Bill Davis, Dave Blaney Atlanta qualifying

Dave Blaney's seventh-place qualifying effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday positioned him as the fastest Dodge in the field for the Cracker Barrel 500 BUT also was his FOURTH CONSECUTIVE TOP-TEN Winston Cup qualifying run and his sixth in six ...

Dave Blaney's seventh-place qualifying effort at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday positioned him as the fastest Dodge in the field for the Cracker Barrel 500 BUT also was his FOURTH CONSECUTIVE TOP-TEN Winston Cup qualifying run and his sixth in six NASCAR career starts, including a track-record pole position time for the March, 1999 Busch Series race at AMS.

ONLY TWO DRIVERS -- pole-winner DALE JARRETT AND BLANEY -- have qualified in the top-ten at AMS for each of their past four starts and BLANEY (6.75 avg.) TRAILS ONLY Jarrett (3.75), yesterday's #2 qualifier Jeff Gordon (6.0) and Mark Martin (6.5) among all drivers over the same period in best starting average.

In last fall's season-finale at AMS, BLANEY lined up fourth for the race's final restart after running in the top-ten for all but 22 laps during the race but was tapped into the wall from behind when and limped home 18th with significant right-side damage over the race's final 10 miles.

In the 1999 Busch Series race at AMS, BLANEY ran at the front throughout the event, finished second, then was declared the winner when a post-race inspection found and unapproved part in the engine of winner Mike Skinner, a decision reversed upon appeal four days later.