Wimmer wins rain-delayed Sam's Town 250

MILLINGTON, Tenn. -- The one-day delay for rain was worth the wait to Scott Wimmer on Sunday.

	Scott Wimmer hoists the trophy. Credit: VPS Motorimages

Wimmer utilized an early pit stop to win the Sam's Town 250 benefiting St. Jude at Memphis Motorsports Park. It was his second win of the season and of his career.

The win didn't come easy.

He had to hold off a hard-charging Ron Hornaday, who led three times for 27 laps, on several restarts. Then, on the final restart with six laps to go, Stacy Compton and Jamie McMurray made their presences known.

But Wimmer prevailed for the victory, leading five times for 93 laps and holding off all comers.

"We came in about 20 laps earlier than everyone else and Booty (crew chief Robert Barker) made the call on that one," Wimmer said. "These tires are so good you can go awhile on them and you don't need tires to win races anymore.

"This track just doesn't eat them up. It was a great call, I don't know if I would have called it like that. That's why I'm a driver and not a crew chief."

For Wimmer, racing at a .75-mile track like Memphis is very much to his liking. That, and battling someone like Hornaday on the late-race restarts.

"That guy is awesome, isn't he?" Wimmer said of Hornaday. "I've watched him race a long time and I'm just proud we can run side-by-side and have restarts like that and bang, grind and bump and not take each other out.

	Scott Wimmer rolled to his second Busch Series win of the season. Credit: VPS Motorimages

"I have a lot of respect for him and he does for me, too. I love coming to short tracks like these."

Compton took advantage of the last-caution restart as Hornaday faded in the waning laps. After starting eighth, Compton led once for 15 laps before snagging second place from McMurray on the final restart.

"It looked like he got high up in the corner and his brakes were locking up a little bit," Compton said. "Both of us went way up the track and we were racing pretty hard.

"This short track racing is something we should do every weekend. The 1.5-mile tracks are a lot of fun, but this is what we grew up doing. I knew we had a good race car."

McMurray almost went from the proverbial penthouse to the outhouse in one week.

	Richard Jarvis Jr. gets out of shape. Credit: VPS Motorimages

After winning the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte last weekend in his second-career Winston Cup start, McMurray had to use a provisional to make the race here.

"We had a good car, I just don't think we scuffed our tires enough for qualifying," McMurray said. "We really focused on our race set-up. I think my pit crew passed more cars today than I did.

"That's what it takes at a short track because it seemed like we gained about five spots on every pit stop."

Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Hank Parker Jr., Kerry Earnhardt, Tim Sauter, Hornaday, Jay Sauter, David Green and Jason Keller.

	Credit: VPS Motorimages

The face of the race changed on lap 203 when leader Greg Biffle, who started the on the pole and led four times for 103 laps, made contact with the lap car of Lowell Bennett in Turn 1. As Biffle attempted to go around Bennett on the outside, the side to side contact forced Biffle's car to spin to the right.

The car made heavy left-side contact with the outside wall. A fire erupted under the engine compartment as Biffle scurried out of the car unhurt.

"I really didn't see what happened," Biffle said on pit road. "Maybe I didn't give that lap car enough room on the bottom. But, it looked like I was going to be clear of him with the run I had on the straightaway heading into the corner.

SAM'S TOWN 250  •  Results  •  Standings

"You certainly don't want to go into a corner side-by-side here. I really need to watch the replay to see what happened. Maybe I did cut down on him, but I thought he would give me a little room than that, too.

With Biffle's 34th-place finish and Jason Keller's 10th, the points difference is now 105, down from 168 before the race.