Bill Davis Racing Competition Director Tommy Baldwin confirmed that Dave Blaney will drive one of the two [#22, #23] BDR entries in 2007, and said an announcement should come soon regarding the other seat.(NASCAR.com)(8-5-2006)
UPDATE: Dave Blaney will be back in the Caterpillar Inc. car for the 2007, team owner Bill Davis said Sunday morning. “(Caterpillar director of racing operations) Greg Towles has indicated to us all along that Dave Blaney has done a good job in the car and done a good job with the sponsors and he’d be perfectly happy to have him back (in the car) and so would we,” Davis said as preparations for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard were under way. “I guess it’s as close to (being) official as you can say.” Davis was a little more guarded about recent rumors that Jeremy Mayfield will join his operation in a second Toyota Camry for 2007. “We’re not in a position to announce anything, but certainly we’ve talked to Jeremy a lot and we have an understanding,” Davis said of the current Evernham Motorsports driver. “Nothing’s ever official until it’s official so we don’t talk about it, but certainly, like a lot of people in this garage, we’d like to see him come to our team.” Davis said he has a letter of intent for a sponsor for the second team. Better things, finally, are happening with Blaney’s car. Starting with the race at Chicagoland Speedway last month, Blaney finished 17th, 13th and 16th before faltering a little in Sunday’s race with a 29th-place finish. “It’s been a lot of little things, no one big blaring obvious deal,” Davis said of the upturn. “Certainly the Michael (Waltrip) deal was an enormous distraction at the first of the year. He came in and struggled and really disrupted the shop and had us changing our cars and doing crazy stuff. Five or six weeks ago, I took the stance that I didn’t know what else we could do to help him – he’d had several different combinations of cars and bodies and chassis and crew chiefs – and we needed to get back to basics and do the things we’d always done and do what works (for Blaney’s car). And that’s what we’ve done.” Davis also is looking forward to putting the team’s Dodge days in the past. BDR has been without factory support from Dodge for three years and has been involved in continued legal battles with the company. “It has been a struggle and a distraction and a financial burden, which has been huge, and now to have all that basically behind us and have Toyota poised and ready to come in here, it’s a huge relief for us,” Davis said. “For everybody that has stuck with us and been loyal to us, from employees to associates to sponsors, we certainly appreciate those people and look forward to getting back on track and back to where we were.”(Peoria Journal Star)(8-7-2006)
