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| Born | January 26, 1976 | ||||||
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| Hometown | Wausau, Wisconsin | ||||||
| NASCAR Sprint Cup Series statistics | |||||||
| 2007 Sprint Cup position | 68th | ||||||
| Best cup position | 27th - 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NEXTEL Cup) | ||||||
| First race | 2000 NAPA 500 (Atlanta) | ||||||
| Last race | 2009 Sharpie 500 (Bristol) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Nationwide Series statistics | |||||||
| Car #, team | #5 - JR Motorsports #40 - Key Motorsports |
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| 2008 NNS position | 17th | ||||||
| Best NNS position | 3rd - 2002 | ||||||
| First race | 2000 Sam's Town 250 (Memphis) | ||||||
| First win | 2002 MBNA All-American Heroes 200 (Dover) | ||||||
| Last win | 2008 Pepsi 300 (Nashville) | ||||||
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| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics | |||||||
| First race | 2007 Ford 200 (Homestead) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of April 24, 2009. | |||||||
Scott Wimmer is a NASCAR Nationwide Series driver who was born in Wausau, Wisconsin January 26, 1976. He has a total of 6 wins in the Nationwide Series. His brother Chris Wimmer competed in the Busch Series.
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Youth
Wimmer competed in the United States National Junior Olympics in downhill and slalom skiing at age 14, and finished 13th of the 150 competitors. His father began as the owner of his uncle Larry Detjens' racing team.[1] Detjens was a champion late model racer who competed at Slinger Super Speedway and Wisconsin International Raceway. Detjens had a race named after him after his death in 1981.
Pre-NASCAR Racing Career
Wimmer started racing at State Park Speedway in Wausau,Wisconsin in 1991 at age 15. He moved up through the ranks, and became a well-known driver in the Midwest. He moved down south, and in 1997 was the Rookie of the Year in the Hooters Cup late model series. He later finished second for the Rookie of the Year in the American Speed Association (ASA) series in 2000. He began the season with no sponsor for his family-owned team, but was able to run the full season after winning the first two races of the year. He also made his Winston Cup debut.
NASCAR career
2000-2005
Wimmer made his NASCAR debut in 2000, when he was signed to drive the #20 AT&T Pontiac Grand Prix for Bill Davis Racing in the Busch Series. After failing to qualify for his first race at North Carolina Speedway, he finished 18th in his debut at Memphis, followed by a 19th finish at Phoenix. He also made his Winston Cup debut at Atlanta, driving a car he had originally intended to drive at an ARCA RE/MAX Series race that weekend. The qualifying session was rained out for that race, and he was able to take his #23 car and enter in the Cup race. He finished 22nd and led 9 laps in that race.
He was named Davis' permanent driver of the #23 Jani-King Pontiac in the 2001. He had two top-five finishes, eight top-ten finishes and finished 11th in points, second to Greg Biffle for the Rookie of the Year title. The team only had sponsorship from Siemens for half of the races in 2002, and many rumors circulated that the team would shut down. The team remained open, and Winner won four races in the fall of that season at Dover, Memphis, Phoenix and Homestead, and finished 3rd in points. Davis was able to get Siemens sponsorship for Wimmer to run 7 races in a #27 car in the Cup Series, but Wimmer was only able to make two of them. Wimmer also substituted in the #23 Hills Brothers Coffee car at Talladega earning a seasons best finish of 17th.
He got a full-time sponsor in Stacker 2/YJ Stinger/Stamina Rx in 2003, but after losing crew chief Bootie Barker and switching to Chevrolet, he won only one race at Pikes Peak with 4 top-five finishes 12 top-ten finishes and finished 9th in points. Wimmer ran two races in the #27 YJ Stinger Chevrolet finishing 24th in both races at Bristol and New Hampshire. With four races left in the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Wimmer was promoted to drive Bill Davis Racing's #22 Caterpillar Inc. Dodge. In his second race in the #22, he earned his first Cup Series top-ten finish (a 9th) at Phoenix.
At the end of the season, Wimmer was named the full time driver for 2004 in the #22 Caterpillar Dodge. Before the 2004 season, he was arrested in High Point, North Carolina for driving while intoxicated. He was later convicted and sentenced to probation and 24-hour community service. He began the year with a 3rd place finish at the Daytona 500, but only had one other top-ten at Dover and finished 27th in points despite failing to qualify for one race. He ran the full season again in 2005, but did not finish higher than 11th in a race that season. He was dismissed from Davis by mail at the end of the season after ending up 32nd in points.
2006-Present
Wimmer joined Morgan-McClure Motorsports in 2006 to drive their #4 Aero Exhaust Chevy. The team lost the Aero sponsorship during the summer of the season, and he left the team following the race at Kansas Speedway. After joining up with Richard Childress Racing for the 2007 Busch Series season, Wimmer drove the final race at Homestead in the #33 Holiday Inn Chevrolet earning a season best finish of 12th. Despite missing 12 races, Wimmer ended up 38th in points. That year he also drove part-time in the Busch Series in the #66 Duraflame/Yard-Man Ford Taurus with Brewco Motorsports in 13 races. He also ran three races for Fitz Bradshaw Racing, two in the #14 Family Dollar Dodge and one in the #12 Goulds Pumps Dodge. Wimmer had four top-ten finishes ending up 29th in points.
In 2007, he joined Richard Childress Racing as a test driver. He competed 23 races between the #21 AutoZone and #29 Holiday Inn Chevys. He won his first career pole at Gateway International Raceway and had seven top-five finishes and fourteen top-ten finishes. Wimmer finished 14th in points despite his limited schedule. Wimmer shared the #29 car with Jeff Burton and with Burton's five wins, twelve top-five finishes and seventeen top-ten finishes combined with Wimmer's finishes, the #29 team won the 2007 Busch Series Owner's Championship. It was only the second time in Busch Series history that the Driver and Owner's Titles were not won by the same team. That year in the Nextel Cup Series, Wimmer attempted one race in the #78 Furniture Row Racing car at Michigan and five races for Childress in his #33 Chevrolet with sponsorship from Holiday Inn and Camping World. He only made one race at Indianapolis finishing 31st after a pit row accident damaged his car.
He ran 22 races in the #29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet and one in the #21 Prilosec Chevrolet for Childress in 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series and picked up a win at Nashville. Wimmer also had five top-five finishes and thirteen top-ten finishes helping the #29 finish 5th in Owner's Points while Wimmer ended up 17th in Driver Points. Wimmer also attempted one race in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series, failing to make the race at Richmond in the #33 Camping World Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.
Due to a lack of sponsorship, he was released from Childress and will spend the 2009 season splitting time between the #5 Fastenal Chevy for JR Motorsports in six races and the #40 StopRepairBills.com/Westerman Companies Chevy for Key Motorsports in the majority of races in the Nationwide Series. Wimmer also returned to Morgan-McClure Motorsports in the Sprint Cup Series driving one race at Bristol in the #4 Alpha Natural Resources Chevrolet finishing 29th. He also failed to make the race for the team at Dover.
References
- ^ "Wimmer the Latest Racing Prodigy for Mike Mittler, MB Motorsports", Brandon W. Mudd, MB Motorsports, Retrieved September 7, 2007
External links
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