Qualifying was rained out on Saturday morning, NASCAR set the field by Friday’s practice speeds, putting Blaney and the No. 7 team back in 40th position to start the race.
Fighting from the beginning to gain positions on the track, Blaney had one mission, get to the front. During the first half of the race, reaching a high of ninth, green flag pit stops began. Unfortunately an untimely caution was called for rain, leaving Blaney one lap down in 27th.
After four hours for a rain delay, Blaney and the TBR team were ready to get back to green flag racing. With a late caution and just eight laps to go, the No. 7 SANY Chevy got the lucky dog, and was back on the lead lap. With pending nightfall, NASCAR made just one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, a huge wreck occurred on the last lap and the race was called. Blaney finished out the marathon day in 16th – a net gain of 24 positions from start-to-finish.
“Walking out of Talladega with a 16th place finish is an amazing feeling,” said Blaney. “We worked hard all day and raced clean and made a move when it counts. I am proud of my team for their hard work, we’ll keep fighting at it every week!”
After the race Team Owner and Crew Chief Tommy Baldwin said, “A top 20 at Talladega and not a scratch on the car – we’ll take it. Dave did a great job getting through the accidents today and we’re going to go back to the shop proud of our efforts.”
Dave Blaney is currently 30th in the points standings. TBR will be heading to Darlington Raceway next weekend to the track nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame.”
About SANY
SANY is a global leader in the manufacture and sale of hoisting equipment (crawler, truck, rough-terrain and all-terrain cranes), concrete machines (concrete pumps, placing booms, mixer trucks and batching plants), road machinery (motor graders, rollers, pavers and asphalt batching plants), port equipment (container reach stackers, empty-container handlers, heavy forklifts and gantry cranes), excavators, mining equipment (rigid haul trucks, road headers, mining vehicles, longwall systems and continuous miners), pile-driving machinery and wind turbines. SANY America Inc. sells, distributes and supports crawler cranes from 110 to 550 U.S. tons, rough-terrain cranes from 40 to 85 tons, hydraulic excavators from 7.5 to 33.5 tons, port reach stackers with a maximum lift of 99,200 pounds, and empty-container handlers with a maximum load of 19,850 pounds. SANY America has an operations, assembly and research and development center in Peachtree City, Georgia. For more information, visit www.sanyamerica.com
About Tommy Baldwin Racing
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Crew Chief Tommy Baldwin formed Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) in 2009. Baldwin utilized a declining economy to open a NSCS team with a stringent budget. The team worked to build to full-time competition, and by the 2011 season, the team’s third season, TBR competed in every race and locked the No. 36 Chevrolet in the top-35 in NSCS Owner Points. Dave Blaney drove the No. 36 Chevrolet to TBR’s highest finish of third in the October 2011 event at Talladega Superspeedway. In 2012 both cars fielded by TBR finished in the top-35 in points.
Based in Mooresville, N.C., TBR will compete in the NSCS in 2013 with NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney driving the No. 7 Chevy SS and JJ Yeley piloting the No. 36.
