Blaney’s Daytona hopes ride on Duels success

By John Bassetti

Hartford native Dave Blaney has to hope that his Toyota’s performance in his portion of Thursday’s NASCAR Duels in Daytona, Fla., will be the magic he needs to qualify for Sunday’s Super Bowl of auto racing: the Daytona 500.

The twin 150-mile qualifying races begin Thursday at 2 p.m. with 54 cars vying for 43 spots.

Based on last Saturday’s disappointing 49th-place time of 186.254, the Sprint Cup driver knows the pressure is on.

“The car we qualified is not very good at all,” said Blaney, from his home in North Carolina before returning to Daytona Tuesday. “It [the Prism Motorsports No. 66] didn’t have very much speed by itself [without other cars around it], so I don’t know how good it’ll race on Thursday.”

Making matters worse is the number of competitors: a 54-car field of which at least 35 spots are already sealed.

“There’s plenty of cars down there this year,” Blaney said of those vying for 43 spots in the starting lineup. “So it’s not an easy thing.”

Blaney is pinning his hopes on the benefit of a larger group.

“When you get out there with everyone else, then drafting comes into play and it’s a different story a little bit. We were kind of surprised that we didn’t qualify better.

“To be honest, we didn’t expect to qualify in the front half of the field, but we didn’t think it was going to be as far off as it was. But, still, it all comes down to Thursday’s race.”

The front half would have been 25 or better.

“We thought we could get in that area somewhere, but, by what we saw because we had some different equipment going down [from the shop in N.C.], we thought it was going to run better,” Blaney said. “Because you don’t get any testing anymore, it’s hard to gauge what you’ve got or it’s hard to work on it or tune it. You go with what you’ve got.”

Because Daytona is a restrictor plate race, key factors are engine, power and aerodynamics.

“If one or both of those things is off a little bit, then your qualifying time is not going to be good,” Blaney said. “But, like I said, in the [Thursday’s] race, it’s a different story when everyone’s out there: the air’s different, the draft comes into play, the handling comes into play, so it turns into a different animal.

“But it’ll still be tough with 50-some cars.”

Blaney said that 54 cars is more than usual.

“I don’t think there’s been that many cars for a few years. But, remember, the top 35 from last year are locked in [because of points], so, actually, it turns into the rest of us: 19 going for 8 spots.”

However, two-time 500 champion Bill Elliott, Scott Speed and Joe Nemechek also locked up spots in the season-opening race, and Bobby Labonte will get in based on a past series champions provisional.

That leaves four spots up for grabs.

Are Prism owners Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey gambling?

“Oh, for sure,” Blaney said. “But that’s the reason there are so many cars: because this race pays a huge amount of money all the way through — from winning it, clear on down to last place. It’s the biggest and most prestigious race of the year, but it also pays the most too.”

In the 2009 Daytona 500, Terry Labonte — not Blaney — drove Prism’s No. 66.

Although the 66 Toyota is all new equipment for 2010, its the same team. However, Prism doesn’t have a sponsor on it for the 500.

But Blaney expects to be in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the 36-race schedule.

“Oh yeah, they’ll go to all the races like we did last year. But there are no guarantees on whether we can race all day at the tracks, but, like last year, we’ll start and not run very much part of the time, but we also hope we can run part of the time.”

So, will Blaney’s 2010 season get off on a positive note?

“Once everybody gets out there in a big pack and you get that draft effect, everybody runs the same speed. So it equalizes it a bunch when the race starts, not all the way, but it equalizes it a lot.

“So, it turns into a different type of race than how it [individual qualifying] shook out. The fastest cars don’t always run right in front of the draft. But you don’t know until we get going.”

bassetti@vindy.com