"FORMER OUTLAW BLANEY FINDS            
COMFORT ZONE IN BRICKYARD PRACTICE"                   

Published, in edited form, in the Johnson County (Ind.) Daily Journal, Aug. 4, 2001 ©

         Some days, Dave Blaney yearns for the simpler days of going to little dirt tracks and racing winged sprint cars that slide sideways through the turns.

         But Friday wasn't one of those days. In its way, Friday was the day Blaney finally found wheeling a heavy race car - with fenders yet - around a long, paved track a pure driving pleasure. Or close to it. "It was pretty good," the former World of Outlaws winged-sprint champion said after putting up the 11th fastest speed on the board Friday as the NASCAR Winston Cup cars warmed up for today's qualification runs for the Brickyard 400.

         "We tested real good here last week, so we ran the lap we pretty much expected to, really. We're pretty much on track for what we felt we could run."

         Blaney, in his second full season on the Winston Cup circuit, clocked in at 175.528 mph with his black-and-white Amoco Dodge during the one-hour practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. That did wonders for the optimism of the gradually rising NASCAR star who used to feel more comfortable at dustbowls like Terre Haute and Eldora (Ohio) than at super racing bowls like Daytona and the Brickyard.

         "Oh, yeah," he enthused, his face drained of much of its color by Friday's heat but still managing a hearty smile as he cooled off inside the Bill Davis Racing trailer. "I'll be disappointed if we don't time in the top 15. I think we've got a real good car and a good engine, and that's where we need to time. That's our goal."

         Amazing what just nine laps around the 21/2-mile Indy oval can do for a driver whose season has had more downs than ups, with a few almosts thrown in for good measure. "I think we found out a few things today," Blaney said Friday afternoon, his optimism running more toward uninhibited than cautious, "and know what we can do tomorrow to run considerably faster."

         For the 38-year-old driver, the Brickyard could be a turning point in his race toward the top of the Winston Cup ranks. Last Sunday, Blaney and the new Davis Racing entry showed their potential, running eighth in the Pocono 500 until the fuel tank went dry on the last lap. As Blaney sees it, that - combined with Friday's 11th-best lap - puts him somewhat in the driver's seat for the first time at the Brickyard.

         "Most definitely, I feel like we've got a really good race car for Sunday," said the 1995 World of Outlaws champ who has two previous starts, and two mediocre finishes (28th and 23rd), in the Brickyard 400. "We learned a lot last week at Pocono. That track - a lot of the stuff that works good there is gonna work good here, as far as transmissions, engines and chassis set-ups.

         "We had a real good car there. We think a lot of that will help here."

         Another helpful fact, Blaney believes, is what he calls the "coming together" of his new team. "It's a young team; it's still evolving," he commented Friday back in the Davis trailer. "We're getting a good core group, and we've shown flashes of really running good at times, and then we'll shoot ourselves in the foot at times.

         "As long as we have those flashes of running good and can turn it into more consistent races, we're going to be fine."

         Still, Blaney has to admit that sometimes the days at the dirtbowls look pretty good to him. Success in NASCAR comes a lot harder than in sprint cars, he notes. "Sure, it does" he acknowledged, with another knowing smile cocking itself sideways on his washed-out face. "There's just so many more people involved. You've got pit stops and so many things that can go wrong in one of those long races.

         "In a World of Outlaws race, once the race pushes off, it's in the driver's hands."

         But Blaney probably won't be going home again to the power slides and the sprint-car bullrings. The only former World of Outlaws regular on the Winston Cup scene, he recognizes that he is part of the changing face of NASCAR racing, which is no longer the exclusive territory of guys from places with Dixie-backroads names like Hueytown and Level Cross - as opposed to his own Hartford, Ohio - and who automatically know that hominy is something you eat with every meal, not something you try to sing.

         He is no stranger in a strange land and says he never really was. "I've never felt like an outsider," he explained amid the team trailers lined up in Indy's garage-area parking lot like relatives in a family album. "Now there are guys coming from every part of the country, coming up from different kinds of racing.

         "I think that's good. As long as you can get the job done on the race track, you're going to be treated fine. As long as you earn some respect there, that's the ticket, and I've tried to do that."

         He figures he will be trying again Sunday afternoon in his third Brickyard race. And his strong showing in practice Friday even had him figuring out how an old winged-sprint car driver could earn a victory at the place where Victory Lane was invented.

         "It'll take a lot of good stuff happening," he speculated, with another optimistic smile. "It'll take a great handling race car, a great engine and absolutely no mistakes by the driver, and it could happen."

         "It could," he repeated, just in case anyone missed the growing optimism the first time.

----------

 Copyright 2001 by Jerry Miller ©

 Color photo courtesy of NASCAR

 Return to Writings page