NASCAR Cup

Indianapolis: Dave Blaney preview

DAVE BLANEY * Blaney's No. 22 Camry...The Caterpillar Racing team plans to utilize chassis No. 108 for this weekend's event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This car is one of two brand new cars the team built for Dave Blaney and teammate ...

Edited: Jul 25, 2007, 2:19 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

DAVE BLANEY

* Blaney's No. 22 Camry...The Caterpillar Racing team plans to utilize chassis No. 108 for this weekend's event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This car is one of two brand new cars the team built for Dave Blaney and teammate Jeremy Mayfield for this event.

* Blaney's Career Stats...Blaney hopes to make his 253rd career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series start when the green flag waves Sunday. He made his first career Cup Series start in October 1992 at [Rockingham] North Carolina Speedway and finished 28th after qualifying 20th for his first Cup Series start at the famed Indianapolis track in 1999. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.

* Blaney at Indy...Blaney has made eight Cup Series starts at the 2.5-mile speedway during his career, starting as high as 20th (2003) and finishing as high as 15th (2002).

* BDR at IMS...Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1994 and have made 20 starts. Drivers piloting BDR machines at the 2.5-mile track have posted two top-10 finishes at the track.

* Blaney's Busch Battle...While most Nextel Cup Series competitors were enjoying their final off-weekend of the season, Blaney was busy racing his NASCAR Busch Series ride at Gateway International Raceway, near St. Louis. He lost some ground to points leader Carl Edwards in the Busch Series drivers' point standings after a blown tire resulted in a broken sway bar during Saturday's event. However, Blaney will attempt to gain ground once again during the Kroger 200 Saturday afternoon at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

* Another Busy Week...Blaney will spend most of this week with his family in Xenia, Ohio, at the 2007 Miami Valley Quarter Midget Association Eastern Grands. Daughter Emma and son Ryan both race Quarter Midgets and recently experienced success during the Gasoline Alley Nationals in Indianapolis. On Wednesday, Blaney plans to fly to Pevely, Mo., to participate in the fifth M&M's® "Night of Stars" Charity Event at I-55 Raceway. Blaney will join many his NASCAR competitors at Ken Schrader's track for a night of racing Dirt Modifieds on the 1/3-mile high-banked track.

Blaney's Thoughts on the Weekend..."Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a special place to race. Whatever your racing background is, it's a place that is so steeped in history that you want to go there and run well. The Cup Series has been going there for a while now, and still, every time I drive through the tunnel it's exciting and I can't help but think about what an honor it is to have the opportunity to race there.

"This Cat team has really come a long way this year even though we don't necessarily have the results to prove it. We've been so strong in qualifying for the last two months or so, and really the whole year, and we've had some really strong runs in the race. It's so disappointing that we still have to spend so much time working to claw our way into the top 35, but we're proud of the way we've handled all of our misfortune, and I know we're a stronger race team because of it. Tommy [Baldwin, crew chief] and the guys work really hard back at the shop and at the track, and Tommy has done a great job getting the balance of the car where it needs to be in qualifying and in the race. Sure, there have been some races where we haven't started off as good as we needed to be, but the guys never give up, and Tommy makes some great changes to the car during the race. We just need to be around at the end, and when that starts happening, I think our Caterpillar Toyota Camry will be a force to be reckoned with."

-credit: bdr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Indianapolis: Kyle Petty preview

Next article Indianapolis: Jeff Gordon preview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

What Fernando Alonso is getting wrong about F1 driving standards

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

12 min

What Fernando Alonso is getting wrong about F1 driving standards

F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP1 with live timing

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

35 min

F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP1 with live timing

Sergio Perez to skip F1 Mexico GP fan forum due to illness

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

1 h

Sergio Perez to skip F1 Mexico GP fan forum due to illness

Lewis Hamilton on why he is “built differently” to stay in F1 for the “foreseeable future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

2 h

Lewis Hamilton on why he is “built differently” to stay in F1 for the “foreseeable future”

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts