Blaney Honoring the Late Neil Bonnett at Talladega

Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are planning an encore presentation of their throwback theme first used at the Darlington Raceway earlier this season.

Blaney, at his own request, will wear the same uniform he wore during the Southern 500 to honor David Pearson.

At Talladega, he’ll wear the uniform in honor of both Pearson and the late Neil Bonnett, who was from Bessemer, Ala., and considered Talladega his home track.

Bonnett succeeded Pearson as driver of the iconic No. 21 midway through the 1979 season and used a uniform just like the one Pearson wore. Once aboard the No. 21, Bonnett won in his third start, at Dover International Speedway. He won twice more that season, at Daytona and Atlanta. Continue reading

Throwback Thursday: A Dover Race Lost Because of a Lug Nut

Photo - Courtesy of Wood Brothers Racing

Photo – Courtesy of Wood Brothers Racing

The Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, with rookie driver Ryan Blaney now at the wheel, will be back on the track at Dover International Speedway this weekend for the first time since 2008, when the team cut back to a partial Sprint Cup schedule.

For the Wood Brothers, it’s a return to one of the tracks where they had great success in years past.

The Woods won seven times at Dover over the years, beginning with their first trip there in the fall of 1972.

David Pearson led 350 of that race’s 500 laps to win by three laps over second-place Richard Petty. Pearson swept the Dover races in 1973, beating Cale Yarborough in the spring and Bobby Allison in the fall.

Pearson won two more, in the spring of 1975 and the spring of 1978. Continue reading