Dave Blaney
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: Pepsi 400 – July 2, 2005
Venue: Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Daytona International Speedway … Dave Blaney will pilot chassis No. 133 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. Built new for 2005, this is the same car Blaney raced in the Gatorade Dual at Daytona (started 14th, finished 25th) in February and at Talladega in April (started eighth, finished 19th).
RCR Rocks Daytona … Dating back to 1986, RCR has won six poles and owns 22 total victories at DIS, including 10 straight (1990-1999) Twin 125 wins with Dale Earnhardt. All totaled, RCR has won five Bud Shootouts, 13 Twin 125 qualifying races, two Pepsi 400s and one Daytona 500. Additionally, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won the February 2002 Busch Series race at Daytona driving a car fielded by RCR.
Make it Four, RCR … Kerry Earnhardt will attempt to qualify the No. 33 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for the Pepsi 400, making it four entries for RCR.
Ohio Speedweek … Blaney returns to the open wheel ranks this week for the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Ohio Speedweek. Blaney will race his own winged sprint car against the All Star Sprint stars June 28 at Raceway 7 in Conneaut and June 29 at his family-owned Sharon Speedway in Hartford.
Meet the Driver … Blaney will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer Friday, July 1 from 3:15-3:45 p.m. A limited number of tickets are available and can be obtained at the trailer
Up to Speed … Live coverage of the Pepsi 400 begins Saturday, July 2 at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on NBC. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio will also carry the race broadcast live. Qualifying for the 17th of 36 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events will be telecast live on TNT Friday, July 1 at 4:30 p.m. EDT and can be heard live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio.
DAVE BLANEY QUOTES:
You’ve had some pretty good runs at Daytona and ran well at both restrictor plate races this year. Are you looking forward to another superspeedway race?
“I’m definitely looking forward to Daytona. Our cars ran well at the 500 in February and I think we ran even better at Talladega. The engine department has made some pretty serious gains since February. All three teams think we can run really well when we get back to Daytona.”
Is qualifying that important at restrictor plate tracks anymore?
“No. But Daytona is an impound race so qualifying will tell you who is fast. You won’t see all the qualifying tricks that you see in February. Qualifying on Friday will pretty much tell you who has what.”
We’re approaching the halfway point in the season and there have been some rough weekends during the first half. What are the positives you can take out of the first half of 2005?
“It’s been rough so far. We’ve just had so many bad things happen to us whether it’s just being in the wrong place at the wrong time or me making mistakes or whatever, it has just knocked us so far back in the points. The positive thing is that most weeks we have a fast race car. It’s one thing to be running in the back and wrecking every week but we’ve run pretty well for the most part and that’s something we can build on.”
