Blaney finishes 22nd at Miami-Homestead Speedway

Homestead, FL (Nov. 16, 2008) – Dave Blaney and the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing team qualified in the 33rd spot for the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and improved upon that qualifying effort with a 22nd-place finish in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale Sunday afternoon.

Blaney was the 11th of 46 competitors to take to the track for qualifying Friday afternoon. His speed of 169.05 mph around the 1.5-mile oval earned the team the 33rd position on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.  After struggling somewhat in the first practice session Saturday afternoon, Crew Chief Tommy Baldwin and Lead Engineer Gene Nead put their heads together to find something that might help the handling of the No. 22 Bad Boy Mowers Toyota. The adjustments they made to the car worked, and Blaney rounded out the final practice session later that day with one of the 10 fastest cars.

The green flag waved for the start of the event, and Blaney indicated to Baldwin that the car was starting the way it practiced:  loose.  Blaney passed several of his competitors in the early laps of the event, and by lap eight of the 267-lap race, he had already moved into 27th place.  The car remained on the loose side in turns one and two, and Baldwin planned for wedge and air pressure adjustments to tighten the handling of the car during the first pit stop of the day, which came on lap 53.

The car continued to handle loose, and the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota Camry was in danger of going one lap down to leader Carl Edwards when the caution flag waved on lap 70, saving the team from losing a lap.  Baldwin called for more changes during the ensuing pit stop, including an air pressure adjustment and the addition of rubber to the left rear spring.  Blaney lined up for the lap 75 restart in 26th place and made quick work of slower traffic, breaking into the top 25 by lap 90.  The veteran driver held the 22nd position during the next round of green flag stops.  The BDR crew changed four tires and made additional wedge and air pressure adjustments during a stop on lap 128, but the pit stop was a little slower than the team would have liked.  Blaney went one lap down to Edwards on lap 131 while running 24th.

By lap 150 of the event, the veteran driver let the team know that the changes made to the Bad Boy Mowers Camry were beginning to make a difference, though the car began to get much too loose again not long after. A caution on lap 179 enabled the team to make more changes, but NASCAR officials forced Blaney to pit road a second time after they noticed a missing lug nut.  Blaney stood in the 34th position when the green flag waved for the lap 183 restart, but worked his way into the top 30 by lap 212.

With 20 laps remaining in the event, Baldwin communicated to his driver that the car would be one lap short on fuel for the end of the race and asked Blaney to conserve as much as possible.  Many cars had to make pit stops for gas near the end of the race, but Blaney was able to save just enough and remain on the track to take the checkered flag in 22nd place and score the team’s second consecutive top-25 finish.

The No. 22 BDR team finished 31st in the final owners’ point standings, and Blaney finished 30th in the 2008 driver point battle.