Blaney Returns To His Roots, Wins Port Royal Sprint Feature

While NASCAR took the weekend off, Dave Blaney took to the track at the season opening race at Port Royal (PA) Speedway.  

For Blaney at the wheel of his No. 10, a car specially designed and built by himself, it was as second career opening day Port victory, his last coming on March 17, 1984. 

The 25-lap sprint car main, proved to be a marathon, starting off with a red flag before the first lap could be completed. With over three laps to go, Blaney blasted the middle through the third and fourth turns when the leader's car jumped out of gear, the pair of drivers then watched as Blaney completed a two car pass for the lead and win. Blaney's margin of victory was 2.822 seconds.  

"It's really cool to come out here to Williams Grove, Port, all of these tracks out here got so much history," Blaney said. "I'm from not that far from here, only four or five hours so it's always fun to come race with the best and when you beat these guys at their home track, it's hard to do I don't care who you are. It was a good night."

"It was a long race," Blaney said after the checkered flag flew in the over 90 minute long race. "We got fortunate, a lot of guys in front of us had trouble. Lance blew a tire or something and the 07 ran out of fuel or something. The car kept getting better when I got fuel out of it. It was a handful until the end. I gotta thank Mike Heffner for letting us use an engine tonight. I couldn't be happier."