Homestead: Kelly Bires preview

JRM DEBUT - Kelly Bires will make his debut with JR Motorsports in the No. 5 Ragu Chevrolet this weekend in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

WEEKEND OF FIRSTS - Homestead marks Ragu's first race with JR Motorsports. Ragu joins Hellmann's, Klondike, Degree V12 and Lipton as Unilever brands to have primary paint schemes with JRM in 2009.

BIRES AT HOMESTEAD - Bires has two starts at the 1.5-mile speedway with finishes of 20th and ninth, respectively. He has led one lap and earned an average finish of 14.5 in those events.

BIRES STATS - Bires owns 13 NNS starts in 2009 with two top-five and three top-10 finishes. His best finish this year was a fourth-place showing at Nashville Superspeedway driving for Kevin Harvick Inc.

STELLAR LINEUP - Bires is the eighth and final driver to climb into the driver's seat of the No. 5 Chevrolet this year. He joins Dale Earnhardt Jr. (7 races), Scott Wimmer (6), Ryan Newman (4), Ron Fellows (2), Mark Martin (1), Tony Stewart (1) and Richard Boswell (1) as other drivers to race this season. In 22 races this season, the No. 5 team has amassed four top-fives and nine top-10s, with one pole. The team has led 69 laps this season.

CHASSIS INFO - The No. 5 Ragu team will run chassis 513. The No. 88 team has raced this chassis three times in 2009. Its best finish was fifth place at California last month.

BIRES AUTOGRAPH SESSION - Bires will be signing autographs for the first 125 fans with tickets at the JR Motorsports trackside trailer in the fan concourse area on Friday, Nov. 20 from 3:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

BIRES (thoughts on first race with his new team) - "This is going to be a great opportunity. I'm thrilled. I was really hoping to race a JRM Chevrolet this year. Thanks to our friends at Ragu, we've made it a reality. I think this will go a long way in our preparation for 2010. It means a lot to me for everyone at Ragu and JRM to pull together this program, and we want to make the most of it.

"Homestead is going to be unique for me this year. While most drivers and teams are looking to end the 2009 season on a good note, this is more of head start for us on our 2010 plans. We want to use this race to work on my communication with the team and just try to get everyone on the same page for next year. Basically, I'm just looking to stay out of trouble, finish the race with our fenders clean, and learn as much as we can for next year. If we can do that with the Ragu Chevrolet, I'll call it a good day."

JRM CO-OWNER, DALE EARNHARDT JR. (on Bires' initial race with the team) - "We wanted to get Kelly in one of our cars before the season was out. Ragu has been with us since the beginning of the year, and I appreciate them stepping up their involvement and helping us put this deal together. It's important that Kelly hit the ground running at Daytona next year, and this certainly helps."

-credit: jrm