Kelly Bires gets one race deal with KHI

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Kelly Bires has run well at Nashville Superspeedway, and Kevin Harvick Inc. is one of the hottest teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. So Bires is looking forward to a one-race opportunity with KHI this weekend as he steps in the No. 33 car for the race at Nashville.

“It’s just a great opportunity, and I’m going to have to take advantage of it,” the 24-year-old Bires said. “To be able to get into a car which is one of the fastest cars in the series this year week in and week out is a great opportunity for me to showcase what I can do.”

Bires, who knows KHI crew chief Ernie Cope well because they both have worked for what is now JTG Daugherty Racing, said he had been talking with team co-owner Kevin Harvick about the possibility of driving the team’s car for a couple of months.

The Cope-led team won the Nationwide race at Bristol three weeks ago with Harvick at the wheel and then finished second last week with Tony Stewart at Texas.

“They have their stuff scienced out,” Bires said. “It’s just a matter of getting in the car and going. It’s nothing new for them. They go to the race track prepared as usual. That’s what it takes. The races are won back at the shop.”

The first time Bires will sit in a car for KHI, which has secured sponsorship from Charter this weekend, will be for practice Friday.

“I don’t change anything that I do,” Bires said. “I go to the track and see what I do during practice, get the balance of the car right, whatever it is in qualifying it is and we’ll be ready to race Saturday.”

The Wisconsin native is still under contract with JTG Daugherty Racing, where he drove 26 races in the Nationwide and Truck series in 2007 and then finished 13th in the Nationwide standings last season. The team did not have sponsorship for him this year. Michael McDowell was able to secure funding and is driving the No. 47 car this year.

Bires has driven a couple of races for Braun Racing in its third car this season. He also attempted the Daytona 500 with BlackJack Racing, owned by Wisconsin racer Dexter Bean’s family.

Bires will be one of several drivers in the No. 33 car this year. Harvick and Stewart already have driven for the team, and Ron Hornaday and Cale Gale are expected to drive the car later in the year. The team is fourth in owners points, just 48 out of the top spot.

While Bires is hopeful that a good run could lead to more opportunities with KHI, he said he doesn’t know where his next race will be or for whom he will drive after this weekend.

“This [at KHI] is the next opportunity that came about,” Bires said. “It’s the only one I’m looking at right now. When it comes Sunday, that is when I’ll be looking at my next opportunity. … JTG is still searching for sponsorship to run me and I’m still under contract with them.

“It’s just the way things are. I got the ability to get into this equipment and it was just a great opportunity to work out something with Kevin. … The biggest thing that I look at right now is just go week to week and try to get something lined up for 2010. Just waiting for a break, you know?”

~Scene Daily

I hope he does well. I'd like to see him back full time.

I'd like to see it turn into more then a one race deal.

Good Luck Kelly!!!!!

It's good to see Kelly get this opportunity after he got pushed out at JTG Racing.