CAT RACING EVENT PREVIEW
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
PEPSI 400
Track: Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida (2.5-mile tri-oval)
Race: Pepsi 400 Date: July 1, 2006
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY NEWS AND NOTES
Daytona’s Cat Car…The No. 22 Caterpillar car Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway is chassis No. 91. This is the same car the team ran in the season-opening restrictor plate race at Daytona.
What Happened Last Week…Blaney and the Cat car were just starting to show what they could do when a problem with the driveshaft cut the day short. Blaney and the team were relegated to a 39th place finish in the first of two road-course events of the season.
The Streak Stops…Blaney’s mechanical problems at Infineon Raceway ended his streak of races without a DNF. Blaney had been running at the end of 32 consecutive races, which was the longest current streak in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, and started in Pocono in June last season.
Blaney’s Career Stats…Blaney will make his 216th career NEXTEL Cup Series start when the green flag waves Saturday evening. He made his first career NASCAR Cup Series start in October 1992 at [Rockingham] North Carolina Speedway and finished 27th in his first start in Daytona Beach. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
Daytona Digits…Blaney has made 13 starts on the 2.5-mile Superspeedway during his Cup Series career, starting as high as 4th (2000) and finishing as high as 14th (2005). He has scored three top-15 and eight top-25 finishes at the track in Cup Series competition.
BDR at DIS…Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at Daytona International Speedway since 1993 and have made 36 starts. Those drivers have posted three top-five and nine top-10 efforts and have completed 5,973 of 6,304 possible laps (94.7%). The team won the Daytona 500 in 2002.
Step Right Up…Blaney is scheduled to sign autographs at the Caterpillar merchandise trailer beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday. Check with the merchandise trailer for updates and more information. Blaney will also take part in a fan forum at Daytona USA on Friday at 3:15 p.m.
Daytona TV and Radio…Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Pepsi 400 is scheduled to start at 4:35 p.m. ET Friday, June 30. The 160-lap (400 miles) event is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, July 1, and will broadcast LIVE on FOX (TV), MRN and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144.
Dave Blaney on Daytona…
“We’re headed back to Daytona so it’s back to strapping in and holding on, I guess. Our Superspeedway program has been pretty good this year, so maybe it’s good that’s where we go next. Racing under the lights at Daytona is always great, not just for the fans, but it’s pretty cool for the drivers too. Plus, racing on Saturday night is always nice since, of course, it gives us the Sunday rain date option and more importantly, it also gives everyone a chance to have Sunday at home. It just seems like everything is more fun and the excitement for the fans is twice as intense when you race on Saturdays.
“I guess if we’re making the second trip to Daytona then that must mean we’re about halfway though the season already. Sure, we thought we’d be sitting a lot higher in the points at this point when we were getting ready for the season and we thought we would have had a lot better year all around then we’ve had, but all is not lost, that’s for sure. We’ve shown signs of improvement over the past month or two and I’m sure the second half of the season will be a lot better than the first. When you struggle a bit like we have, your goals change, but everyone is working hard and working well together, so I definitely think there are better things to come for this Cat team.”
