a few weeks old, but lack of money continues to be the bane for Dave Blaney, who sputtered through the 2009 Sprint Cup season with an under-funded #66 Prism Motorsports team. For the past 11 months, the Hartford native started in 30 of the season’s 36 races [Blaney attempted 34 of the races in the #66 Toyota, Terry Labonte ran the Daytona 500 and McDowell attempted Talladega in April] and handled the start-and-park gimmick as best he could to earn $2,343,060. At age 47, Blaney isn’t ready to put the brakes on his career, but he’s looking less like a NASCAR driver and more like a NASCAR dad everyday. “In Sprint Cup, especially, there’s not going to be any really good opportunities down the road,” said Blaney. “I’m old enough where it’s just not going to happen. So, we’ll run what we can and see what happens. But Ryan’s got a future, possibly, in racing, so we’ll see if we can help him and see how it goes,” Blaney said of his son, who most recently ran stock cars in North Carolina this past summer and ran well. Ryan Blaney turns 16 at the end of December and the likelihood of Dave grooming the son instead of pushing himself is real. “At the moment, I’m trying to help Ryan get going more than I’m worried more about my stuff, honestly, so I’ll do what I can do to help him first, then worry about me. From what I’ve seen of Ryan so far in the past few years, I think the sky’s the limit, potential-wise.” Although two months remain before the Sprint Cup’s 2010 season kicks off, Dave Blaney sees little movement in potential rides for himself. “There’s not much there, not much going on,” Blaney said, chuckling after being asked about the new season. “I don’t have anything other than the same stuff I was doing in 2009 ‘Â the start and park thing.” He rode for Prism Motorsports in 2009, but, although Prism still exists, it doesn’t have a budget for fulltime racing. He said there are some other opportunities, but nothing better. “I thought I was close to a 6-8 race schedule with one of those [Nationwide] teams, but that’s still up on the air as well,” Blaney said. “I’d run any of the series ‘Â trucks, Nationwide ‘Â whatever could be put together if it’s a pretty competitive team. It would all be fun to do, but there’s no sponsorship right now anywhere, so all the teams are struggling to stay alive.” Blaney insists that he’ll be racing in some form in 2010, even if it’s a smorgasbord.(in part from The Vindicator)(1-10-2010)
