Cat Racing Event Preview
Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500
Bristol Motor Speedway News and Notes
Bristol’s Ride…The No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the Food City 500 is COT 11. This car was tested at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway earlier this month and during a tire test at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway last week.
Blaney’s Career Stats…Blaney will make his 240th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start when the green flag waves Sunday afternoon. He made his first career Cup Series start in October 1992 at [Rockingham] North Carolina Speedway and finished 35th after qualifying 26th for his first Cup Series start in Bristol in 2000. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
Blaney at Bristol…Blaney has made 12 starts on the .533-mile high-banked oval during his Cup Series career, starting as high as second (2005) and finishing as high as 14th (2006). He has scored four top-20 finishes in Cup Series competition at Bristol Motor Speedway and has qualified in the top 10 on three occasions.
BDR at BMS…Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at Bristol Motor Speedway since 1993 and have made 38 starts. Those drivers have posted two top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes and have completed 16,347 of 18,842 possible laps (86.8 percent).
Last Race…Blaney and his No. 22 team finished 27th after qualifying in 35th in last week’s event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team advanced three places to 39th in the owners’ point standings. It is now separated from the top 35 by 43 points.
Double Duty…Blaney will again pilot a Braun Racing entry in the NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday afternoon. Blaney finished 16th in last weekend’s event at Atlanta Motor Speedway and remains third in the drivers’ point standings. Blaney will spend next Tuesday and Wednesday testing his Busch Series ride at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
Get your 2007 gear…Blaney will sign autographs at the Caterpillar souvenir trailer after qualifying Friday, March 23. Stop by the Cat souvenir trailer or visit www.daveblaney.com for updates and additional information.
Bristol Broadcast Schedule…Qualifying for the Food City 500 is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET Friday, March 23. The 500-lap event is scheduled to start at 2:10 p.m. ET Sunday, March 25, and will broadcast LIVE on FOX (TV), PRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio.
Quotes:
Dave Blaney on Bristol Motor Speedway…“We finally got the monkey off our back last weekend in Atlanta and managed to finish a race. It wasn’t a great race for us by any means, but after three DNFs, you start to wonder if you’ll ever finish one, so at least we got past that. Obviously we need to do the same thing in Bristol, which is always difficult. Car of Tomorrow or not, you still have to have the same strategy when you go to Bristol – have a decent handling racecar, don’t make any mistakes of your own and stay out of everyone else’s trouble. That will be our goal. We’re 43 points outside the top 35 right now, and we’re going to do everything we can to make up that deficit before we go to Martinsville. We took a bit of a chunk out of it last week, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
On the Car of Tomorrow…“We tested our COT at Bristol a couple of weeks ago, and honestly, we weren’t that happy with it there. But we also had an opportunity to go to Darlington for a couple of days for a tire test last week, and we left there pretty upbeat, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
