Rookie Blaney out of spotlight

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

Despite his wealth of experience in sprint cars, Dave Blaney may be the least hyped of the NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year candidates.

And that suits the 37-year-old just fine.

Blaney, who won nearly 200 sprint-car races before moving from the World of Outlaws to stock cars in 1998, has not been under the same spotlight as fellow Winston Cup rookies Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth.

"It's really what both Dale and Matt and their teams have also done," Blaney said. "They were 1-2 for two years in the Busch (Series) points, have great teams and have built over two years. I just believe that the expectations on both of those guys are going to be huge. They're both in their 20s and have big futures ahead of them.

"I feel I've got a lot ot contribute as well but it may go like it has so far for me. Whatever we do will be more than most people are going to expect from us anyway. And that suits me just fine; I like that challenge."

After spending the past two seasons in the Busch Series, where he finished sixth in points in 1999, Blaney is driving the No. 93 Amoco Pontiac for team owner Bill Davis this season.

"I've said before that I probably waited a few years too long to make the move from the sprint cars to stock cars," the 1995 World of Outlaws champion said. "In a way, I've had less time to learn, less time to spend getting it right and the same will apply this season.

"The good thing about that, though, is that both Bill Davis and Amoco understood and were very forgiving about what they were asking of both myself and our young team to get all this done in three seasons and the expectations were all internal.

"With the struggles that other World of Outlaws guys have had trying to get situated in NASCAR, a lot of people figured I would go the same route and be back over there on dirt pretty fast.

"But Bill and (crew chief) Gil (Martin) have both done everything they could to give me the very best chance a guy could have to get this done."

Blaney competed in five Winston Cup races last season and posted top-10 qualifying efforts at both Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"I was more comfortable in our first five races in the Winston Cup cars than I ever was in the early going trying to learn the Busch Series cars," Blaney said. "I've always raced cars with huge horsepower-to-eight ratios and the Winston Cup cars have the sort of response that guys like Tony Stewart and I are more familiar with.

"I'm not saying that we won't struggle because I know that the Winston Cup Series is the most competitive racing there is, but I believe that we'll have the kind of motors and equipment to make the right progress."