Bires to attempt Daytona 500

Kelly Bires

Kelly Bires will attempt to make his Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500 next month, but he probably won't be too busy after that. On a week when he wrapped up a deal for the biggest race of his life, Bires also learned that he no longer has the promise of any Nationwide Series races with JTG Daugherty Racing. Michael McDowell brought sponsorship for the first 16 races, Bires said. Bires could race in the second half of the year if the team finds money, but he also is free to pursue other opportunities. Bires will drive for #51 Blackjack Racing, a new, part-time team out of the ARCA series, at Daytona. The car is an ex-Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge that became expendable when that team merged with DEI and switched to Chevrolets. "We could go there and run like crap, or we could go and run well and surprise a lot of people," Bires said. "Anything beyond making the show is an added bonus. If we make the race, we'll probably get more publicity out of that than I did out of a whole year and a half in the Nationwide Series." Blackjack plans a limited schedule for its regular driver, Dexter Bean, but with only one NASCAR short-track race to his credit, Bean has not been approved by NASCAR to race on a superspeedway. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel