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JR Motorsports newcomer Kelly Bires hopes hardest year of racing is behind him
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Kelly Bires has signed a two-year contract to drive for JR Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
LaDon George
NASCAR Scene
Kelly Bires was sitting outside the JR Motorsports hauler last Friday afternoon wishing he was racing a car, frustrated over a year where he has truly raced only four times in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
The impatient Bires will just have to wait a little longer before he’s back racing on a regular basis.
After spending 2007 running 26 races in the Nationwide and Truck series for JTG/Wood Brothers Racing and then a full 2008 in Nationwide where he finished 13th in the standings for JTG Daugherty Racing, the 25-year-old Bires did not have a full-time ride this year.
But after a year of frustration, the Wisconsin native has a full-time Nationwide ride for 2010 after signing a two-year contract with JR Motorsports.
“This was the hardest year of racing I have ever had,” Bires said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I’ve had years when I was back home Late Model racing on my own, building cars and finding sponsorship, basically living off the credit card to be able to go racing.
“And whatever your winnings were at the end of the night for that race, that’s how you paid your tire bill for that week. And if you tore your car up, you weren’t going to be racing the following week. I’ve had some hard times. That was plenty hard I thought. But this year has been by far more difficult. It’s just part of racing, the ups and downs, and whoever is strong survives.”
Bires got one of the biggest highs in racing when he got a phone call from Dale Earnhardt Jr. about a month ago asking Bires if he was interested in replacing Brad Keselowski, who is leaving for a Sprint Cup ride at Penske Racing. It has not been determined whether Bires will drive the No. 5 or the No. 88 (or both) for JR Motorsports, but he will compete for the series championship in 2010.
“It’s just a huge opportunity to work with an organization like JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports, and to be able to go to a situation where we can run for a championship out of the box next year is going to be huge,” Bires said.
At the times when he has needed to perform this year, Bires has. He drove for Kevin Harvick Inc. at Nashville and finished fourth. He followed that with a 10th-place finish for KHI at Kentucky. He was then fifth at Iowa in a Braun Racing car and had a good run going for CJM Racing before an engine failure ended his day a few weeks ago at Atlanta.
“Just being able to jump in with new teams, new people and not knowing what they’ve got and to make the most out of every situation added to it – I think everyone has seen when I did get in a car to run the full race, the ability that I had and I deserved an opportunity,” Bires said.
While his performance this year showed he could run with the series elite, Bires said it’s been the racing he has done since 2007 that will help him thrive with JR Motorsports.
“It’s prepared me in the fact that it’s really proven me as a driver to the other drivers on the track – the give-and-take and all that stuff,” Bires said. “It earns you respect in the garage area as a driver.
“It’s helped introduce me into the sport to where I have better knowledge of how it works, how it runs and am more comfortable. I just know how this circus runs, and I think it’s prepared me for an opportunity where I can go to JR Motorsports and excel and never look back.”
After the year he’s had, Bires isn’t too concerned about being in the spotlight driving for JR Motorsports. He said it will take a lot of hard work to be successful and while he knows that Earnhardt Jr.’s team gets extra attention, he isn’t expecting that to impact results.
“That [attention] doesn’t get to me,” Bires said. “I know the ability I’ve got and the team that I’m working with. I know that we’re just going to excel.”
Having the spotlight on him is probably better than being in the shadows of the sport. This year has been more than just about racing for Bires. He’s had to work the sponsorship angle as well as he sought to find a ride.
“I was working on sponsorship deals … [that] I could bring to teams,” Bires said. “If there was any way I could get in first-class equipment, that is what I was going to do. To be honest with you, 2009 has been way busier than any full-time year I have ever had.
“The feeling of not knowing and just the amount of work and effort that I had to put in to make something happen – there’s no regular schedule. It’s been whatever you got to do to survive. When you’re in a car full time, you have a schedule you can live by and it goes pretty smooth. This year, if something came about, I had to do it and it put everything else on hold. It took a lot of energy out of me, but it feels good that it paid off.”
Bires is going back home to Wisconsin this weekend with a much different attitude then he had one year ago during a weekend off in the Nationwide Series schedule.
“Going into Richmond a year ago, we knew we didn’t have a sponsor for the next year and the last 10 races were being run well under-funded just to get through the end of the year,” Bires said. “We knew we had to make the most out of every opportunity we could. We actually ran extremely well the last 10 of last year.
“Just knowing going into the next year we didn’t have anything, it was not a good feeling going into the offseason. I chose to work hard and to do what was necessary and when I did get opportunities, I knew I could perform. Bottom line, that’s all it was. If I didn’t perform, opportunities probably weren’t going to come about for 2010. So I put a lot of pressure on myself, worked really hard and am thankful it came through.”
Mentioned Drivers:
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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Comments
12 responses to "JR Motorsports newcomer Kelly Bires hopes hardest year of racing is behind him". Post a Comment.
Ash said:
Sep 15, 2009 at 8:56 PMAmazing how JRM and Hendrick had a driver with the very same hardships this year in house, yet they went out of house to get another driver. Only difference is their new driver was free, the other driver had a contract with Hendrick that didn't allow him to say or do anything. And now Hendrick passes him up. Great Work Rick and Dale Jr, you likely ruined a good drivers career.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdale-jr-is-the-greatest-driver-alive said:
Sep 15, 2009 at 10:13 PMyea good luck too kelly but you gotta feel bad for london cassil who knows maybe they have plans for him that we dont know off yet
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» Confirm Abuse Reporttinynascarfan said:
Sep 15, 2009 at 11:40 PMnow wait a minute ash, i like landon cassil but he is what 19 now? and i dont want to argue but im gonna make my points, cassil ran a hendrick car for a year and won nothing, bires ran for a small budget JTG team and won nothing, but who ran better? Who tore up more cars? in this economy that is a big question.if i owned a small team with little budget and i had to choose between the two, i would have to take bires, he has driven his own equiptment and knows how much cost and work it is to fix cars. I think bires is the favorite for the championship next year, but landon cassil is a long way from done in this sport, last year was the last year that teenagers will make a huge impact in the sport, with david reutimann and marcos ambrose a couple of middle aged drivers in the top 20 and contending for wins, it looks like the sport maybe heading down a slightly different road for a year or two, which could give drivers like casey atwood another shot at the big time. but cassil has 20 years to reach reutimann's age, he is a long way from done!
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» Confirm Abuse ReportCarol-88-fan said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 7:17 AMIf you want to blame someone it's sponsors. For some reason they couldn't get sponsorship for Landon. They tried last year for the 5 car but the sponsors wanted Jr, Tony, Ryan, Mark and Scott. Rick and Jr are running a business, they aren't going to spend their own money.I would like to see Landon get a ride.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportAsh said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 11:03 AMCarol, Landon had a sponsor and Dale JR took it away from him. So he had no ride and couldn't say anything because it said he couldn't in his contract. So now Dale Jr screws him again and he still cant say anything.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportmom said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 3:37 PMLook to Jr's partner for the blame. Cassill didn't have a contract with Jr, he had one with Rick.
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» Confirm Abuse Reportgwen_susie388 said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 5:05 PMI think it's great that Kelly Bires is getting this opportunity! He has certainly worked hard to get to where he is now. I hope he does well at Jr. Motorsports!
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdale-jr-is-the-greatest-driver-alive said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 7:11 PMlandon is what 19 hell have plenty of chances at junior motorsports who know maybe in the future theyle grow the team upp to 4 sometime in the future(5 years from now) and london will proly be garanteed a spot too see how he does
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» Confirm Abuse Reportdale-jr-is-the-greatest-driver-alive said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 7:12 PMall i know is im gonna mis bradK jumping out that car after a great finish its gonna be different
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» Confirm Abuse ReportMrWalleye2U said:
Sep 16, 2009 at 8:53 PMJr if you want back in VL have Pops be your cc instead od wasting HMS time building you cars you can't seem to drive.
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» Confirm Abuse ReportLCFANIA1 said:
Sep 17, 2009 at 11:46 AMLandon Cassill actually did quite well when you look at his first road course, and his first race at a big speed way - Talladega. He was also Rookie of the Year. In addition he represented the future of Nascar by being sent to the Goodwill Festival of Speed a few months ago. I have heard he has been working with Mark Martin in his race shop this year. I could be wrong but I don't think it is only sponsorship - I think they are buying some time with him. He has tested Jeff Gordon's race cars for years and Gordon is obviously not getting out of the race car anytime soon. If HMS was going to let him go I think they'd have done it earlier this year. I suspect they are hanging onto him and buying some time. Hopefully we will see him race again in the future. Maybe HMS will work out a truck deal for him - maybe with Kevin Harvick?
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» Confirm Abuse Reportbb6451 said:
Sep 19, 2009 at 11:25 PMLandon Cassill's name was mentioned by Dale Jr as a possible driver for JR Motorsports for the 2010 season as resent as this weekend while in New Hampshire for the next Sprint Cup race. His desire is to have two full-time Nationwide drivers in 2010. It will all depend on sponsorships.
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» Confirm Abuse Report