NASCAR Cup

Darlington: Ford - Blaney race press conference

DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus (Finished 3rd): ARE YOU THRILLED WITH THIRD? "We are. Our team is getting better and better. I can't say enough about Bootie Barker. He came on as crew chief over the winter and he's pretty much ...

Published: Mar 17, 2003, 11:09 PM

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DAVE BLANEY - No. 77 Jasper Engines Taurus (Finished 3rd):

ARE YOU THRILLED WITH THIRD? "We are. Our team is getting better and better. I can't say enough about Bootie Barker. He came on as crew chief over the winter and he's pretty much transformed our team. We've got some different kind of cars, different bodies, kind of all new stuff and it's going well. We're competitive. We had a bad week at Vegas, but, other than that, we've been pretty competitive. They kept the car balanced today pretty good from the start of the run to the end of the run and that just kept us near the front."

WHAT DID YOU SEE WITH RICKY AND KURT? "They crashed a little bit. I couldn't even tell who won it was so close. It was pretty cool. They both did all they could do."

YOUR TEAM LOOKS LIKE A CONTENDER. "So far I'll agree with you. Like I said, Bootie has just done a great job kind of re-energizing this team. We kept almost the whole group we had from last year. Bootie, the crew chief, is different. We've got a different guy building bodies, but about everybody else is the same. We added some guys on pit road, but he's just got a good combination of things going between the bodies and the chassis. So far, we've had some clean runs here - no mistakes, no blow ups, no crashes, so it's going well so far. I honestly think we can keep it rolling."

WHERE IS BOOTIE MAKING THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE? "The cars are better before they leave the shop, that's where it's at. The front ends work better. The bodies make the front ends work better, so that's the whole game here. If you get the car to turn, you can make it go after that. He's got the cars turning better and we've always had horsepower that's as good as anybody, so the whole mix is good right now."

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING BEHIND BUSCH AND CRAVEN? "At that point I could tell Ricky was a little faster and he was gonna do what it took to get around him. They almost wrecked in turn two the lap before, so I was actually just trying to stay as far ahead of the 6 car as I could so if something happened I could maybe miss it and do some good. But it was kind of fun just to watch it."

IS THIS A BANNER DAY FOR SINGLE-CAR TEAMS? "I guess so. I don't think it's much of a factor, to tell you the truth. We give up a little bit on information as far as testing and your teammates testing and stuff like that, but if the crew chiefs don't kind of think alike and the drivers don't drive alike, it's not that big of a deal anyway. So I don't think we give anything up. If we do, I'm not gonna admit to it."

-ford racing-

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