Wimmer Ends Five-Year Winless Drought, Scores RCR’s Second Straight Nationwide Victory

LEBANON, Tenn. — For the second-consecutive week, Richard Childress Racing visited victory lane in the NASCAR Nationwide Series after Scott Wimmer broke a five-year winless streak Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway.
Wimmer has been under the RCR umbrella for two seasons, but despite the No. 29 team collecting five victories in 2007, it was the first for Wimmer with the team. His last triumph came in July of 2003 at the now defunct Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway.
His win came on the heels of Childress’s domination in Nationwide and Sprint Cup series competition at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Jeff Burton, who shares the No. 29 Chevrolet with Wimmer, led RCR to a dominant finish in the Cup race, sweeping the top three spots, while Clint Bowyer, who finished second at Nashville, won the Nationwide Series race at Bristol.
Bowyer appeared headed to victory courtesy of a mistake by Kyle Busch, who dominated the race, until Wimmer made his winning pass of his teammate on lap 205 of the 225-lap race on the 1.33-mile speedway.
“I felt like we let three or four races get away from us last year including this one, so it was nice to get the job done today,” Wimmer said.
Busch led 125 laps before getting sideways and sliding off of the track on lap 163. Upon coming back on the track, Busch made light contact with Bowyer. Busch finished two laps down in 16th.

HOLIDAY ROAD: Scott Wimmer leads a pack of cars during Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn. (HHP/Erik Perel Photo)

“We were probably a third place car there. I wasn’t sure what the 20 (the lapped car of Busch) was going to do. We were using a lot of tires up trying to get by. Fortunately, he got out of the way and let me challenge Clint for the lead and eventually the win,” Wimmer said of the closing laps of the event.
“There wasn’t really much racing with Scott. I don’t know if when Kyle hit me it bent the rear end or whatever. The car got really, really tight after that. I just didn’t have anything for him,” Bowyer said.
It was Bowyer’s fourth-consecutive runner-up finish at Nashville.
As the laps wound down, many teams questioned the longevity of their fuel run. David Reutimann and Jason Leffler were among those within the top 10 forced to pit with less than 10 laps remaining.
Wimmer and Bowyer were conserving as well with Wimmer’s engine beginning to skip during his victory celebration. Carl Edwards finished third and Brad Keselowski was fourth.
Kelly Bires posted his career-best finish, crossing the line fifth.
David Stremme and Denny Hamlin slid into sixth and seventh, while Cale Gale was the highest finishing rookie of the race, coming home as the last car on the lead lap in eighth.
After his pit stop, Reutimann drove back to finish ninth. Nashville native Bobby Hamilton, Jr. closed out the top 10.
Bowyer holds an 11-point lead over defending series champion Edwards in the standings.