Sat Mar 22 18:02:13 2008

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Wimmer a winner in Nashville

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Lebanon, TN (Sports Network) - Scott Wimmer's fuel lasted just long enough to reach the checkered flag and capture Saturday's Pepsi 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway. The No.29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.578 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer.

The victory was Wimmer's first in 58 races and sixth of his Nationwide career. His last victory was in July 2003 at Pikes Peak.

"I can't believe its been that long," said Wimmer. "These guys did a great job, they really build great race cars every week."

Wimmer made the winning pass with 20 laps to go while both he and Bowyer were trying to conserve fuel. From there it was just a matter of keeping the engine running all the way to the checkered flag. It did and Wimmer won by half-a- second.

Pole winner, Kyle Busch, wasn't just satisfied with leading the first lap, he kept on going leading the first 61 laps. His lead over Bowyer was two second after 40 laps and he kept that gap until the first round of yellow-flag pit stops began at lap 62. It was there that the No.2 team outperformed the No.20 team, putting Bowyer in front of Busch as the race restarted on lap 64.

But it took Busch only about a lap and a half to slide underneath Bowyer to retake the top spot. Then Bowyer returned the favor on lap 72, showing he was more than ready to meet the challenge.

The two continued to joust with each other while still managing to build a three-second lead on third-place driver Wimmer. But by lap 110, Busch built a lead over Bowyer of more than one second. He had also lapped all but the top-19 cars.

The leaders began green flag pit stops on lap 122. Busch came in on lap 124 holding a two-second lead on Bowyer.

By lap 150, there were just a dozen cars left on the lead lap. A caution flag eliminated his lead and then Busch spun out on lap 162, without any help from anyone else.

"Just a stupid mistake on the driver's part," said Busch.

So Bowyer inherited the lead, but Wimmer was hanging right with him every step of the way. Forty laps to go and Bowyer built his lead on Wimmer to almost one second. But the question was whether the leaders could reach the checkered flag without another pit stop. They were all "close" on fuel.

Twenty laps to go, no caution flags, and all the crew chiefs were still worried about reaching the finish without stopping. Wimmer closed to less half-a-second of Bowyer as they hit lap 204. On the next lap he slid underneath Bowyer grabbing the lead.

A dozen laps to go and Wimmer's lead was half-a-second. The laps dwindled down and Wimmer maintained his gap on Bowyer. They saw the white flag and still the No.29 Chevy engine was running. He saw the checkered flag under full power - the fuel had lasted just long enough for his first win in five years.

"He had the best car that last run," said Bowyer.

Bowyer's second-place finish leaves him as the points leader, 11 points ahead of Carl Edwards, who finished third. Brad Keselowski and Kelly Bires completed the top-five.

The next race is scheduled for Saturday, April 5th at the Texas Motor Speedway.