Carquest Auto Parts 300 - Dave Blaney Notes

BLANEY Busch Series Quotes:

**How Does Charlotte Compare To Other Tracks?…"In race trim, Charlotte is just like everywhere else and that it's all about handling. It's a little bit rough so you really can’t get aggressive with the car with springs and shocks - so it isn't an aero race. It's all handling and all suspension. A car that will stay handling all day will be the car that stays at the front."

**Does Qualifying Matter?…."Yes qualifying matters. It gives you a better option on pit stall. On the very first run of the race, if your car is off a little bit you get a lot longer before you go down a lap. Any more that is a concern. In these Busch races, if you miss it just a little it will cost you. Plus if you start up at the front you can avoid some of the wrecks in the back of the field."

**Blaney On New Ford-Penske Jasper Engine….."You don't want to bring a knife to a gun fight. So you bring the best equipment you can. We use the Penske-Jasper Engines and Ford in our Winston Cup effort and we feel like we are bringing our best weapons to the battle. I don't think you could do much better. There's no sense going to the track if you aren't going to win. I've had that philosophy all my life and I know (Car Owner) Ted Marsh feels the same way. We feel this is our best combination to win."

**What Benefits Do You Get From Running A Busch Car?…."Richmond was our first race this year and we ran pretty well. We haven't run enough to know how things compare. The more we do it the more we will have things to compare. Once we get a couple of weeks under our belt we will know even better. But so far we have enjoyed our deal with (sponsor) Whelen and (Car Owner) Ted (Marsh)."

BLANEY/Lowe’s Motor Speedway Stats

DAVE BLANEY and the #77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford team enter the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte tied (with Greg Biffle) for 20th in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series standings, 95 points behind 15th-place Jeff Burton after his 18th-place finish at Richmond three weeks ago.

Entries powered by PENSKE-JASPER ENGINES have registered one win and four pole positions in 11 races thus far in 2003, including Jeremy Mayfield’s pole at Talladega (4/6); Mayfield and Evernham Motorsports teammate Bill Elliott used PJE power at Talladega as part of a cooperative program between the two entities; RUSTY WALLACE leads the trio of PJE-powered entries, ranking ninth (1,274 points-1 top-5, 3 top-10s), while Penske teammate RYAN NEWMAN, who won at Texas in late March, dropped to 27th (1,031 points-two pole positions, 3 top-10s) after another early problem at Richmond; BLANEY ranks 20th (1,109 points-one pole position, 3 top-10s).

BLANEY’s 18th-place finish at Richmond was his second straight top-20 finish after a disappointing April stretch; in March, BLANEY posted a career-best third-place finish at Darlington, his third top-ten finish over a four-week stretch (10th at NCS after his first career pole position, eighth at Atlanta) following the season-opening Daytona 500.

In last year’s races at LMS, BLANEY started a career track-best 14th (29.211 secs.) and 21st (points), respectively, and finished 21st and 10th in his first trips to the track with the #77 Jasper team; in the fall, BLANEY ran among the leaders throughout the second half of the race, surging late to run as high as fifth before fading during the final cycle of green-flag pit-stops to finish tenth, his best career-finish at LMS (in six starts); the best start for a Jasper-sponsored entry at LMS (18 races) is sixth (5/94-Greg Sacks) and the best finish was BLANEY’s tenth in the fall, 2002 event at LMS; BLANEY finished second behind Jeff Burton in The Winston Open last weekend at LMS with the team’s new Panther Power all-black paint scheme.

BLANEY—who will run the #31 Whelen Ford in the Busch Series race at LMS –has an outstanding career NASCAR Busch Series qualifying record in Charlotte, winning two of his six career pole positions (in 63 starts) at LMS, on 10/1/98 and 5/25/00—both in then-track-record times.

©Copyright 2003 Race 2 Win