Cat Racing Event Preview
New Hampshire International Speedway
Sylvania 300
New Hampshire News and Notes
New Hampshire’s Hot Rod…The No. 22 Caterpillar car Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway is chassis No. 100.
Richmond Rewind…After qualifying in the 15th spot, Blaney and the Cat Racing team put together a solid fourth-place finish in last week’s event at Richmond International Raceway. The fourth-place effort stands as the best finish of the season for the team and the second top-five finish of Blaney’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series career.
Blaney’s Career Stats…Blaney will make his 226th career 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 drove his Bill Davis Racing-owned machine to a 40th-place finish (qualified 34th) in his first Cup Series start at Loudon in 1999.
Loudon Lowdown… Blaney has made 13 starts on the 1.058-mile speedway during his Cup Series career, starting as high as fifth (2002) and finishing as high as 11th (2001). He has scored four top-15 finishes at the track in Cup Series competition and has qualified in the top 20 on three occasions. Last time the Series raced in Loudon Blaney drove to a 13th place finish.
BDR at NHIS… Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at New Hampshire International Speedway since 1993 and have made 33 starts. Those drivers have posted one top-five effort—a victory in 2002—and three top-10 finishes.
Get in Line Early…Blaney is scheduled to make another stop at the Caterpillar merchandise trailer to meet fans and sign autographs Saturday afternoon.
Loudon’s Broadcast Schedule…Qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Sylvania 300 is scheduled to start at 3:10 p.m. ET Friday, Sept. 15. The 300-lap event is scheduled to start at 1:10 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 17, and will broadcast LIVE on TNT (TV), MRN and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144.
Dave Blaney on New Hampshire…
“We’re coming off a good weekend last week in Richmond, and we ran well last time we were in Loudon, so we’re looking forward to getting back there. We’ve been getting better in the second half of the season, and this Caterpillar Racing team has really been gaining on it the last couple of weeks. With only a couple of exceptions qualifying has been much better, and we’ve been a lot better right off the truck. We go out almost every week and have a legitimate shot at a top-15 finish. Sometimes it works for us and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s nice to know that we can go out there and be competitive. We surprised a lot of people last week – heck, we may have even surprised ourselves - and hopefully we can do the same thing again this week. It’s not out of the question that we could finish in the top 25 in the owners’ point standings, and that’s one of our goals. For a while there it seemed a little out of our reach, but now I think it’s something that could happen for us. There are 10 guys in the Chase, and they’ll get most of the attention from here on out, but the teams deeper in the point standings still have pretty hefty goals set for themselves, and we’re one of them. There’s a lot of racing left in this season for everyone.”
