RCR's No. 29 remains hot with part-time Wimmer

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- You might not see it in the point standings, but the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team with the combination of drivers Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer is turning out to be one of the top teams in the Busch Series for 2007. Combine the two drivers' points in the three races each has run, and the team would be sitting second in the standings, 139 points behind leader Carl Edwards.

Coming off Burton's back-to-back victories at Las Vegas and Atlanta, Wimmer took over the No. 29 and kept the team's hot streak going with a ninth-place finish in the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Edwards wins Bristol

Scott Wimmer finished ninth, but nobody could catch Carl Edwards, who won the Sharpie Mini 300 at Bristol on Saturday, extending his points lead.

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"This is good momentum," Wimmer said. "I think we had a better car than that, we just couldn't get track position. I thought we had one of the fastest cars all day, we just never could really get up there and battle for it."

But he did battle. Wimmer qualified the car earlier in the day in the 22nd position, and from there it was a fight to get to the front. With all the accidents earlier in the race -- 12 resulting in a track-record for caution laps with 103 -- and a pit-road speeding penalty, climbing the mountain and getting up front was no easy task.

Wimmer's luck almost ran out though when Mike Wallace brought out the caution on Lap 269. Wimmer hit the brakes hard and ended up brushing the wall on the backstretch.

"I got caught up in the wreck off of [Turn] 2 and spun the car out in front of me," Wimmer said. "I didn't mean to do that and then I swerved and hit the wall. So we had to come in and make sure the fenders were clear and everything was fine.

"We came out and we were 14th or 15th and drove it up to ninth, so we'll take that."

For Wimmer, who had his struggles running for single-car teams in the Cup Series, driving for a team like Richard Childress Racing is a welcome relief.

"This team is awesome," he said. "Anybody can sit in a car like that and go fast. I hurt us a little bit in qualifying and then I hurt us on that pit-road deal or we could have been right up there.

"Richard Childress really has some great teams here with the 21 [Timothy Peters] and the 2 [Clint Bowyer] and the 29. I'm just happy to be a part of them and hopefully we can get them some wins soon."

Wimmer's best finish this season was at the opening race in Daytona, where he finished 13th. After seeing his teammate Burton knock off two consecutive victories, Wimmer said he felt some added pressure.

"I felt a little. Anytime your teammate can go out and win two races you definitely want to go out and win yourself." he said. "Coming to Bristol, it's such a tough racetrack to win at and stay out of accidents. There's a lot of pressure to run good, get a top-10 and keep the team up there in owner points."

Next week is a well-deserved break for the No. 29 team as the Cup and Truck Series hit Martinsville while the Busch Series is off. The week after, Wimmer takes the wheel at Nashville Superspeedway, a track at which he has seen success with four top-10s, including two top-fives in five Busch races.

"We brought the car home in one piece and we'll work on the other stuff," he said. "Now we'll go to Nashville and hopefully we can carry this momentum there."