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Tuesday, December 4

Dave Blaney
By Jerry Bonkowski
ESPN.com

Team: Jasper Motorsports
Car/sponsor/make: No. 77 Jasper Engines Ford

Dave Blaney
Blaney

STATS

Year
Rank
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Money
Best finish

2001 22 0 0 6 $1,788,150 6th, three times

Career 0 0 8 $3,277,505 6th, three times

2001 recap
The good: Blaney moved up from 31st in his first full season on the Winston Cup tour in 2000 to 22nd place this past season. He showed some improvement over his rookie campaign, yet has still to finish a race in the top-5 in Winston Cup. While the statistics don't necessarily show it, Blaney became better at becoming more of a threat to break out and challenge for the win at times.

Season highlight: Started last at Texas, but methodically and impressively worked his way up through the field to finish 6th, which would equal his other top finishes later in 2001.

The bad: Blaney just can't seem to shake himself out of his also-ran status, with an average start of 23rd and an average finish of 24th in 2001. He has continued to struggle ever since leaving sprint car racing and joining the Cup circuit full-time in 2000.

Season lowlight: With his tenure with Bill Davis coming to an end, Blaney's worst finish of 2001 was in the second-to-last race of the season, at Atlanta, where he had his best start (3rd) of the season, only to tie his worst finish of the season (41st due to handling problems).

Dave Blaney
Dave Blaney recorded a career-best sixth-place finish in the Harrah's 500 at Texas on April 1.

Key stat: Blaney did outstanding in the two races at Michigan International Speedway in 2001. In early summer's Kmart 400, he qualified a solid fourth and finished eighth, while in the mid-August Pepsi 400, he started an abysmal 41st, yet finished with one of his top three finishes of the season (sixth place).

2002 outlook
What needs to be done: A change of scenery and teams may be good for Blaney, who has yet to live up to the potential -- and winning ways -- he earned during his year's on the sprint car circuit. Running for a less-demanding team like Jasper and not having the high-profile sponsorship like he had with Amoco the last two seasons could help Blaney relax a bit more, and with relaxation will likely come better performances.

Prediction: Jasper is not as well-funded as Bill Davis Racing and the Amoco sponsorship it had with Blaney. And with Jasper still searching for a primary sponsor, predicting where Blaney will finish is difficult. If he can improve his consistency and finally show some of what made him so successful in sprint car racing, Blaney could finish somewhere between 15th and 20th in 2002. But if Jasper fails to secure adequate sponsorship, Blaney could slip to 30th or lower in the 2002 standings very easily.

Your take
Can Dave Blaney finish in the top-20 in points with a new team next season? Here's what users had to say:

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