Race 2 Win: Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen

Nextel Cup Series

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Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen - Dave Blaney Notes

Dave Blaney
No. 07 Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet
Event Preview Fact Sheet

Event/Date: Sirius Satellite at The Glen – August 14, 2005
Venue: Watkins Glen International – Watkins Glen, N.Y.

NOTES:

This Week’s Race Car at Infineon Raceway … Dave Blaney will pilot chassis No. 142 from the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) stable. Built new for 2005, this is the same car Blaney raced to a 19th-place finish at Infineon Raceway in June.

$2 Million Dollar Man … Following last week’s Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Blaney eclipsed the $2 million mark in earnings for 2005.

A Chip Off the Old Block … Last Friday night, Blaney’s 11-year-old son Ryan won the feature Bandit class Bandolero race at historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. The younger Blaney was forced to start at the back of the field for the feature after being involved in an accident not of his doing in his heat race. The win marked his third victory of the season.

Field Trip … The Jack Daniel’s Racing Team made the pilgrimage to Lynchburg, Tenn., August 8 to visit the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. The team was given a tour of the facility and treated to lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House, a Lynchburg landmark featuring traditional family-style, Southern cooking.

For the Love of Victory Junction … On Saturday, August 13, Blaney and fellow NEXTEL Cup Series drivers Kevin Harvick, Kyle Petty, Matt Kenseth and Ken Schrader will fly to Sharon (Ohio) Speedway to sign autographs and interact with fans. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp. For more information, log on to www.sharonspeedway.com.

Meet the Driver … Blaney will sign autographs at the Jack Daniel’s Souvenir Trailer Sunday, August 14 from 10-10:45 a.m. A limited number of tickets are available and can be obtained at the trailer the morning of the event.

Up to Speed … The Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen will be televised live Sunday, August 14 beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on NBC and be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 22nd of 36 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events will air live on SPEED Saturday, August 13 at 11 a.m. EDT and will also be broadcast live on MRN and XM Satellite Radio.

DAVE BLANEY QUOTES:
There’s not much in your background that would prepare you for road racing so how do you approach that style of racing?
“Obviously, I come from a dirt background and didn’t get any taste of road racing in my previous career but I really liked it the first time I got to do it. When I was growing up, paved roads were for getting to the track and dirt was where you raced. Even when I was racing go-karts as a kid, it was always on dirt tracks. I just never got into the road races but they are a lot of fun to drive and it’s a good change of pace. I wouldn’t say our cars are fun to drive on a road course. They are kind of big and bulky but you can still sling them around and have a little fun on those types of tracks. Watkins Glen is a fun track and it’s fast. There are lots of really fast parts so there is a lot of hard braking. It’s a challenge all day long to stay on the race track and finish well.

“I also think we’ve got some good set-ups for Watkins Glen. We had a pretty good car at Infineon earlier in the year. Kevin (Harvick) and Jeff (Burton) had really good cars at Infineon so I think we’ll lean on their set -ups a little bit. The two road courses we run are pretty different though. Infineon is tight and slow. Watkins Glen is kind of the opposite. It’s big and really fast”

More than most places, is Watkins Glen somewhere that it’s really critical to race the track first and your competitors second?
“Road racing seems like that. You have to look at your fuel window and pit, accordingly. Staying on the race track and staying out of trouble is a big, big part of it. I’m really anxious to see The Glen. I know they’ve made some changes for the Indy Car race. I understand they’ve paved some of the run-off area so that should make it a little easier to stay out of trouble.

There are always a lot of “hired guns” at these road course races and some other NEXTEL Cup drivers are noted as accomplished road racers. What is a realistic goal for you and the Jack Daniel’s Team this weekend?
“We go into every weekend looking for a top-10 finish and go from there. It’s no different at Watkins Glen. We’ll go up there, build the weekend from there, work toward a top 10 and do whatever we have to do to make that happen.”

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