LEFFLER HANGS ON AT BRISTOL TO POST ANOTHER TOP 10 FINISH

Jason Leffler refused to wilt with a tight race car over the final 30 laps of Saturday afternoon’s Scotts Turf Builder 300, NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Bristol, TN; hanging on to post a 10th place finish – the second in a row for the driver of the #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Toyota Camry Braun Racing.

Leffler never ran outside of the top 10 around the Bristol Motor Speedway’s fast, half-mile bullring. He was holding down the sixth position with 31 laps remaining when the race was re-started for the final time after the event’s ninth caution period.

However, Jason’s Toyota began running tight and he did all that he could to remain in the top 10 over those final, grueling laps. He could not hold off the advances of race dominator Kyle Busch, Steve Wallace, Scott Speed and Joey Logano during this period, finding it tough just to keep his #38 machine down on the lower groove of the race track. He was able to hold off Paul Menard over those closing circuits; however, following up his fourth place finish in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago with another top 10 performance.

The effort also enabled Leffler to continue his move up the championship driver point standings as he vaulted two more positions to sixth. Heading into the 2009 season’s next race at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on April 4th, Jason will be eyeing the cars driven by David Ragan and Brendan Gaughan who sit just five and 24 points ahead of him in fifth and fourth place, respectively.

“I worked my tail off today, but I had a good car and was in sight of the leaders the entire race until the end,” Leffler said. “I don’t know if the air pressure adjustment we made on that final pit stop and tire change was off or what, but the car ran tight for really the only time all day during that final, 30-lap run. I’m just glad we hung on to get that top 10,” he added.

The highest on the grid that the #38 showed during the race was fourth. That came early when Jason started pushing forward right from the drop of the green flag and moved from his ninth starting spot to fourth by lap19.

He held that position for the next 61 laps, dropping to fifth following the first round of pit stops under yellow after the Chevrolet driven by Danny O’Quinn cut a tire and hit the outside wall in turn two. Jason ran as low as 9th on lap 144 but was able to race back to sixth by the time the final caution flag flew on lap 261 when the cars of Gaughan and Brad Keselowski got together in the second turn and spun for the final caution period.

During that final caution and the last pit stops to be made by the lead-lap cars that followed, Busch was the race leader and had dominated the action, seemingly destined to race to another easy Nationwide Series victory. However, during Busch’s final pit stop, the right rear tire rolled away from the team’s pit box after hitting the inside pit wall. The tire remained outside of the pit box when Busch exited, and that resulted in a drive-through penalty that dropped Busch to 14th and last amongst the lead-lap machines and basically out of contention.

The hard-driving Las Vegas native was able to get around eight cars over those final 30 laps to score a sixth place finish while Kevin Harvick took advantage of the mistake made by Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing crew to earn his first Nationwide Series win in almost two years and the very first with him driving his own race team’s Chevrolet.

Harvick’s victory moved him to second in driver points ahead of Busch (by 10 points) and to within 114 of point leader Carl Edwards who finished second Saturday behind Harvick. Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth and rookie sensation Justin Allgaier rounded out the top five finishers.

The April 4 test in Texas will begin its live TV coverage of the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts 300 on ESPN2 at 2:30 Eastern Daylight Time.