Sam's Town 300 - Dave Blaney Notes

Dave Blaney
No. 31 Whelen Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: Sam’s Town 300 – March 12, 2005
Venue: Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Las Vegas

NOTES:

This Week’s Race Car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway … Dave Blaney will pilot chassis No. 019 from the Marsh Racing stable. This is the same car Todd Bodine finished fifth with last fall at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

RCR Chips In ... The No. 31 Whelen Chevrolet will compete with engines supplied by Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and enjoy technical support from RCR as well.

David vs. Goliath … In 54 Busch Series starts, Marsh Racing, headquartered in Old Lyme, Conn. has earned three top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. In 2003, Blaney recorded three top 10s for Marsh Racing at Michigan (8/16), Richmond (9/5) and Atlanta (10/25).

Blaney’s Best … Blaney’s best finish for Marsh Racing is a ninth-place effort at Richmond on September 5, 2003. All totaled, the Hartford, Ohio native owns seven top- five and 22 top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Busch Series with a pair of career-best runner-up efforts coming at Atlanta (3/13) and Darlington (9/4) in 1999.

Whelen’s Way … For more than 50 years, Whelen and its 800 fulltime employees have provided innovative emergency lighting and siren products in the automotive, aviation, industrial, emergency management and traffic management markets. Whelen is also a household name to race fans across America. Whelen is the title sponsor of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the Official Licensed Warning Lights of NASCAR. The company also provides emergency lights for safety vehicles, tracks and pace cars for ASA, ARCA, IRL, CART, IROC, SCCA, and The World of Outlaws. All Whelen products are made in America.

Up to Speed… the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series race will be televised live Saturday, March 12 beginning at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on FX and broadcast live on PRN and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the Sam’s Town 300 will air live on Speed Friday, March 11 at 8 p.m. EST.

DAVE BLANEY QUOTES:

Are you eager to get back in a Busch car? “I’ve been looking forward to getting back in the Whelen Busch Car since we announced the program in January. It’s a great opportunity for Ted Marsh and his race team to partner with RCR on engines and technical support. The RCR Busch engines are some of, if not the strongest in the Busch Series. The Marsh team always has good race cars and with the RCR engine we should be very competitive. We’ll lean a lot on the RCR Busch teams for set-ups since they tested at Las Vegas. We’ll have our backs against the wall a little bit because we didn’t test out there. We only get a couple hours of practice before qualifying and after qualifying the cars get impounded, so we need to be good right out of the truck.”

Will Philippe (Lopez) call the race? “Philippe is going to help. He’s going to be around the Busch Car a lot. I’m not 100 percent sure if he’ll call the race, but I think he will. I expect Philippe to be on the box for most of the race. If he’s not calling the race, he’ll be there for most of it. If Philippe doesn’t call the race Ted Marsh will and he does a great job too. We’ve always run well in the Whelen car when we’ve had strong motors.”

TED MARSH QUOTES:

What’s your outlook for the 10 races you are scheduled to run with Dave? “We’re looking forward to it. Mainly because he’s driven for us in the past, we’ve gotten a chance to know him and we’re excited about getting back together with him for 10 races in 2005. As everybody knows, Dave’s not one of these guys who says a whole lot but he gets the job done when he gets behind the wheel. He drives the wheels off the car and that’s what we like. We want someone who will really push it.”

Talk about the technical support Marsh Racing will get from RCR. “I’m definitely looking forward to working with the RCR gang. They’ve obviously got great Busch motors. There’s no doubt about that, especially looking at what happened a couple weeks ago at California, so it’s going to be great working with those guys. Philippe (Lopez) is going to be on board helping us so it’s going to be fun.”

How has a single car team based in New England managed to stay competitive with some of the bigger multi-car teams in the Busch Series? “We’ve always had some sort of Cup connection one way or the other. It’s been either through the driver or friends of mine that have become crew chiefs for Cup teams. So we’ve been able to snag a little bit of technology here and there which is what’s necessary in this game. Fortunately, we’ve always had great bodies and great motors through lease programs. We’ve always been able to get whatever we needed to make it all work.”