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Dave Blaney’s time behind the wheel is not over this year. After departing PRISM Motorsports and the #66 car it was guessed that Blaney would finish the year without a ride.

Not the case as Blaney will drive in the remaining events in a combination of cars fielded by Tommy Baldwin and Front Row Motorsports.

“I guess I just got to the point where I thought I wasn’t going anywhere,” Blaney said on Tuesday, a few weeks after parting ways with Prism. “It finally wore me down. I was going to be OK being done and not going back to any races this year, but then drivers started moving around a little and a couple seats opened up. So, I’ll finish out most of the year and see what happens.”

It’s unclear which races will be run for which team but it’s worth nothing it’s an improvement from the start and park tactics of his previous employer.

While Tommy Baldwin Racing will fill the gap, the signing with Front Row Motorsports puts Blaney in a car that will attempt to run the full event. Sitting a little over 100 points out of 35th in owners points Blaney will have to run the entire race to make up ground on the 35th place car the #7 of Robby Gordon Motorsports.

Ironically enough it’s former Front Row driver Kevin Conway who will be behind the wheel in some of the races for the #7.

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After a year and a half of qualifying and then pulling the car behind the wall Dave Blaney is not listed as a driver for PRISM Motorsports this week at Michigan International Speedway.

Blaney failed to make last weeks race at Watkins Glen but had qualified for 17 of the seasons first 22 races.

Scott Riggs will make his debut for the team in the #66 and Michael McDowell will again be in the #55.

Team owner Phil Parsons offered the following “Dave Blaney has been instrumental in getting our team started and to this point in the 2010 race season, so we are thankful to him and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

There has been no information to where or if Blaney may end up in a ride again this season but the options are not looking good for the 47 year-old from Hartford, OH.

One of the few options out there may be the second car at Robby Gordon Motorsports in place of PJ Jones, aside from that there is also the #34 Extenze Ford which recently replaced Kevin Conway with veteran Tony Raines.

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Dave Blaney will again be racing on Sunday after the veteran driver qualified on time again. Blaney’s team had their car from California confiscated by NASCAR and were forced to go to their other car to make the field at Las Vegas.

Blaney’s lap wasn’t like it was at California where he was the fifth fasted but he did enough to be one of the fasted seven go or go home cars. Casey Mears and Terry Cook failed to make the race on time. Much like the rides of Blaney and his Prism Motorsports teammate Michael McDowell’s neither of those cars have sponsors on them.

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NASCAR confiscated the 66 Toyota Camry driven by Dave Blaney after yesterdays race. Blaney had qualified fifth for the race, navigated to the rear and later led three laps when everyone else pitted before pulling down pit road itself and directly into the garage area.

The official reason for the 66 cars departure from the race was engine failure but that may not have sat well with NASCAR. Blaney, a veteran of the sport, drove the car in 30 races last year and had attempted to make the Daytona 500.

Blaney drives for Prism Motorsports one of the “start and park” teams currently filling the rear of a NASCAR field.

The biggest beef with these teams is that they show up to collect a race check. To cut cost they run no longer then a fuel run before pulling themselves behind the wall.

Prism Motorsports isn’t the only team starting and parking on the circuit. Joe Nemechek has been doing much the same for his team, and on any given week five or so other teams attempt to make the race with the same idea in mind.

Even on NASCAR’s official website they noted the 66 ride as a start and park team stating that they had finished 5th in their race, referring to the fifth qualifying spot Blaney claimed on Friday.]

The decision by NASCAR to take Blaney’s car is especially tough for Prism Motorsports who currently has two cars and is trying to run two teams. Should they not return the 66 car in time for qualifying it’s possible that Blaney and company won’t even get a chance to be in the race at Las Vegas.

For what it’s worth John Darby states that NASCAR cannot predict which teams will start and park on any given weekend though I’d tell Darby he simply has to look at what cars has logos on them to get his answer.

On the other hand, NASCAR does take a look at two cars that fell outside of the top five every week so at some point you’d think the 66 or 55 cars would have garnered a look.

Of course should the car be put in the field every week (either top 35 in points or another method) maybe it would actually get some sponsors and then be able to run a full race that wasn’t titled the Daytona 500.

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Dave Blaney will remain as the driver of the #66 Toyota with the Prism Motorsports team owned by Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey.

There was some talk that Blaney would not be back with the team but the two sides will again be partners in 2010. Blaney qualified for 30 races last year and started and parked in 29 of them.

Prism Motorsports is also adding a second car to the mix which will be driven by Michael McDowell. Team owner Phil Parsons said that adding the second car would be one way of allowing Blaney to actually race full races this season.

Parsons also noted that no matter what should Blaney qualify for the Daytona 500 he will race the whole distance.

“Daytona pays enough purse that you can afford to race,” Parsons said. “We’ve got to concentrate on going down there and racing our way in.

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When Dave Blaney failed to qualify the 66 Prism Motor-sports car for Saturday nights Spring Cup race I figured we wouldn’t be seeing the driver who has become synonymous with the words start and park this season.

Instead Blaney hopped in the #87 car and piloted it to a third place finish in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Kyle Busch claimed the checkered flag while Mike Bliss who passed Blaney in the closing laps finished second.

Blaney was guaranteed a starting place in the field of 43 with car owner points coming from the 87 car. The car was provided by Braun Racing, the same team Blaney spent part of 2006 and 2007 racing for in the Nationwide Series.

It wasn’t t he first time Braun Racing and Blaney enjoyed some success together at Charlotte.. In 2006 Blaney won the October 13 race.

Despite racing for a start and park team and having to qualify each week Blaney had been in the field for 27 of the first 30 races and had failed to qualify for just one race prior to missing Charlotte. His best start of the season was fourth at Bristol, a race he ultimately crashed in while trying to maneuver to the back of the field. His best finish in the Sprint Cup Series on the year has been a 37th in September’s race at Dover.

Dave if I was wearing a hat tonight I would take it off to you on a job well done.

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The following comments were posted on PaddockTalk.com

How much fun did you have in tonight’s race?

“It was fun. I haven’t got to race much all year. That was big fun from start to finish. Billy Wilburn (crew chief) and the Braun guys, they had a really good car. Last night in practice I thought it was really good, but I just haven’t run these things enough to know the feel from the start of the run to the end. I thought it was good, but then it took right off. I about ruined it right off the bat and hit the wall and had to fix it, but it kept coming.”

What did it feel like to run the entire race tonight?

“I haven’t had a chance to race much this year, be in Nationwide, Cup or anything. Loving getting the chance in a really good race car. They told me that was actually the same car I won with in 2006 – the same roll cage anyway. That car has a little age on it. Billy Wilburn crew chiefed it and came in at the last minute and the guys at Braun put it together. AccuDoc is a really good sponsor that has helped Braun Racing out a lot this year. It was fun, the racing was great. The car was good right off the bat. I clipped the wall early, really early and then we had to pit on that lap 15 caution to fix it and that ended up helping us as far as we had fuel to stay out when a bunch of guys got caught pitting and the yellow came out. That got us closer to the front, but we were going that way anyways.”

Was it hard to give feedback on the car when you haven’t been running full races?

“It is hard and the lucky thing was that our car was really good right from the start in practice yesterday. I even told my guys that I’m not even sure how loose I should feel early in the run and how tight at the end. I wasn’t sure what I should be feeling too much, but I thought I was okay and the times showed I was okay so we just kind of left it. It kept coming good all night and it would run with about anybody except one guy all night. It was cool tonight, no problem with a long race – if I would have been running 30th it might have been a long race, but as it was it was good.”

Did you have anything for Kyle Busch on the final restart?

“I just could not stay on his right rear. He could slow the restart way down and squirt away from me real quick and I just couldn’t stay with him to stay on his right rear going into turn one. Even if I could have beat him off of turn two and into turn three, I don’t know if we could have stayed in front of him. He looked like he was as fast as he wanted to be – just fast enough. We were hanging with him time-wise on the long run a little bit, but I don’t know. We were doing all we could do and you never know what’s going to happen.”

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For reasons unknown there has been more then a few rumblings on NASCAR’s media outlets complaining about teams and drivers who start and park. These drivers and teams arrive at the track and qualify their car but once the race starts they take it to the garage ending their day.

Some suggest that by these cars being in the field they  are taking away spots from other teams that would race that weekend.

I however have sided with the start and park teams. Here’s a few reasons I believe it is ok that start and park teams are in the sport.

The spots they are taking away are from other start and park teams. This weekend at Michigan 44 cars attempted to make the field. That means that only 1 car would go home not in the race. That car happened to be the number 37 car driven by Tony Raines. A few years ago Tony Raines was in commercials with a little girl and a cute elephant but these days he’s also a start and park driver.

So if Dave Blaney, Joe Nemecheck and Mike Skinner run 10-15 laps and then park it so be it. I wouldn’t expect much different out of Raines’ team who hired a road course ringer to start and park last week at Watkins Glen.

Qualifying shouldn’t be easy Just because you have a logo on your hood shouldn’t entitle you to anything in NASCAR. Let’s be honest we all know that the top 35 owners points guarantee you a spot in the race, toss in a champions provisional and you have 35 or 36 cars with logos on their hoods guaranteed to be out there on Sunday. Now there are weekly race teams that fall outside the top 35 in points every week but if you are that far back you haven’t been a factor all season. Plus to take away spots from these cars there would have to be in the neighborhood of 8 start and park cars turning hot laps each week. Lately NASCAR has had 2-4 cars miss the show on any given weekend.

So what if they are making money and cutting costs The biggest reason for the start and park is the amount of money that can be obtained from simply being in a field on Sunday. By making the race you are guaranteed to have a nice sum of money. The start and park cars are simply getting a piece of that money for their operations.

With all the save money and cut costs hoopla out there today can you really blame these guys for taking that money and then not wasting any more money on tires. Let’s face it they are a small team, they don’t have the same resources and they wouldn’t be a factor by the half way point anyway. (Unless you consider getting in the way as being a factor.)

It’s not moraly wrong, it’s not taking from any full fledged NASCAR team and it’s a way to make income.

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