Cat Racing Event Preview
Texas Motor Speedway
Dickies 500
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY NEWS AND NOTES
TEXAS’ RIDE…The No. 22 Caterpillar car Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is chassis No. 78.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEKEND…Blaney and the Cat Racing team started the event in the 26th place after rain forced the cancellation of qualifying and the field lined up based on the owners’ points standings. The crew fought a loose-handling race car in the early stages of the race, but the handling grew tighter as the race progressed. Despite those issues, Blaney was able to take the checkered flag in 18th place, scoring the team’s 10th top-20 finish of the year,
BLANEY’S CAREER STATS…Blaney will make his 233rd 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 22nd after qualifying in 24th in his first Cup Series start at Texas in 2000. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
TEXAS’ NUMBERS…Blaney has made eight starts on the 1.5-mile track in his Cup Series career and has one top-10 finish and three top-15 finishes to his credit. When the NEXTEL Cup Series visited Texas in the spring, Blaney finished 29th after brushing the wall and fighting a tight-handling car all day.
BDR AT TMS…Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned Cup cars have been racing at Texas Motor Speedway since 1997 and have made 16 starts. Bill Davis Racing drivers have earned two top-10 finishes in competition at the Fort Worth area track.
IT’S A BUSY WEEK…Blaney made a couple of public appearances this week in Ohio, including a stop for sponsor Remington at the Gander Mountain store in Warren Monday evening. He will visit another Gander Mountain store for a public appearance Saturday evening. Blaney is scheduled to be at the Sherman, Texas, store from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. CT.
STOP BY AND SAY HOWDY…Blaney will sign autographs at the Caterpillar merchandise trailer following final practice Saturday afternoon. Stop by the Cat souvenir trailer or visit www.daveblaney.com for updates and additional information. Blaney will also sign autographs at the Cat Footwear booth on Speedway grounds Friday night.
TEXAS BROADCAST SCHEDULE…Qualifying for the NASCAR Nextel Cup DIckies 500 is scheduled to start at 3:40 p.m. ET Friday, Nov. 3. The 335-lap event is scheduled to start at 2:55 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 5, and will broadcast LIVE on NBC (TV), PRN (radio) and XM Satellite Radio Channel 144.
DAVE BLANEY ON TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY…
“We were pretty happy with the way the car handled for the first half of the event last week, and really pleased with it Saturday during practice. We’re going to bring that same car back to Texas and see if we can’t work with it and get it to perform as well as we think it is capable on raceday. We struggle a little bit at these 1.5-mile tracks, and with so many of them on the schedule, it’s something that we need to spend some time trying to figure out. We have a good baseline with this particular Caterpillar car, and hopefully we can take it to the next level this weekend in Texas. It would certainly be nice to finish off the season with a couple of really good runs.”
