 | | Dave Blaney has five top-20 runs in his past nine starts. Credit: Autostock |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
September 15, 2006
06:54 PM EDT (22:54 GMT)
LOUDON, N.H. -- There is something to be said for things that tend to be forgotten. Like my flight to New Hampshire. Since it was the last flight of the day to an airport that does not have any connecting flights at midnight, those at the airline couldn't care less whether you arrive on time, so you invariably end up 90 minutes late. That doesn't help the World War II veteran seated next to me wearing the "I survived Iwo Jima" hat. He probably hasn't stayed up this late since his flight back to his home (presumably New England) in 1945. God bless him. Add Dave Blaney's name to the list of things that are easily dismissed. His fourth-place finish at Richmond was his best run in more than three years. It was just his second top-five in about a million Cup starts. Actually, the number is 225, but you get the idea. The man simply doesn't get to enjoy a top-five very often. In a bit of dark humor, Blaney's other top-five also came on a day when the focus was elsewhere. He was third at Darlington in March 2003, but all anyone remembers is a classic Kurt Busch-Ricky Craven bloodbath to the finish line. Blaney picked another poor time to score a top-five. With TNT and NASCAR working to make sure no one -- not even my mom, who has never watched a NASCAR race -- forgot who the top-10 drivers were, Blaney was left as an anonymous figure. And man, some of his fans were not happy. Dave Blaney will never be known as one of NASCAR's great stars but yet, the man has more fans per top-five finish than anyone. Their e-mails are passionate, numerable and almost always originating from the Hartford, Ohio, area. They call themselves the "Blaniacs," and they are insanely quick to defend him. They were pretty upset after TV failed to show their hero after the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 last Saturday at Richmond. It was a righteous beef. Blaney enjoyed a great weekend, threatening to win the Busch race (he scored a top-10) and then going out and notching a top-five in the main event. Needless to say, an on-camera Dave Blaney interview is about as rare as Michael Waltrip failing to qualify for a race. Which means that Blaney has probably enjoyed two on-camera interviews this year. One thing I have learned about NASCAR is that one cannot underestimate the power of television and more specifically, the importance of the pre- and-post-race shows. I know more than a few people who would rather watch pre- and-post-race shows than the actual race itself. So when Blaney wasn't featured on the post-race show on Saturday night, the Blaniacs noticed. However, I will let you in on a few small details. After most races, the top-five finishers in a Nextel Cup Series event are stopped on pit road so that TV and radio reporters can easily access them for interviews. That was not the case at Richmond. Instead, NASCAR instructed all 10 Chase drivers -- even Jeff Gordon, who finished 31st -- to stop on pit road for endless interviews on TNT. The network had ages to extensively interview all 10 Chase drivers because the race featured only seven brief cautions. But where was Blaney? He immediately drove back to the garage in the Richmond darkness. His coverage is further limited because Bill Davis Racing -- even though it runs the Dodge Charger -- is not a team that garners factory Dodge support. Therefore, Dodge will not send its representatives to collect press quotes from Blaney for newspaper and internet reporters. TV was strikes one and two. A lack of post-race quotes was strike three. A lot of fans were similarly peeved that seventh-place Ken Schrader was not interviewed, even though seventh-place finishers are almost never interviewed, especially if that run was achieved via pit strategy, as Schrader's was. There are many times that drivers in the top-five are not interviewed. In July, Kyle Busch wittily pointed out when he won at Loudon that it was his first on-camera interview in three weeks. It was his third consecutive top-five finish. Despite the lack of on-camera time for guys like Blaney and Schrader, I would venture to guess that their teams will see better runs in the next few months. Both teams have experienced leadership changes this season, and it is clear that Tommy Baldwin has already made a difference at BDR. The same is true for Michael "Fatback" McSwain at Wood Brothers Racing, which fields Schrader's cars. Fatback returned to the pit box in July, and Schrader has been a lead-lap car since then. Not that anyone noticed. The opinions expressed are solely of the writer. | 
