Bliss moves on, sort of; hooks up with Nemechek (cont'd)

The turn of events led Bliss at Watkins Glen last weekend to drive one of MSRP Motorsport's financially strapped cars that's forced to start-and-park as the team tries to get established. Bliss easily qualified but lost a spot in the standings when he parked in 43rd.

Bliss called Nemechek, with whom his young daughter attends school, which led to Bliss driving NEMCO Motorsports' No. 87 Chevrolet, which is locked into the starting lineup in 24th in the owners' standings.

Mike Bliss

Career stats

	Cup	Nationwide	Truck
Starts	88	165	201
Wins	0	2	13
Top-5s	1	24	61
Top-10s	5	62	108
Avg. Start	26.1	15.1	10.5
Avg. Finish	28.4	17.1	12.5
Best Points	28*	5^	1*^

* 2005, only full season
^ Twice, in 2004 and '08
*^ 2002: 5 W, 13 T-5, 18 T-10 in 22 races

Nemechek, who's driven for others and fielded his own cars in both Cup and Nationwide and accrued 20 career victories between the two, is fielding full-time cars out of his own shop this season and said he had at least a short-term fix for Bliss.

"I told him we didn't have any sponsorship, but I wanted to get another opinion of what we were running, because some of our cars aren't brand-new cars, but I just wanted to see what he thought about what we're trying to do," Nemechek said. "So he's going to help me out in the next three races; here, Bristol and Montreal and that's as far as we've got.

"We're just going week by week and he's trying to figure out what he needs to do. I want to drive, but I'm being a good guy and I'm trying to help him out. I'm [telling Bliss], 'We got no money coming in so no money can go out, and you gotta race like I do, on used tires and with minimal people -- the whole deal.'

"And he's cool. This week he came by and actually worked on the race car for a couple days, making sure everything was what it needed to be. He's a good guy and a helluva race car driver -- to be sixth in points and let go out of your ride is kinda crazy, to me."

"The only sense I can make out of it is, I knew going into it that they had gone through a lot of drivers on their race team -- since they've been around, it's probably two handfuls," Bliss said. "I fortunately made it almost a year-and-a-half of racing."

It's put Bliss in a similar position to another veteran, Mike Wallace, who of late is balancing his own driving career with marshalling his children, son Matt and daughter Chrissie's racing efforts while also housing Larry Gunselman's Cup team in his small, but efficient shop.

"It's to the point," Wallace said Friday in the Nationwide garage while taking a break from working to get independent owner Jimmy Means' Chevrolet into Saturday's race, "where we're not trying to build a career any more, we're just trying to maintain a lifestyle -- to make a living."

According to Reno, there's one thing Bliss doesn't have to worry about.

"I don't think there's anyone in this garage area," Reno said, "who can say that James doesn't always pay them everything he owes them."

"I haven't talked to James about money or anything else," Bliss said. "I don't know what I want to do. I'm trying right now to run the rest of the year in Joe's car, and here and there, but it's very difficult. There's no money for myself in doing this because Joe has no money and I'm just thankful that he got out of the car to let me do this.

"I'm thankful for that, but I can't make a living doing this so I'm looking toward the end of the year. If I can finish in the top 20 in points, there's some [point fund] money there."