Kelly Bires tonight on ESPN 2

[woody53]

Had to laugh when I read the Wood Brothers website yesterday. Kelly qualified 21st last weekend, but started farther back. Explaination given was that he missed the drivers meeting. Nascar came back and apologized to them saying they got Bires and Robby Gordon confused. ROBBY GORDON?  :shock: He has to be twice as wide as Kelly. Bires needs to work with his PR guy more to make him more recognizable. :wink:

[millert]

They just need to look for the cauliflour ear.  The car on Monday will be the #27 Air Force Ford, Kelly said.

[woody53]

Is it Monday or Tuesday, T?

[woody53]

Kelly runs a 31.9 in qualifying. A half second faster than he practiced at Kansas. He is in the top 20 right now. Lets see where he will start.

[woody53]

Kelly will start 21st today. Sixth fastest of the Busch Series regulars. Fifteen Cup regulars in the top 20.

[woody53]

Great opening of the race for Bires. He has run as high as 11th and is showing to be real racy today in some good head to head with Tony Stewart.

[woody53]

Huge hit into the turn two wall for Bires. Knocked the rear end housing right out of the car. Glad to see him walk away with no problems. Not the day he wanted but was having a good run.

[millert]

Monday
11:30 to 2:00 at high school

Tuesday
4:00-5:30 Main street Lyndon Station

[bigoil]

Woody,

Do drivers get paid a salary? Work their own endorsements?

I noticed for this weekends race Kelly is listed as $21K. Is that the team winnings? That can't come close to covering costs, heck first place was about $65K.

[woody53]

For every driver, it is a little different. Most drivers do get a base salary with a bonus or percentage of the winnings. Most of the time it can be as simple as X amount of dollars for a win, X amount for a top 5, top 10, etc.  As you can tell the prize money for the Busch series, and for the Cup for that matter, really doesn't begin to cover costs of the operation of a race team. That is why the sponsor money is so important.
The endorsements can be through the team, or if you are a big name like Gordon or Earnhardt, you can write your own ticket. However even those guys have major restrictions on what they can and can't do. Most driver's contracts now have a every extensive penalty section that covers what should happen if they stray from the restrictions.
Earnhardt, Gordon, etc., are very marketable, and make millions more in endorsements than they do in driving.
The winnings listed for placement is the teams winnings.

[woody53]

Thanks for the hospitality up at the store today millert. I was able to schedule my day around making it up to Lyndon Station. Also, thank you and thank Kelly for the shirt and cap. Great looking stock car. The hydralic body was cool to see to make the show car easier to load and unload. I think I found a new ideal retirement job. Taking race cars around the country for show.

[woody53]

Bires will start 30th tonight at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte. There are 19 Cup regulars starting in front of him. Lets see a good night for Kelly.

[woody53]

Bires comes home with another top ten run, finishing in 9th place. Ran as high as 5th. Top eight, all Cup drivers. Kelly was the highest Busch driver. Nice job.

[woody53]

For you racing fans. We talked about one of Kelly's cars being in Lyndon Station a while back. Matt Kenseth's, Carhardt, show car will be in Sauk City at McFarland's today, Oct. 16, from 2:00 until 7:00.

[millert]

Woody

Talked to Kelly and he said he was losing major tire the last few laps.  They figured he had less then 3 laps left before it would have went.  He felt he could have gotten in the top 4 if he could have ran the car the way he wanted.  He said there were actually chunks that broke off the tire and threads were showing.  Awesome run though.