Taking advantage of the first ‘stand-alone' NASCAR Nationwide Series event of the year and the fewer number of invading Cup Series drivers Scott Wimmer raced to victory in Saturday's Pepsi 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway.
Wimmer took advantage of another mistake from Kyle Busch to claim his first NWS victory in some five years but still had to fend off the challenge of half a dozen Cup drivers in the 225-lap race around the 1.33-mile concrete surfaced Nashville oval.
Busch, who has dominated the series thus far in terms of laps led, looked on course for victory until a crash with less than 60 laps remaining took him out of contention. Wimmer, who helped his #29 Richard Childress Racing team to last year's owners championship, then had to overcome his RCR teammate Clint Bowyer before taking the chequered flag for his sixth career Busch/Nationwide Series win.
Bowyer held on for second place with defending series champion Carl Edwards third, Brad Keselowski fourth and Kelly Bires an impressive fifth for the JTG Racing team.
David Stremme, Denny Hamlin, Cale Gale, David Reutimann and Bobby Hamilton Jr completed the top ten. Busch wound up 16th after his crash while Australian driver Marcos Ambrose finished three laps down in 23rd.
With erstwhile points leader Kevin Harvick sitting out this race Bowyer takes over the title lead by eleven points over Edwards with Reutimann third, David Ragan in fourth and the first of the non Cup drivers, veteran Mike Bliss, in fifth.
crash.net
Wimmer took advantage of another mistake from Kyle Busch to claim his first NWS victory in some five years but still had to fend off the challenge of half a dozen Cup drivers in the 225-lap race around the 1.33-mile concrete surfaced Nashville oval.
Busch, who has dominated the series thus far in terms of laps led, looked on course for victory until a crash with less than 60 laps remaining took him out of contention. Wimmer, who helped his #29 Richard Childress Racing team to last year's owners championship, then had to overcome his RCR teammate Clint Bowyer before taking the chequered flag for his sixth career Busch/Nationwide Series win.
Bowyer held on for second place with defending series champion Carl Edwards third, Brad Keselowski fourth and Kelly Bires an impressive fifth for the JTG Racing team.
David Stremme, Denny Hamlin, Cale Gale, David Reutimann and Bobby Hamilton Jr completed the top ten. Busch wound up 16th after his crash while Australian driver Marcos Ambrose finished three laps down in 23rd.
With erstwhile points leader Kevin Harvick sitting out this race Bowyer takes over the title lead by eleven points over Edwards with Reutimann third, David Ragan in fourth and the first of the non Cup drivers, veteran Mike Bliss, in fifth.
crash.net