Guitar HERO

With his victory in Saturday's Pepsi 400 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway, Scott Wimmer ended decades of frustration for his family, put an end to a personal 57-race losing streak and raised his racing stock a notch or two.

Scott Wimmer proudly displays the Sam Bass-designed guitar trophy after his victory in the Nationwide Series race Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway. NASCAR

Wimmer and his family have been coming to Nashville to race for years, but they always returned home empty-handed. His uncle, the late Larry Detjens, won at tracks all over America, but not at the historic fairgrounds track in Nashville, a track that has for years hosted a Northern-driver-vs.-Southern-driver showdown called the All-American 400.

Wimmer had tried and failed to win one of the famous guitar trophies that have been presented to winners of major races at the 5/8-mile fairgrounds oval and the newer 1.3-mile superspeedway.

"I've been coming down to Nashville for the All-American 400 for as long as I can remember," Wimmer, 32, said as he savored his victory against Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer. "I've watched great race drivers run there at the old fairgrounds track - drivers like Alan Kulwicki and Bob Senneker. There was unbelievable racing over there. I made the 400 one time, but never had any luck in that race. They always had that guitar trophy, but I was never able to win it."

Now he has his own, a custom job designed by noted racing artist Sam Bass.

"I'm not much for trophies, but that one is really something, unbelievable," he said.

It's undoubtedly more special to him because it has been so long since he has won a trophy of any kind. His last victory in the Nationwide series was in July 2003 at Pikes Peak International Raceway when he was driving for Bill Davis Racing.

At that time, a successful Cup career looked like a sure-fire deal. He had won four of the final eight Busch Series races the year before, en route to a thirdplace points finish, and had been impressive in a few limited Cup appearances.

His full-time Cup career started off amazingly well when he finished third in the 2004 Daytona 500, but the good fortune seemed to end there.

After two more seasons, one with the struggling Morgan McClure team, he was out of a full-time ride.

Last year, he signed with RCR and split the driving chores with Jeff Burton in the No. 29 Chevy, while making several starts in Childress' No. 21 and another in Kevin Harvick's No. 77. All together, he had seven top-fives and 14 top-10s in 23 starts.

It's a good gig, he said, but not exactly his dream job at this point in his life and career.

"To step down and run a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series is not what I want to be doing, but that's the cards that are dealt to me right now," he said, adding that he'd rather be in a lesser role with a powerhouse team like RCR than the top guy with a non-competitive Cup effort.

"I'm just trying to do the best I can for Richard right now, and hopefully the cards will fall and some day I can get back to racing Nationwide Series full time or Sprint Cup full time," he said.