CAT RACING EVENT PREVIEW
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Samsung/Radioshack 500
Track: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas (1.5-mile quad oval)
Race: Samsung/RadioShack 500 Date: 04.09.06
TEXAS NEWS AND NOTES
Texas’ transportation…The No. 22 Caterpillar car Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend for the Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend is chassis No. 65. This car was utilized in Atlanta, but crew chief Kevin Hamlin and the guys back at the Bill Davis Racing shop have been hard at work fitting it with a brand-new body for this event.
Martinsville rewind…Warm weather last weekend at Martinsville meant the Cat Racing team and the rest of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series competitors were finally able to take off their winter coats. Dave Blaney qualified 14th for the event, the team’s best effort of the season thus far, and drove to a 17th-place finish. Blaney struggled with an extremely tight-handling race car at the start of the event, but Hamlin knew exactly what to do to fix the problem. His adjustments helped carry Blaney to the team’s best finish of the season. The strong finish helped Blaney and crew move up two more spots to 29th in the point standings.
Blaney’s career stats …Blaney will make his 206th 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 finished 22nd in his first Cup Series start at Texas in 2000. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
Back for more…Blaney has made seven NEXTEL Cup Series starts on the 1.5-mile Texas track and has earned three top-15 finishes, including a sixth-place effort in 2001. He has qualified in the top 15 on two occasions, with his best start of 12th coming in this race last year. Blaney has also competed in the Busch Series at Texas. In 1999, he topped the charts in qualifying before finishing eighth. He competed in both the Busch Series and Cup Series events during the fall weekend of NASCAR racing last season.
Stop by and say “howdy” to Dave…Blaney is scheduled to sign autographs at the Caterpillar merchandise trailer from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Check with the merchandise trailer for updates and more information.
Practice makes perfect…The Cat Racing team is scheduled to test at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway next Tuesday and Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming event at that track.
Texas TV and radio …Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Samsung/Radio Shack 500 is scheduled to start at 4:40 p.m. ET Friday, April 7, and will broadcast LIVE on SPEED (TV), MRN (radio) and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144. The 334-lap event is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, April 9, and will broadcast LIVE on FOX (TV), PRN and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144.
Dave Blaney on Texas…
“We had two decent races at the short tracks, and now we have to head back to the bigger tracks for a couple of races. Hopefully this bit of momentum we’ve got swinging our way will continue. Last week in Martinsville, we started the race and the car was so tight I couldn’t turn it at all, but Hamlin hooked up the rear sway bar and made a couple of other small changes. After that, the car was pretty good. For a couple of races there before Bristol, the handling wasn’t where we needed it to be come race day. It didn’t matter what we did to adjust on the cars during the race; they just wouldn’t respond the way they needed to, so the fact that the adjustments have helped is a step in the right direction. This week we’re bringing the same car we had in Atlanta, but the guys at the shop have been working really hard and this car has a brand new body since Atlanta. We think it will be a good car and a good race for us. We’re actually excited to get to Texas. If it goes like it should, the Caterpillar car will roll off the truck and be fast in practice, and then we won’t have to make any major changes before qualifying or the race. We can just tweak on it a bit and go from there. Obviously, that’s the way it’s supposed to work, but it’s always easier said than done. I think we’re definitely headed in the right direction and everything is starting to come together. We’ve picked up a couple of spots in the points in the last two weeks, which was really important because we had started to dig ourselves a bit of a hole, but hopefully we’ve got things turned around now and can continue to improve.”
