Earnhardt's Replaced Bires on "Lack of Chemistry"

After late last week JR Motorsports announced it has ended the contract of rising star Kelly Bires, motivating the decision is base on the "lack of chemistry", the team's owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., stepped forth over the weekend and tried to shed on some more light on the decision.

"It just didn't work out. I like Kelly a lot as a person and I do believe that with the right package and the right people that he could have success. He's shown that," Earnhardt told NASCAR.

"It just wasn't working out. There was no chemistry, and it was on the verge of going horribly wrong. I know that Bires was not really enjoying it. I felt like where we are with our company, it's real delicate financially and you have to make sure that you make the right calls and you have to do them in a timely matter. We were definitely internally going down the wrong path."

In the last five races, the best finish for Bires was a seventh spot at Fontana. In all the other races, he was well passed a top-10 finish, managing even a discouraging 42 finish in the Vegas race, where he crashed during lap 5.

Bires will be replaced behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet by Jamie McMurray, who will take the car to the next 8 Nationwide races. So far in 2010, JRM fielded three drivers, all loaned from other teams or series.

"We went through a lot of drivers, but we'll produce some good ones hopefully in the future. We're proud of what we've been able to do so far as a company. We're looking for the next Brad Keselowski, the next Jeff Gordon, whatever you want to call it. We're looking for that next guy."