RIDING WITH \ Dave Blaney

Nextel Cup: Qualifying 19th, the Hartford native had a tough day at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. An electrical problem sent Blaney to the rear of the field, and when a caution flag waved on lap 27 (of 110) he stood in 38th place. Blaney returned to the pits on lap 39 with continuing electrical problems and was forced to the garage when the car wouldn’t start. He returned to the track and was able to finish the race, but in 41st place, 13 laps behind winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
Busch Series: Blaney did not race at the AT&T 250 in Milwaukee. He will attempt to qualify for Saturday’s Camping World 200 in New Hampshire.
Next up: Blaney, who is 37th in the Nextel Cup standings, must qualify on speed for the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Dave says: “Loudon is a lot like Milwaukee. It’s a flat track with long straight-aways so you need to be able to turn really well there. I’m sure we’ll spend a lot of time working on that in practice. If we don’t get it right then, it will make for a very long race. We dropped a few positions in the points after Milwaukee so we really need to focus on getting those spots back. Even though the championship is probably out of reach, we are still points racing to pick up anything we can. It would still mean a lot to this team to finish second at the end of the year.”

Vindicator staff report/NASCAR.com/DaveBlaney.com