BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Veteran NASCAR driver Mike Bliss went out of his way Friday in the Nationwide Series garage at Michigan International Speedway to say he was giving a politically correct answer to a seemingly puzzling question.

That was, how he got fired almost two weeks ago from owner James Finch's Nationwide car while he was sixth in the drivers' championship, yet put Finch's Phoenix Racing Sprint Cup car into the lineup for Sunday's Carfax 400 at MIS.

“

He's a helluva race car driver -- to be sixth in points and let go out of your ride is kinda crazy, to me.

”

JOE NEMECHEK

“

Right now top-10s aren't good enough. We've wiped out five cars this year and we feel like we ought to be third in points, not sixth.

”

MARC RENO, Phoenix Racing

Finch's team manager, Marc Reno, said Friday that a succession of Sprint Cup drivers would steer the No. 1 Nationwide Chevrolet. It began with Ryan Newman last weekend at Watkins Glen, to Reed Sorenson at Michigan and Bristol, Max Papis at Montreal, Newman at Atlanta and then Martin Truex Jr. at Richmond and Dover, all that's currently set.

Bliss, who took a moment to speak to a visitor while he sought an engine that would make his Saturday effort more competitive, said despite decades in racing, which began in the Pacific Northwest, he almost didn't know what to think.

"It doesn't make much sense to me either, and it's really kind of disheartening," Bliss said. "You felt like you were giving it your all, but it wasn't good enough. There were some areas there I thought we could improve on, but you really got to bite your lip.

"But that's fine [because] every team's working hard and they want to improve and that area there, to win races consistently the next step was [changing] the driver in the seat. I don't agree with them, and it's just a lot of money that was given up, with this points deal and now, not having a job, with the way everything is, you just can't go out and get a job."

But Bliss does have a paycheck this weekend after he put Finch's No. 09 Sprint Cup Dodge into the show in 28th position. Bliss is 7-for-7 in attempts in Finch's Cup car this season. The car's made 10 of 15 races with other drivers.

"They called me about running the Cup car last week," Bliss said. "I don't know if James is trying to help me out a little bit and he knew I made races in that car and that'll put a little money back in my pocket, but it's rough. It's a paycheck, but I'm telling you, you just suck it up, you've got big shoulders and you say, 'OK, I'll go give you all I can.'

"I gave them all I could out there [Friday], and I don't hold anything against nobody, because it's my life and my career and I need to make house payments."

Bliss, the 2002 Truck Series champion and former USAC open-wheel champion who has 454 starts in NASCAR's three national series since making his Truck debut in 1995, currently sits seventh, 151 points ahead of 11th place in the Nationwide drivers' standings, which ironically is Michael McDowell, who went into scramble mode six races ago trying to maintain a top-10 spot after his sponsorship at JTG Daugherty Racing dried up.

"It really makes you look at the sport, you just want to throw your hands up and just give up -- but this is all I know," Bliss said. "I love racing and I love the Nationwide Series. We're all supposed to be big race car drivers, but it makes you just want to cry. It really hurts, but that's just the way it goes."

Reno didn't want to speak for Finch, who next plans to attend the Bristol races next weekend, but said the owner's decisions were easier than they might look.

"He's been one of our better qualifiers for the start-and-park weekends," Reno said of Bliss. "He needs to make money to support his family. We don't have a problem with Mike and we don't have a problem with him making money. If that works for him, it works for us and as long as it's a smooth deal; it's not like we hate the guy, it's just a decision that James made.

Bliss for Bliss

Mike Bliss may be a bit down now, but one thing can always bring a smile to his face -- his 1934 Ford 5-Window Coupe.

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"It went good, we're in the race and everybody's confused by it, and sometimes that's a bit of fun."

Finch's Nationwide program, backed by the Miccosukee Tribe's gaming and resort property in South Florida, has raced for the championship for 10 of the past 12 years; despite entering every Sprint Cup event this season, Finch's team isn't equipped to fully race in them all, despite winning the Aaron's 499 at Talladega with Hendrick Motorsports development driver Brad Keselowski.

Bliss joined Finch's Nationwide team in the seventh race of the 2008 season, after the owner released Johnny Sauter after five races and used Sterling Marlin at Nashville Superspeedway. Bliss actually left Fitz Motorsports while fifth in the championship and maintained that spot, with two top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in the 29 races he did for Finch.

In the first 20 races this season, Bliss won at Charlotte and had four top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, but Finch and his team expected better. After Iowa, despite finishing 14th and picking up a spot in the standings, Bliss was fired for the second time this year.

"A month ago we had this discussion, and they let me go and hired me back the next day," Bliss said of Finch's post-Daytona move. "We had a talk and James said we'd just get to the end of the year and part our ways, with the points money and all that and I agreed with him. I thought that was the way it was going to go down, but after Iowa I suddenly got the call again."

"I don't know, I'm not sure it makes sense to me," Reno said. "I almost don't know how to explain so it's not taken out of context, but sixth in points -- the split from sixth to third was huge [more than 600 points]. People talk about the win and all the top-10s, but we got [the win] on rain and the top-10s? Right now top-10s aren't good enough, top-10s is pretty easy.

"The team was getting disappointed and disgusted, week in and week out, because we felt like our cars were better than they were getting run. James made the call on his own. If someone did the math and looked at our finishes, we've wiped out five cars this year and we feel like we ought to be third in points, not sixth.

"It's not like anyone dislikes Mike, but we had numerous meetings with him about his performance, because our motto is, we want to win practice, win qualifying and we want to win the race. And that's all we ask. If we can't do that, we want somebody to say, 'What do you need to do that?'

"We've got Hendrick motors and we've worked like dogs on our cars, we've got good wind tunnel numbers, we've got good chassis and we're handling good and at the end of the day, a lot of people don't understand Kyle Busch being mad at [finishing] second. We don't voice it as loudly, but we're mad at second, too.

"We want to run first every week, and the trouble at this level of the sport is, it's really tough to do and we understand that. But once you've gone [50 races] and there's a pattern that exists -- we're not here for anything other than to win. We're not here to have a business in the [Nationwide] series and supply somebody with a paycheck, we're here to compete and compete hard.

"Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean we're not going to go backwards for a little while trying all these drivers, and doing a lot of things, but at least we'll feel like the guys are putting out 100 percent while they're out there, and that's all we ask."

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."