NASCAR Cup

Daytona II: Dave Blaney preview

* Blaney's No. 22 Camry...The Caterpillar Racing team plans to utilize chassis No. 104 for this weekend's event at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. This car was last run in the event at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway with Bill Davis Racing ...

Published: Jul 4, 2007, 5:06 PM

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* Blaney's No. 22 Camry...The Caterpillar Racing team plans to utilize chassis No. 104 for this weekend's event at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. This car was last run in the event at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway with Bill Davis Racing driver Jeremy Mayfield behind the wheel.

* Loudon Lowdown...Dave Blaney captured his second career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series pole position last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway in his 250th career start. He went on to finish 29th in Sunday afternoon's event. Blaney led the first 30 laps of the race before brake issues and a tight handling racecar slowed his progress during the race.

* Blaney's Career Stats...Blaney hopes to make his 251st career Nextel Cup Series start when the green flag waves Saturday evening. He made his first career Cup Series start in October 1992 at [Rockingham] North Carolina Speedway and finished 27th after qualifying 31st for his first Cup Series start in Daytona Beach in 2000. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.

* Blaney at Daytona...Blaney has made 15 Cup Series starts at the 2.5-mile superspeedway during his career, starting as high as fourth (2000) and finishing as high as 14th (2005). He has scored three top-15 finishes and eight top-25 finishes in Cup Series competition at Daytona.

* BDR at DIS...Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at Daytona International Speedway since 1993 and have made 38 starts. Those drivers have posted three top-five finishes, nine top-10 finishes and have completed 6,319 of 6,666 possible laps (94.8 percent). Additionally, the team won the 2002 Daytona 500.

* Blaney's Busch Battle...Blaney stands four points outside the top five in the NASCAR Busch Series drivers' point standings after a 35th--place finish in last Saturday's event. He will attempt to gain ground on the leader again this weekend during the Winn-Dixie 250 Friday evening.

* Playing Dirty...Blaney will join Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart on Tuesday, July 10 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio to race against the NRA (National Racing Alliance) Sprint Invaders in the annual Old Spice Summer Sizzler.

Blaney's Thoughts on Daytona..."We've struggled a bit during both of the restrictor plate races this year, so of course we're somewhat apprehensive heading to Daytona. Obviously, Talladega didn't go well for us and missing that race is certainly burned into our memory, but we know we're a better team now than we were then, and we won't let the past haunt us. We'll use the disappointment we still feel over that to motivate us. We've had some pretty strong qualifying runs in the past month or so, and even though restrictor plate racing at Daytona is a whole different animal, we're heading to that track with the same mindset that won us the pole last week. We need to come out of the box strong, make good use of every minute of practice on Thursday and go from there. The biggest problem of being outside the top 35 is that during these impound races, you have to figure out if you put your qualifying setup in the car and hope you make it in the race, and then everything works out during the race as far as performance and reliability go, or if you go with a setup during qualifying that might be better come raceday. I think that decision was part of the problem in Talladega, so hopefully we'll make a better one this time around. Like I said, this Cat Racing team is a much better team than it was even a couple of months ago, so we should be better prepared for Daytona."

-credit: bdr

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