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Dave Blaney gets a new crew chief for tonight
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RIDING WITH … Dave Blaney
Qualifying: With a new secondary sponsor on his No. 36 Chevrolet and a new crew chief in his pit box, the Hartford native turned a lap of 178.617 mph (50.387 seconds) at Daytona International Speedway on Friday to qualify in 40th position for tonight’s Coke Zero 400.
Season to date: Blaney is in 31st place in the Sprint Cup Series standings with 244 points. He’s 43 behind David Gilliland.
Tonight: Television (TNT) coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. with the green flag scheduled to drop around 7:30.
Staff report
DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
There will be a new man in charge of the pits for Dave Blaney starting tonight at Daytona International Speedway.
Tommy Baldwin Racing announced Friday that Philippe Lopez will take over as a crew chief for Blaney’s No. 36 Golden Corral Chevrolet.
“We have recently hired seven more people and put them in the areas they need to be to make our program better,” said Baldwin. “Philippe is a well-respected crew chief, and someone I can trust to do a good job for TBR. I’m excited that now this allows me to dedicate more time toward the future of TBR from both the competition and business sides.”
Lopez previously worked with Blaney in two separate stints, and has also worked with Darrell Waltrip, Ward Burton and Steve Park.
Lopez and Baldwin also worked together, as they were co-crew chiefs at Bill Davis Racing. Lopez collected four top-fives, 13 top-10s and one pole in his 15-year Sprint Cup career.
“I’m excited to be with TBR,” said Lopez. “I have always worked with underdogs. I really enjoy the challenge. I look forward to helping the team grow to where I see it can. I have a lot of respect for Tommy. We both started programs two years ago. He started TBR, and I started with Nemco. He has weathered the storm and turned a start-and-park program into a full-time team. He’s really the only one to do that.”
Lopez and Blaney previously worked together in 2005 at Richard Childress Racing and 2001 at Bill Davis Racing. Together they made 26 starts and collected two top-10 finishes.
“I’m really happy to be back with Philippe,” said Blaney. “We worked together a couple of times, and we have a really good relationship.”
Lopez recalled a solid working relationship with Blaney.
“It’s cool to be back with Dave,” he said. “We had a lot of success right off the bat. We had three top-15 finishes in our first four starts together at Bill Davis. We just clicked. We worked together again later at RCR and almost won at Dover.”
TBR is also making changes on the competition side by taking the first steps to developing their own chassis.
“I am really excited about the state of TBR right now,” said Baldwin. “We are quickly moving forward with our progress on the competition side.”
TBR completed wind tunnel testing with Richard Childress Racing and purchased an RCR car that will debut next week in Kentucky.
“We have completed the drawings for our first TBR-designed chassis,” said Baldwin. “We will start building it next week with the goal of debuting in the September New Hampshire race.”