Dave Blaney
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet
Event/Date: UAW – DaimlerChrysler 400 – March 13, 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. 131 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. This is a brand new race car.
Test in the West … Blaney and the Jack Daniel’s Racing Team tested at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Jan. 31 – Feb. 1
Double Duty for the Bullet … Dave Blaney will also be competing in the Sam’s Town 300 NASCAR Busch Series event Saturday, March 12 at LVMS. Blaney will be driving the No. 31 Whelen Chevrolet for Marsh Racing.
Up Close and Personal … Blaney will appear on PRN’s Fast Talk Live with Benny Parsons Thursday, March 10 at 8:05 p.m. at the Orlean’s Hotel and Casino. The Orleans is located at 4500 W. Tropicana Boulevard.
Black Jack Daniel’s … Blaney will also appear at the Palms Casino Resort, Friday, March 11 from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. to release a commemorative Jack Daniel’s $7 chip. Only 3,777 of these chips have been produced to honor Jack Daniel’s inaugural season in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Blaney will sign autographs and photographs with the Jack Daniel's models and the Jack Daniel's show car will be available in The Lounge. If a player should choose to play his or her chip, they can play it at the Jack Daniel's customized blackjack pit. The Palms is located at 4321 W. Flamingo Road.
Meet the Driver … Blaney will sign autographs at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at the Jack Daniel’s souvenir trailer Sunday, March 13 from 8:15 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
DAVE BLANEY QUOTES:
You’re not taking the car you had originally planned to run at Vegas because of the incident during the race at Fontana. Is that going to be a problem?
“I don’t think it’s going to be an issue at all. We tested this car at Las Vegas and California and weren’t very happy with it so we took it back to the shop, cut the body off and completely re-skinned the car. Now, it’s a twin to the car Kevin (Harvick) raced at California two weeks ago. I felt like our chassis stuff at Vegas was pretty good. The guys on the (No.) 29 car will be running the same thing they ran at California and we’re going to run the same thing or something pretty close to it, so we should be in good shape. Yes, we had planned on running the car we wrecked during the race at Fontana but that car wasn’t the-be-all-to-end-all by any means. We’ve got other cars that are just as good and maybe even better.”
PHILIPPE LOPEZ QUOTES:
What are some of the challenges you’ll face given that you’re taking a car that you hadn’t planned on racing at Las Vegas?
“Basically everything we did at the test at Las Vegas is null and void. The car and body are that much different from the one we tested. We’re going to have more clearances and a whole better body to the point that we’re counting on the issues we had during the test aren’t going to be issues anymore.”
So it’s really no big deal that you had to change your plan?
“It’s probably a blessing in disguise. We were pretty happy at the test with our fast lap and we were decent in race trim. When you stack that up against cars like the (Nos.) 48 and the 9, we were just a tick slower. We tested this car a little bit while we were in Las Vegas in February and it was way off, but we didn’t try and run a fast lap with it. Now, with the new body, I think we’re bringing back a much better car than what we even originally planned to race. If we wouldn’t have had our troubles, we would have reluctantly taken that car based on how it performed. With this car we should be able to get off to a good start. We might be a little behind, but we should be able to catch up quick.”
How involved will you be with the No. 31 Busch Car Dave is driving this weekend?
“I’m going to help them out any way I can because any information Dave can bring back to the Cup side is going to be valuable. Obviously, we’re not going to let it detract from what we’re doing with the Jack Daniel’s car, but if we can learn anything that will apply to our stuff it will be to our benefit. I’ll help Teddy (Marsh) out as much as I can. They have their own program going on, so it’s not like we can have them bolt on two tires on Saturday to see how that will affect our car on Sunday. But, as they do things like tire pressure adjustments, wedge and track bar changes, we’ll be able to write down where that helped or hurt Dave and that should work to our advantage on Sunday.”
