19th
Finish - 10th
Laps Led - 21
Points - 139
Owner Point Standings - 30th

In his first Nationwide Series race of the year, and 200th of his career, Wimmer qualified 19th and by lap 45 broke inside the top 15. Crew chief, Tony Eury Jr. made the call to keep the No. 7 out on the track during a caution on lap 91, cycling Wimmer into the lead when the leaders came to pit road. He took the restart in first place and led the ensuing 21 laps, the first laps he'd led since driving a JRM Chevrolet in 2009, and the second highest number he's led at Bristol.

Wimmer used the critical track position to maintain a spot with the front runners for most of the race's final 200 laps. At one point, Wimmer fell back to 12th, but his short-track expertise paid off and he rallied to break back inside the top 10 and finished 10th.

"I'm honored they asked me to drive the JR Motorsports Chevrolet," Wimmer said. "We had a good day today. We were able to get the important track position and we did our best to maintain it. The pit crew had great stops all day and Tony Jr. made some key calls from atop the pit box. I'm looking forward to Nashville in a couple weeks and optimistic we can have another solid run."

Wimmer's 10th-place showing marked the No. 7 Chevrolet's best finish of the year. The 21 laps led were the most of any JRM driver in 2010. Wimmer will return to pilot the No. 7 Chevrolet at Nashville Superspeedway in two weeks.

No. 88 Hellmann's Chevrolet Key Moments
Start - 3rd
Finish - 12th
Laps Led - 0
Points - 127
Owner Point Standings - 19th

Kelly Bires earned his best starting spot of the season when he qualified the Hellmann's Chevrolet third for the 300-mile race. Bires maintained a steady pace in the early stages of the race and narrowly avoided a fiery multi-car crash on lap 90 with quick reaction time. Bires stayed out under the ensuing caution and took the lap 95 restart in second place, behind leader and JRM teammate, Scott Wimmer. Contact to the rear bumper of the No. 88 by the 18 of Kyle Busch on lap 146 sent the Hellmann's Chevrolet spinning and into the outside retaining wall. The rear-end damage was heavy, but the Hellmann's crew pitted twice to make repairs. After the accident, Bires restarted in 28th and remarkably over the next 90 laps worked his way back toward the front and returned the Hellmann's Chevrolet to the top 10 by lap 240. In the closing laps, Bires had a top-10 finish in his sights, running ninth with three laps to go, but was hit from behind by the No. 10 of Jason Leffler. Bires held on to finish 12th.

"It was a long race for this Hellmann's team today," said Bires. "This is just a product of racing at Bristol. I can't say enough about how this team battled back though. We got spun out halfway through the race, and the crew did a great job getting the Hellmann's Chevy fixed back up. Obviously, the car didn't drive the same after that, but we were still able to run in the top 10 and get a decent finish out of it."

Next Up for JR Motorsports:

Event: Nashville 300 at Nashville Superspeedway
Date: Saturday, April 3 / 3:30 p.m. EST
TV/Radio: ESPN (coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. EST) / MRN(broadcast begins at 3:30 p.m. EST)
JRM Entries: No. 88 Suave MEN Chevy (Kelly Bires), No. 7 Lifetime Army Wives Chevrolet (Scott Wimmer)