Bliss hoping LMS has aged more to his liking this year

If Mike Bliss is going to post his second Nationwide Series victory this weekend, it likely will have to come at the expense of the team that provided him with his lone win, Joe Gibbs Racing.

JGR drivers Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin have won the past six Nationwide races, and Busch and Hamlin are among the entries for Saturday night's Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Fast facts

What	Carquest Auto Parts 300
When	Green, 7:46 p.m. ET Saturday
TV	ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET
Radio	PRN (Sirius Ch. 28), 7:30 ET

• Track Page | Tickets | Travel

"They have it going on right now," said Bliss, whose victory came at Lowe's in October 2004. "When race teams have something going, it's easy to just keep it all rolling. I think it will just take a couple of us to knock the wind out of their sails and slow them down."

Bliss, who finished a career-best fifth in the points standings that year, has six starts on the Charlotte-area track with three top-five runs. But since the track was resurfaced in 2006, he has finishes of 29th and 39th.

"It's always a tough battle," Bliss said of racing at Lowe's. "All of us want to win at Charlotte because it's our home racetrack. It's a lot different since they resurfaced it. It has a different characteristic to it. Since they've done that, I haven't run the same as in the past. I'm hoping since the surface is older, that the old feel is coming back. I consider it like Daytona: Everybody sees it as a big race they want to win."

Bliss is fifth in the point standings -- best among non-full-time Cup drivers -- despite jumping from cash-strapped Fitz Racing to James Finch's Phoenix Racing team after six races. Bliss replaced Johnny Sauter at Phoenix Racing and has four top 10s in the six races since the move. He had two top-10 finishes in the first six races.

"It's been a crazy year," Bliss said. "I don't know why I get myself into these situations. I don't want to be changing rides all of the time. I'm very fortunate that I found another ride and it's a good one.

"We've been competitive since I came here [to the Finch team]. To run top 10 is pretty good, but to get from 10th to the top three is very difficult. We've been running well, but we just haven't put the whole race together. I think if we can do that, we can win a race this year."