· Vegas’ Vehicle…The No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive this weekend in the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is chassis No. 78. This car was tested earlier this year at LVMS.
· Blaney’s Career Stats…Blaney will make his 238th 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 22nd after qualifying in 36th in his first Cup Series start in Las Vegas in 2000. Like this weekend, Blaney was aboard a Bill Davis Racing-owned machine.
· Blaney at Las Vegas…Blaney has made six starts on the two-mile superspeedway during his Cup Series career, starting as high as 10th (2002) and finishing as high as 13th (2005). He has scored one top-15 finish in Cup Series competition at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
· BDR at LVMS… Competitors driving Bill Davis Racing-owned cars have been racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since 1998 and have made 13 starts. Those drivers have posted one top-five finish and have completed 2,988 of 3,236 possible laps (92.3 percent).
· Last Race…Blaney and his No. 22 team raced to a 34th-place finish at California Speedway two weeks ago. Blaney qualified his Toyota Camry in 14th place for the event, the highest of the seven Toyota competitors attempting to make the field.
· Testing News… Blaney and his Caterpillar Racing team, along with teammate Jeremy Mayfield and the No. 36 OTC 360 Racing team, spent two days testing the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol (Tenn. ) Motor Speedway last week. Blaney’s No. 22 Bill Davis Racing team is also scheduled to spend two days at Darlington (S. C.) Raceway next week for tire testing.
· Double Duty…Blaney will again pilot a Braun Racing entry in the NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday afternoon. Blaney drove the car to a 13th-place finish last weekend at the road course in Mexico City after qualifying in 31st place in a backup car. Blaney holds down third place in the Busch Series driver point standings.
· Get your 2007 gear…Blaney will make a trip to the Caterpillar souvenir trailer to sign autographs Sunday March 11. Stop by the Cat souvenir trailer or visit www.daveblaney.com for updates and additional information.
· Las Vegas Broadcast Schedule… Qualifying for the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400 is scheduled to start at 6:10 p. m. ET Friday, March 9. The 267-lap event is scheduled to start at 3:30 p. m. ET Sunday, March 11, and will broadcast LIVE on FOX (TV), PRN (radio) and Sirius Satellite Radio.
· The Cat Crew…
Gordy Arbitter Front Tire Changer
Steve Aspinwall Tire Specialist
Gabe Barajas Rear Tire Carrier
Steve Channing Car Chief
Tim Clancy Transporter Driver
Nick Dasovich 2nd Can Gas
Jason Everhart Shocks/Gas Man
Garth Finley Engineer
Craig “Fish†Griffitts Engine Tuner
Kevin Hamlin Crew Chief
Michael Hubert Pit Support
Tom Hubert Rear Tire Changer
Tim Hussey Gas Runner
Ted Johnson Sign Board
Jason Kivette Catch Can
Philip Kuhn Pit Support
Chris “Crazy†Osborne Spotter
Kyle Roland Jack Man
Dave Salerno Windshield
Kevin Sharpe Front Tire Carrier
Dave Blaney on Las Vegas Motor Speedway…“It was an interesting test when we were there at Las Vegas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago. They reconfigured that track and it’s really, really fast. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when you get 43 cars running all at the same time. First though, we need to work on qualifying out Caterpillar Camry somewhere near the front and most importantly we have got to finish this race. That’s the main thing we need to accomplish this weekend. I’ve looked at the owner points and even though we’re in good company down at the bottom of the list, we need to get ourselves back in the top 35 at the very least and then we can work on moving up from there. We just can’t afford not to finish this race and there’s no reason to think that we won’t, but strange things have been happening this year already.â€
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