Blaney hyped over Outlaw event at LVMS

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 10:37 a.m.

Despite radical changes within his winged sprint-car team, Dale Blaney is full of optimism as the Pennzoil World of Outlaws comes to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway half-mile dirt oval for a three-night show beginning Thursday.

During the off-season, Blaney's No. 93 Amoco sprint-car team opted for new chassis (Maxim) and engine (Mopar) programs under new car owner (and brother) Dave Blaney. In fact, about the only thing remaining on Blaney's vehicle from the 1999 season is the number and the sponsor.

Nonetheless, Blaney is excited about the season, which opened last weekend in California.

"Right now, I am as excited about racing as I've been in quite a few years," the 1998 WoO Rookie of the Year said. "Our sponsor, Amoco, and my brother have given me a great opportunity this year. Everything with this team is exactly the way I want it. We all have a lot to prove and I'm just looking forward to racing and getting after it.

"I know we're going to have a good year and we will get better as the year goes on, but we need to be in the hunt right from the start as far as the point standings go. If we can have some solid races early, I think that will give us the confidence we need to keep us going in the right direction."

Blaney opened the 2000 WoO season with a 15th-place finish in the A feature at Kings Speedway in Hanford, Calif., and followed that with a sixth-place showing in the main event last Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway in Perris, Calif.

Blaney comes into Thursday night's opener at LVMS ranked eighth in the WoO points, trailing front-running Danny Lasoski by 38 points.

Lasoski won the A feature last Saturday night and Johnny Herrera opened the season with a victory the night before in Hanford.

The new crew, motor program, and chassis won't be the only changes for Blaney this season. The Outlaws have restructured their format to put more emphasis on the heat races by adding an additional Channellock Dash to the program, allowing the A feature to be lined up by the finishing order of the dashes instead of simply being based on qualifying times.

"I hope the new format will give us an advantage," Blaney said. "Even with the format change, you still have to qualify well and with the motors we have, I think we will.

"The new format is definitely going to be interesting. It will certainly help out being able to get on the race track an extra time and being able to race for starting positions in the feature always gives you a chance."