BIRES AND CLOROX TEAM LOOK TO LAS VEGAS FOR REBOUND AND REDEMPTION

After a disappointing finish in the Stater Bros. 300 at California Speedway on Monday, Kelly Bires and the No. 47 Clorox Ford team are looking to Las Vegas to regain their footing as the 2008 season gets into full swing. The team saw a potential top-10 finish disappear after a lap-54 incident that put the team 10 laps down at the finish. The team also had a less than stellar day on pit road, but vowed to correct the problems that cropped up during the day.

The team will be taking Chassis No. 45 as their primary vehicle for the Sam’s Town 300 event at the 1.5-mile speedway. Though the car is brand new to the fleet, it did see many laps of testing at this same facility back in January. And the times were fast, as the team made gains on the stopwatch in each of the four separate sessions. At the close of the final session, Kelly Bires had the No. 47 Clorox Ford as the fifth fastest team on the leader board with a lap of 29.825 seconds at 181.056 miles per hour.

After the delayed NASCAR Nationwide Series event, the No. 47 Clorox team flew back to Charlotte, North Carolina overnight, but the crew will get little rest before having to turn around and head back out West on Wednesday. The Nationwide Series garage opens at 2:00 p.m. PST on Thursday for inspection only and the team’s first practice session is slated for Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. PST.

Qualifying for the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will take place on Saturday at 12:05 p.m. EST and will be televised live on the SPEED Channel.

WHAT THE TEAM HAS TO SAY: Kelly Bires, Driver of the No. 47 Clorox Ford: “We really want to put last week behind us and get our focus back as quick as possible. We’re going to have days like that where the outcome is out of our hands and we just have to deal with it and go on. I’m glad we’re going to a place like Vegas where we tested—and tested well.

We don’t have our first choice of cars here because we were going to run our California car here, too. But the car we’re now using is also one we tested out here, so I feel pretty good about it. We’re coming together as a team and we have a lot of potential to do well, but we can’t trip over ourselves on our way to our goals."

Scott Zipadelli, Crew Chief of the No. 47 Clorox Ford: “We can’t go out there and beat ourselves when we have a car as good as we had at California. It wasn’t our greatest effort on pit road, but we’ve already addressed the issues that we had. It comes down to the crew working together and jelling as a group—they’re still new and they’re still working on their timing and everything else that goes into the stops. We know what we have to fix and we’ll fix it. We had a great test here and we’re bringing a decent car. We just have to put it all together on Saturday.”

FAST & FUN FACTS: -Kelly Bires will drive the No. 47 Clorox Ford in Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. . -The No. 47 Clorox team will be taking Chassis No. 45 as their primary Vegas car. -Kelly Bires turned the fifth fastest time during the second day of pre-season testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in January. -Inspection for the NASCAR Nationwide Series cars begins Thursday. Practice sessions are slated for Friday at 10:30 a.m. PST and 1:45 p.m. PST. -Qualifying for the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is slated for Saturday, 12:05 p.m. EST and will be shown live on the SPEED Channel.