Tag Archives: Dave Blaney

2017 has been the breakout season for Ryan Blaney, getting the Wood Brothers back on track. He has proved that the sophomore slump does not exist, at least for him. Entering his second full-time seasons in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Blaney has yet to cross the finish-line first at …

NASCAR.com’s David Caraviello is reporting that Humphrey Racing, which fields the No. 77 Fords for Dave Blaney in the Sprint Cup Series, will take the next few weeks off from the Sprint Cup Series tour. The team is not shutting down, though. Instead, they are retooling in order to show …

The setting of the Chase field post Richmond marks a clear delineation in the season between the haves and the have not’s. And judging by the fevered TV coverage of the top 12 drivers you’d have been forgiven if you wondered if the other 31 drivers were even in the race. So, with that in mind, and two months and eight races still to go, here are ten drivers who can’t wait to see the back of 2009 already. *Dale Earnhardt Jr.* Hands up those who predicted Junior’s season would be quite this bad? Not so many of you, huh? It’s true that anybody can have a bad season, heck the Cubbies have had a hundred of them, but the futility felt by the denizens of Wrigley Field must compare, in part, to that felt by Junior Nation. To say this year has been horrible for Junior barely does justice to the hot mess his season has become. Just two top 5s, three further top 10s, four DNFs and an average finish of 21.8 is not what was expected – not even by those who don’t rate NASCAR’s favorite driver. The simple truth is that the season can’t end soon enough for the wheelman of the No. 88 Chevy.

Kyle Busch tried blocking Tony Stewart once too often on the final lap. Stewart took the win, while Busch took a savage ride into the wall and through the pack.

The Cup Series’ trip to wine country in Sonoma, Ca. sure seemed to be worth the extra gas bill. The inevitable fuel strategy gambles and unpredictable mishaps that Infineon Raceway commonly produces shuffled up the running order many times during Sunday’s race. The racing action through the pack was tight and fender-banging, especially in the closing laps, helping to cure the spacious, snooze-worthy action of the past couple of weeks in Michigan and Pocono. Despite the race boiling down to fuel strategy, the best driver and car combination won the event. Kasey Kahne survived several restarts and held off an almost equal car and superior driver in Tony Stewart. Not every team was as lucky, as some Chase hopefuls took hits in the points and others that have struggled all year continued that trend. Here are this week’s *HOT*, *WARM*, and *COLD* drivers.

If you make the long and winding drive down Long Pond Drive you’ll come upon the Speedway in the woods known as Pocono International Raceway. In 2008, this track was nothing short of disaster for the bubble teams and 2009 wasn’t much kinder to them. It started Friday when qualifying was rained out, meaning that the teams would have to start from the rear of the field. Add in the fact that passing is so difficult in these cars and it’s a long grueling race anyway and you have a long afternoon for the teams hovering around the top 35. The end result was only Michael Waltrip posting a top 25 finish among our drivers and that included a pair of spins. So to see how badly the bubble teams struggled on Sunday, read on in this week’s edition of the bubble breakdown.

Well the 24 hours of Charlotte finally came to an end late Monday afternoon. And the 50th running of the Coca Cola 600 was dominated by Kyle Busch and the weather. The race never went green on Sunday and suffered rain delays again on Monday before finally being called and producing a surprise winner. So to see which bubble teams gambled on the weather and won, and which wound up all wet, read on in this week’s edition of the bubble breakdown.

As I am sure you’ve heard by now, some big news came from one of our bubble teams just prior to the Southern 500 this past Saturday night. However, I am not about to open my column talking any more than I have to about a run of the mill driver who manages to get himself suspended for failing a drug test. Instead, I would much rather focus on the positive ... like Sam Hornish, Jr. starting fourth with a career best qualifying run, or Joey Logano tying his career best finish with a ninth place performance, following up on a career best qualifying effort of his own -- starting fifth at what is arguably NASCAR’s most difficult track. But just like Jeremy Mayfield's test results, the Lady In Black wasn't kind to everyone to tried to conquer her this weekend.

What a strange weekend for our beloved bubble dwellers it was at Richmond. At Friday’s qualifying session, Mike Bliss put the No. 09 Dodge in the sixth starting position with what seemed to be a car running with the momentum from last week’s upset win at Talladega. Scott Speed also looked like his team was harnessing their momentum from the previous weekend with an eighth place qualifying run. In contrast, Robby Gordon, whose career starting average at Richmond is 30th, looked to be struggling with a 36th place qualifying effort, while Sam Hornish, Jr. looked to be back to normal with a lackluster 28th place starting spot. But as you know, strange things happen under the lights at Richmond... so to see if our bubble teams flipped their weekends around, read on in this week’s edition of the Bubble Breakdown.

The last remnants of the 2008 season have finally been cast by the wayside, as NASCAR now uses this year's owner points in determining who has a guaranteed starting spot and who has to qualify on time. But as the drivers now outside of the top 35 readied themselves to give it all they had at Martinsville in order to qualify for the race on Friday -- it rained. So, the field was set according to the owner standings, sending the last four cars back to their shops while the top 43 lined up Sunday afternoon. Of the ones that remained, which drivers were able to race their way up into the top 35 for the first time under the 2009 point system? Read on in this week’s edition of The Bubble Breakdown to see who moved up and who dropped out.