Blaney nearly pulls out win at Darlington

Third-place run is career high for fourth-year driver

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Jasper Motorsports driver Dave Blaney and crew chief Bootie Barker have raised their game to such a level that they are never surprised when they achieve superlatives.

	Robert Barker

Only five races into the NASCAR Winston Cup season Blaney is fashioning a career year, and his third place finish was the latest exclamation point. It launched him into another career best -- seventh in the standings.

"The cars are better before they leave the shop (and) that's where it's at," said Blaney, whose previous best race finish was sixth, twice in 2001. "He's (Barker) got the cars turning better and we've always had horsepower as good as anybody, so the whole mix is good right now."

Barker, who had worked with Blaney at Bill Davis Racing several years ago, was Blaney's hand-picked successor at crew chief when Ryan Pemberton left after last season.

His impact has been immediate, and Blaney's first step into the top-10 in he standings is the proof.

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"Bootie has just done a great job of re-energizing this team," Blaney said. "We kept almost the whole group we had from last year -- we've got Bootie and a different guy building the bodies -- but everyone else is the same.

"We added some guys on pit road but he's (Barker) just got a good combination of things going between the bodies and the chassis."

On Sunday, Blaney raced in the top-10 all day after starting 18th and quickly working his way forward. In the end, he was wide-eyed as race winner Ricky Craven and runner-up Kurt Busch beat and banged on each other over the last two laps.

"It was a good run, wasn't it?" said Barker, who is low-key to a fault. "I'm real pleased. We just needed some more laps, there, at the end; but that's fine and I'm happy with what we got."

"Our team, what we're trying to do right now is to come in every week and be looking for a top-10 finish," Blaney said. "That's how we feel we can build our team because if you can do that week in and week out then you can start working forward from there.

"That's really all we're after, and if you can get more than that it's a bonus. You've got to get yourself in the top-10, first."

The third place at Darlington was Blaney's third top-10 this season in five races.