Dave Blaney has a pair of top-15 finishes in his brief stint for RCR. Credit: Autostock

Notebook: Blaney with RCR until end of year

LONG POND, Pa. -- -- Barring unforeseen changes, Dave Blaney will drive Richard Childress Racing's No. 30 Chevrolet for the rest of the 2004 Nextel Cup season, Childress said Saturday at Pocono Raceway.

"We wanted to get somebody in here to get this car stable and to get this team running, week in and week out," Childress said. "Right now we've pretty much got Dave for the rest of the year."

Rookie Johnny Sauter started the year in the No. 30 car, which has struggled through the last couple seasons with several drivers.

It was at Pocono Raceway in June that Childress put Blaney in the car for what he called a seven-race tryout.

Childress said he didn't need that long to make the decision, as the car has run better with Blaney than it consistently has, with some crazy bits of racing luck hurting it.

"He has run about as good as this car has ever run," Childress said. "Last time here he was running really, really well and we broke a (suspension) chain, which we've never done -- and last week the ignition came unplugged and we don't know why.

"He was running eighth and got in a wreck at Chicagoland so we've been there, we just haven't been able to get it all done."

Quarterley gets look, consideration

Dale Quarterley Credit: AP

Childress' decision to maintain Blaney in his third car put a conversation at New Hampshire between Childress and Busch North Series driver Dale Quarterley on hold.

After Childress decided to use Blaney in the No. 30 in June, he ran West Coast NASCAR Touring Division driver Jim Inglebright at the Infineon Raceway road course.

Quarterley, who became the latest of eight Busch North drivers to win races on a speedway, short track and road course, was seeking a Nextel Cup road course opportunity when he visited Childress.

"Dale is somebody we would definitely have wanted to give a shot to, if we weren't going to keep Dave in the car," Childress said. "I've been impressed with what's he's been able to get done."

Evernham revisits racing career, sort of

"Hollywood Ray" Evernham was formerly a winning Modified stock car driver based in New Jersey. Evernham diversified by becoming the chief mechanic for what is now the IROC Series, and the path has led him to become Daimler/Chrysler's lead team owner in Nextel Cup.

Evernham's background must have been what convinced NBC/TNT to get him to drive the stock car that the networks use for their weekly "ride along" segment in the pre-race show on TV.

Jeremy Mayfield (left) with Ray Evernham Credit: Autostock

Evernham did the segment Friday with one of his two Dodge Dealers/UAW Intrepid drivers, Jeremy Mayfield, but he made a confession Saturday.

"To tell you the truth, the only Modified I ever drove here was on the three-quarter-mile track -- but I never told anybody that," Evernham said. "When they asked me to do that thing yesterday I said, 'sure, I'll do it.' But I think they thought I had driven around here before."

So Ray, how was it out there?

"It was kind of funny," Evernham said, "because I said to Jeremy, 'are you scared?' He said, 'No.' "Well, I said, 'you ought to be because I've never even made a lap around here in a rent-a-car.' But it was fun."

Evernham said, more than anything else, it gave him added respect for his two drivers, Mayfield and Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Kasey Kahne, but also everyone else in Nextel Cup.

"It was definitely an eye-opener," Evernham said. "What these guys (drivers) do is amazing. So to jump into something like that -- I don't know how fast we were going, 140 or 150 (mph) -- but we were going way faster than we should have been.

"What these guys do, with the way these cars move around, over bumps, to be running side-by-side and touching each other and all those things is pretty amazing."

Not quite father-like-son

When Casey Mears won his first career Nextel Cup Bud Pole Friday, no one was probably happier than Mears' motor coach driver --- his former race driver father Roger Mears.

The elder Mears made two Indy car starts at Pocono and had one top-10 finish. The gravity of his son's accomplishment wasn't lost on Roger.

"It was awesome," Mears said. "I was so thrilled for him because I knew how he was going to feel. He got out of that car and he was one happy camper."

The younger Mears has raced off-road and in Indy cars and Indy Lights, but his father said the Cup pole had to be his biggest prize, yet.

"Absolutely, this has to be his highest high, at this point, I'm sure," Mears said. "Because this is the most competitive form of racing out there. To finally get a pole is almost like winning a race, for him."

Father says "1," son says "3"

Not surprisingly, considering the vastly different cars they drove here, was the fact that Roger Mears said his biggest challenge at Pocono was Turn 1, at the end of the longest straight in Nextel Cup racing, while his son said Turn 3 -- which leads onto that straight -- is his test.

"Turn 1 was always hardest for me, because it was so tight and banked so hard and you had to keep your car set up right," Mears said. "If you tried to keep your car stiff enough to lean on (the banking in) Turn 1, you'd be dead in 3 -- your car was terrible."

"I think in an Indy car Turn 1 would be hairy because the speeds are so high," Casey Mears said. "It is for us, too, because there and in the Tunnel Turn you're carrying a ton of speed.

"But the hardest corner for me to get around fast is Turn 3, being so flat, and in a stock car getting the thing to turn is so hard. I've always had a difficult time in Turn 3, but Turn 1 and the Tunnel Turn I've always been fast."

No engine changes, yet

As of the end of the day Saturday at Pocono Raceway, no teams had made engine changes, which would have necessitated dropping to the back of the grid Sunday for the start of the Pennsylvania 500.

Although Matt Kenseth went to a backup car, the team did so before qualifying, and reportedly put its primary engine into the backup car, thus retaining his 15th starting spot.