CAT RACING EVENT PREVIEW
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
BASS PRO SHOPS 500
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY NEWS AND NOTES
ATLANTA’S CAR…The No. 22 Caterpillar car Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway is chassis No. 78.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND…Blaney and the Cat Racing team posted their best qualifying effort of the season and lined up in the sixth spot on the starting grid for the Subway 500. The team ran well in the early stages of the event, but a problem with the power steering forced Blaney behind the wall for 14 laps before the halfway point of the race. The team took the checkered flag in the 33rd spot.
BLANEY’S CAREER STATS…Blaney will make his 232nd career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start when the green flag waves Sunday afternoon. He made his first career NASCAR Cup Series start in October 1992 at [Rockingham] North Carolina Speedway and finished 37th after qualifying in seventh in his first Cup Series start in Atlanta in 1999. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
ATLANTA’S STATS…Blaney has made 13 starts on the 1.54-mile track in his Cup Series career and has two top-10 finishes and three top-10 finishes to his credit. In the Cup Series’ most recent visit to Atlanta this spring, Blaney finished 32nd after a pit road collision left the team a lap down.
BDR AT AMS…Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned Cup cars have been racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway since 1993 and have made 41 starts. Bill Davis Racing drivers have earned three top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes in competition at the track.
IT’S A BUSY WEEK…Blaney, like several of his Cup Series competitors, will head to South Georgia Motorsports Park for some PRA “Big Car” action Wednesday night. Blaney will then take a road trip to the Caterpillar facility in Griffin, Ga., Thursday afternoon, where he will tour the Cat facility and sign autographs for employees. Following Sunday’s race, Blaney will make a couple of public appearances in Ohio, including an autograph session for sponsor Remington at the Gander Mountain store in Youngstown. Blaney also celebrated his 44th birthday Tuesday, Oct. 24.
DON’T MISS IT…Blaney will make his weekly visit to the merchandise trailer to sign autographs Saturday afternoon following final practice. Stop by the souvenir trailer or visit www.daveblaney.com for updates.
ATLANTA BROADCAST SCHEDULE…Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Bass Pro Shops 500 is scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m. ET Friday, Oct. 27. The 325-lap event is scheduled to start at 2:55 p.m. ET Sunday, Oct. 29, and will broadcast LIVE on NBC (TV), PRN (radio) and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144.
DAVE BLANEY ON ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY…“Atlanta is a great place to race; it’s big, it’s wide and it’s fast, and that’s just a great combination. We’ve been so much better right off the truck lately than we were in the beginning of the season, and that’s helped us in qualifying and throughout the weekend. We just haven’t had the finishes we were hoping for, and the last couple of weeks have been pretty disappointing. We need to get to Atlanta and get things turned around again because we’d really like to finish off the season with a couple of good finishes under our belts.”
