Blaney needs better finishes to crack 35th

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

CONCORD, N.C. — Trumbull County’s Dave Blaney is hoping this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is the beginning of his return to the top 35 in the points standings.

“That’s a big deal right now,” Blaney said recently of the pressure facing his Bill Davis Racing No. 22 Caterpillar team.

“If we would have just finished where we were running at Darlington, we’d be really close to the top 35 right now,” Blaney said of the Dodge Avenger 500 on May 13. “But we had an engine failure and finished way back.

“We didn’t get it. Now, it’s going to take a couple more races to get in there. I’m hoping that, in the next two races, we can make up the ground.”

Blaney finished fourth in the Nextel Open last Saturday, barely missing the Nextel All-Star Challenge later that night.

However, those were non-points events, so the Hartford native didn’t budge from his 36th-place standing after 11 races.

The gravity of the disadvantage of not being in the top 35 was evident when Blaney missed qualifying for the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega on April 29.

It was the first time all season he didn’t start a race.

“We’ve run good enough to be in the top 35,” Blaney said. “It’s just four or five races we didn’t finish, whether it be crashing or engine problems. We missed the race at Talladega, but the times we have run, we’ve been sometimes really competitive and sometimes just fair.

“But we’ve got to get consistent and quit having trouble, whether it’s crashing or failures.”

A bright spot right now is his Busch Series standing of fourth.

However, it’s a different animal and he prefers not to mix the results.

No translation

“Our Busch car has run well and we’ve been pretty competitive every week,” Blaney said. “But it doesn’t affect the Cup car much at all.

“The cars are a good deal different as far as the rules in each one, so they don’t even feel the same. It really doesn’t help a whole lot for the Cup races.

“But it never hurts a driver to get more experience on that track to get a feel for the tire because it’s the same tire on both cars. Other than that, it’s not much similar.

Blaney doesn’t consider the Busch competition a step down, either.

“If you look at the top 10-12-15 guys, they’re the same quality Cup guys. There may not be as many quality teams, but the top half of the field is just as tough as Cup series.”

Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing had this perspective about the same topic: “The Busch Series has changed so much. It used to be that Cup drivers drove for Busch teams but now it is Cup drivers driving for Cup teams.”

Racing back-to-back days would appear physically draining, but it isn’t, Blaney said.

Not a factor

“That part’s not really a factor. Busch races are a little bit shorter and you’re geared up to do both. Physically, it really doesn’t take a toll.”

Does Blaney think his first season of steady double duty is a good move?

“I think so. If you’ve got competitive cars, it’s fun. It’s all about if you think you can get a competitive Busch car that’ll run up front every week. If so, why not do it? If you can have fun and have a chance to run up front and maybe learn a little bit, too, it’s all good.”

He has no complaints about driving the Toyota Camry.

“The equipment’s fine and the engines run good. Aero-wise, the bodies are fine. We just need to do a better job of finishing the races and a little better job of getting more speed out of the cars. There’s nobody on our team panicking, thinking our equipment’s not good enough to compete. That’s not the case.”

Some of Blaney’s BDR-furnished cars are capable of running in the top 10 and, most all of the time, in the top 20, but it’s the unforeseen that throws a wrench in the works.

Finish where running

“We can always work on getting our stuff faster, but, for the moment, we’d like to finish close to where we’re running. If we run 15th all day we’d like to finish 15th, instead of something happening and finishing 30th or 35th. That’s the bad part.”

Dave said night racing is both driver-friendly and fan-friendly.

“Most of the time, it’s cooler out and the lights at these tracks are great, plus, the fans can see the sparks flying, so that’s always good.”

One Nextel Cup highlight was Blaney’s 11th in the Jim Stewart 400 at Richmond. He gave Toyota its best finish in the Car of Tomorrow.

Blaney said the COT is supposed to be phased in over three years, but its exclusiveness may be expedited.

“People are saying, ‘If we’re going to have it, let’s get it in now instead of working on two different kinds of cars.’ It would make it easier on the teams if they’d phase it in sooner than later. NASCAR will make that decision in the next couple months.”

Must qualify

Should he qualify this weekend, Blaney will make his 246th career Cup Series start when the green flag waves Sunday evening.

How does Blaney grade himself so far?

“It’s not good. Probably a D, I’d guess. When you don’t get the finishes, it’s going to kill you. We can run well if we get our act together.”

What’s the plan for Lowe’s Motor Speedway?

“We’ll first work on qualifying for the event, obviously, and then hopefully we can get the car to turn a little better in the corners, and we should be pretty good come raceday.

“Six hundred miles makes for a long, long race and anything can happen.

“We’ll need to take care of our equipment, stay out of trouble and be able to keep up with the changes in the track as it gets later and cooler. We’re knocking on the door of the top 35, and we’ve had a couple of opportunities to make up some ground and we weren’t able to.

“So that has to be our main goal: Finish the race and make sure we’re ahead of the guys behind us in points.”