Kelly Bires tonight on ESPN 2

[woody53]

Thanks Tom, I know thats been a good car for him. Has kelly said who the sponsors are for next year? I thought I saw that Clorox would be back and The Red Cross, but Armor-All was gone.

[millert]

Clorox will be the big one.  I believe they donate the Red Cross space on the car.  At least they did this year I think.  Haven't heard much on others though.  I good finish on Saturday will help.

[woody53]

Kelly had a couple of pretty good practices down at Homestead/Miami Speedway. He is about a half second slower than Kasey Kahne who was the fastest. He picked up a little over 4/10 of a second from the first practice.

[woody53]

Bires qualifies right where he practiced, 24th.

[woody53]

Twenty five laps into the 200 laps and Bires is running in 16th.

[woody53]

Only 45 laps left and he is running in 8th right now. They still need to cycle through the last round of pit stops.

[woody53]

Great run for Kelly. Bad luck in the fact that a caution came out during green flag pit stops. It put Bires at the end of the lead lap, with a bunch of cars that he had passed earlier, in front of him. Thats racing. Still a great finish in 20th. He has to feel good about next year.

[woody53]

Do you all realize that Kelly had $495,000.00 in winnings for this year. His first in the NASCAR level. Granted that he did not recieve that amount, he probably got between 49,000 to 59,000, in his own pocket. (Just a guess from what I know of contracts) That is a great start. I will be the first to say that I questioned his choice to go racing, over the offers for wrestling in college. He is a great example of an individual who has chased his dream.

As wrestlers, we all need to remember to chase our dreams. They can happen. I grew up with two goals. To become a state wrestling champ, and to race professionaly. I was not good enough for either, but I have been blesssed at being a coach and to race on amateur level.

Well done this year Kelly. We will be watching you for many years to come, no matter what level you are racing at.

[woody53]

I know we all are wrapped up in our season, but for those who want to know, Kelly takes to the track for the first time this season, today down at Daytona. It is the open day for preseason testing for the new Nationwide Series (old Busch Series).

[woody53]

Nice way to wrap up testing for Bires, at Daytona, as he had the fifth fast lap of the day with a 182 mph lap this afternoon.

[WISCwrestlingfan]

Yeah, the NASCAR season will be here in no time...

   * Sat, Feb 9 is the Bud Shoot-Out, and

   * Sun, Feb 17 is the Daytona 500.

[woody53]

Monday afternoon's session had him still in the top ten in speeds with a 183.5 mph lap. In fact, his teammate, Marcos Ambrose, jumped into the top ten also.

[woody53]

If you go to Nascar.com right now and look under the Test Speed Charts, there is a nice side by side picture of Bires and his teammate on the high banks from yesterday.

[WISCwrestlingfan]

NASCAR's Bud Shootout is Saturday and Daytona is only 10 days away!  

[woody53]

Kelly's new website is up this week. Just go to kellybires.com