Career Highlights:
- 1st NASCAR Busch Series victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway
(Oct. 14, 2006)
- 1st NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series pole - North Carolina Speedway
(Feb. 23, 2003)
- USAC Silver Crown Championship (1998)
- World of Outlaws Sprint Car Champion (1995)
- 1st NASCAR NEXTEL Cup start - North Carolina Speedway
(Oct. 25, 1992)
- USAC Silver Crown Champion (1984)
Like many NASCAR drivers, Dave Blaney's love for racing is somewhat inherited. His grandfather's and father's involvement with motorsports introduced Blaney to the fun world of fast cars. However, his racing roots literally grew from the dirt … on dirt tracks that is, racing sprint cars throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania, and beyond.
Blaney's professional racing career officially started shortly after he graduated from high school in 1981, when his dad offered him a ride he couldn't refuse-driving a sprint car. Although he was content just working on the cars, he accepted his dad's offer.
Blaney struggled in the beginning, but quickly found his stride. In less than five years, the Ohio native had accumulated Rookie of the Year honors in both the Sprint Car Circuit of Champions and USAC Silver Crown Series. In early April 1985, he claimed his first World of Outlaws feature win at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
From there, Blaney raced as much as he could, gaining track time through almost every opportunity that came his way. Eventually, he stepped more deeply into the World of Outlaws (WoO) in 1988, running as many races as possible east of the Mississippi.
Starting in 1993, Blaney focused even more on running the WoO circuit. Over a five-year stretch, he proved why he had become known as The Buckeye Bullet, starting with back-to-back 1993 and 1994 first runner-up finishes in the WoO Championship standings.
Then, one of the biggest highlights of his career came in 1995 when Blaney claimed the World of Outlaws Championship. The success in the Outlaws Series didn't stop there, as he followed up with two more runner-up championship finishes in 1996 and 1997.
From sprint car to stock car
In the midst of his WoO successes, Blaney did start to dabble with stock cars by first taking a local Ohio friend-by the name of Stan Hover-up on his offer to drive one of his cars in a NASCAR Cup event. Together, the duo grabbed their first official NASCAR Cup start at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C. in late 1992. In addition to that, Blaney started a few ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) races when his busy and grueling sprint car schedule allowed. Running sprint cars was his priority since it was keeping a roof over his family's head. However, stock cars had definitely piqued Blaney's curiosity.
In 1997, Amoco started providing some financial backing for Blaney's sprint car efforts. Blaney and Amoco had a good partnership and worked well together. As the 1998 racing season was quickly approaching, Amoco decided to move its motorsports sponsorship endeavors over to NASCAR, and decided to partner with NASCAR team owner Bill Davis to field a Busch Series team.
Davis wasn't afraid to take a gamble on new talent after his earlier run with the young, up-and-coming driver Jeff Gordon. Amoco liked Blaney, so the next thing Blaney knew, he was signed to race in the Busch Series for Amoco and Bill Davis Racing (BDR).
Being 36 years old at the time, Blaney thought he was too old to come into NASCAR, plus he didn't want to give up his sprint car career. However, Blaney was interested in what opportunities NASCAR had to offer, so he uprooted his family and moved from Ohio to North Carolina. Once he decided to make the move, Blaney said he sold almost everything to make the move south because he didn't want an easy way back home.
Blaney, Amoco and BDR proceeded to run a part-time Busch Series schedule in 1998 and a full season in 1999, totaling five poles, five top-five finishes and 15 top-10 finishes. By the end of the 1999 season, Blaney and team grabbed the seventh spot overall in the Busch Series Championship standings. The team remained successful in 2000, running only a part-time Busch Series schedule and competing full-time in the Winston (now NEXTEL) Cup Series.
From there, Amoco, Blaney and BDR went on to compete another year in the NASCAR Cup series before changes within Amoco prompted the company's departure from the sport. The sponsorship change and development of other opportunities led to Blaney's first departure from BDR in 2002.
After leaving BDR, Blaney began driving for Jasper Motorsports, and over the next two years, he notched his first career NASCAR Cup pole at North Carolina Motor Speedway in February 2003-the same track where he had his first NASCAR start.
Then, Jasper Motorsports was sold to Penske. The sale left Blaney with a contract and no car. Blaney returned to Davis' High Point, N.C., operation in 2004 to drive part-time in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. The partnership was interrupted once more when Blaney received an offer to drive full-time for Richard Childress Racing (RCR). The move proved beneficial, as Blaney landed a full-time ride for the 2005 NEXTEL Cup season.
As 2005 came to a close, change was once again in the cards for Blaney. RCR announced his release, while changes at BDR were also underway. Rumors circulated in the NASCAR garage that Blaney was returning to BDR to drive the No. 22 Caterpillar car, but the rumors were not confirmed until early December.
Davis commented in the team's news release that, "Dave is not only a talented and consistent driver, but he is someone I respect and have always enjoyed working with in the past … I have always understood Dave's need to pursue other avenues in this business, but it also was understood there were never any bridges burned between us."
Blaney never planned to make a career out of racing, but more than 25 years after receiving the opportunity of a lifetime from his dad, he is still competing with the best. Blaney talks about how much of a difference there is between racing on the dirt compared to racing on asphalt, but he knows-and those who admire his racing talent know-sprint cars taught him how to be aggressive and how to take advantage of other competitors' weaknesses. It is those skills he acquired while racing sprint cars that he utilizes today and every weekend for three main reasons-to be competitive, not give up and just win.
