LEFFLER FINISHES 6TH IN BRISTOL!!!!!

Saturday’s Sharpie Mini 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee started late because of rain and then was cut short just past the halfway point with Jason Leffler rolling to a 6th place finish.

With the skies threatening all afternoon, teams realized that the 2008 season’s fifth race was not going to run all 300 laps, and all but a few of the starting cars remained on the race track for all 171 laps that were run before rain again hit the country’s most popular half-mile race track with Clint Bowyer leading.

The #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Toyota driven by Leffler started the race in the 8th position when rain earlier in the day washed out qualifying and required NASCAR to line up the 43 starters by 2007’s owner points.

“Our game plan was to stay out until the rains came and it worked to perfection,” said Leffler, who also believed that he had a race car capable of an even better finish had the entire race been run. “Here at Bristol, you have to have a lot of luck, so even though I possibly could have raced to a top 5 finish we’ll just never know. I’m just happy to bring home a basically clean race car and another top 10 finish,” ended Leffler, who posted his first top 10 last week in Atlanta.

The finish continues Leffler’s charge up the Championship Driver’s Point Standing with the diminutive Californian gaining three more spots and finally moving into the top 10 in ninth place – 172 behind point’s leader Harvick who finished seventh, just behind Jason.

The #32 Hass Avocado’s/ABF Trucking/Northeastern Supply Toyota, compliments of Braun Racing, driven this week by red-hot Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series driver Kyle Busch, was caught up in a 3-car wreck just a dozen laps into the race and finished 42nd…his first non-top 10 finish in any of the NASCAR races the 22-year-old has competed in thus far this season in the three different series in which he has competed.

Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann, Brad Keselowski and Mike Bliss, the latter two also Nationwide Series regulars like Leffler, followed race winner Bowyer across the finish line under the yellow flag when the rain was finally called for keeps.

The Nationwide Series teams will be the only NASCAR organizations to race next weekend, Easter, with a 300-mile race at the Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, TN on Saturday. Race time is set for 3 p.m. EDT with ESPN2 televising the race live.