Clint Bowyer won a rain shortened Nationwide Series race at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday to move into second place in the overall standings.
After rain played havoc with Friday's proceedings at the half-mile oval in Tennessee the race officials knew that they would have a tough job getting the 300-lap Sharpie Mini 300 in as scheduled but despite the persistent threat of rain the 43 starters took the green flag as scheduled led by the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Scott Wimmer.
While Wimmer would lead the opening moments of the race it would be his teammate Bowyer who would lead the final laps after finding himself in front when the caution flag came out for rain just after half distance. Bowyer's crew chose not to make a pitstop in the hope that the rain would force the race to end prematurely and, after nearly an hour sat on pit road under red flag conditions, their wish was granted.
With 177 laps having been completed when the red flags came the race could be declared official with full points awarded allowing Bowyer to climb within 50 points of his Cup Series teammate Kevin Harvick in the overall standings.
Kasey Kahne and David Reutimann took second and third places respectively with Brad Keselowski a career best fourth for Dale Earnhardt Jr's JR Motorsports team.
Mike Bliss, Jason Leffler, points leader Harvick, David Ragan, David Stremme and Mike Wallace completed the top ten as several of the visiting Cup Series drivers got caught out in the weather conditions and the typically hard-hitting Bristol track. Roush teammates Greg Biffle and defending series champion Carl Edwards finished 13th and 14th while Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte finished down in 26th ad 29th places respectively.
Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch were both eliminated in an early race accident while Dario Franchitti's first taste of Bristol ended with a creditable lead-lap 22nd place finish.
![Clint Bowyer and crew chief Gil Martin at Daytona. [Pic Credit Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/190200.jpg)
