Dave Blaney
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: MBNA 400 – September 25, 2005
Venue: Dover International Speedway – Dover, Del.
NOTES:
This Week’s Race Car at Dover International Speedway … Dave Blaney will pilot chassis No. 152 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. This is a brand new Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet.
RCR at Dover … RCR owns three victories at Dover. Dale Earnhardt swept both events in 1989 and took the checkered flag at the spring event in 1993. Earnhardt went on to finish second to Rusty Wallace in the 1989 championship battle and collected his fifth title for RCR (sixth overall) in 1993. Additionally, RCR boasts 16 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes with Earnhardt, Mike Skinner, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick at Dover’s “Monster Mile.”
Testing One, Two, Three, Testing … Blaney and the Jack Daniel’s Racing Team will test at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Tuesday, September 20 in preparation for next month’s UAW-GM Quality 500 at LMS.
Meet the Driver … Blaney will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer Sunday, September 25 from 9:15 - 10 a.m. A limited number of tickets are available and can be obtained at the trailer.
Meet the Driver, Part Two … Blaney will also appear at the Jack Daniel’s Experience Sunday, September 25 from 10-10:30 a.m. The Jack Daniel’s Experience will be located outside the speedway near Turns 3 and 4. Autographs will be available on a first come, first serve basis.
Up to Speed … The MBNA 400 at Dover International Speedway will be televised live Sunday, September 25 beginning at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on TNT and be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 28th of 36 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events will air on SPEED Friday, September 23 at 3:30 p.m. EDT and will also be broadcast live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio.
DAVE BLANEY QUOTES:
Talk about the June race at Dover.
“Dover was one of our better races as far as having a fast Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet. We started in the back and drove straight to the front. We were really, really good on long runs and I wrecked the race car. I caused a big wreck with (Ken) Schrader on the backstretch. I just clipped the apron a little bit in turn two and lost the car. That was a bad day. It’s always a bad day when you have a good car and end up killing it with a mistake.”
Is Dover still the “Monster Mile?” Is it still as tough as it has always been?
“It is a tough track but it’s one of my favorites too. Dover is fun to drive. There are certain things about it that just make it a lot of fun to race on. You can really help yourself if you go about driving the track a little bit different sometimes, especially late in a run when the tires are old and different things are going on. You can move up or down the track. You can change how you drive just a little bit and really help yourself. You just don’t want to wreck there because you’re going to wreck hard no matter what you do. There’s no way around not wrecking hard at Dover. You might get lucky and hit the little patch of grass in turns three and four but nine times out of ten, if you get in trouble at Dover you’re probably going to be in big enough trouble where it will end your day. Most of the time, it’s a big hit.”
Based on how tough it is, what makes it fun to drive?
“It gets plenty wide during the race where you have room to move around. I’ve had cars at Dover that really loved the top of the race track and cars that loved the bottom. You might not be very good at one place on the track but you might be really good on another. But, when you have a really good car it doesn’t matter, you can run anywhere you want.”
