NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Daytona Anything But Blissful
Mike Bliss moves to Tommy Baldwin Racing for 2010...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted January 09, 2010   Nashville, TN
NASCAR veteran Mike Bliss will likely have to race his way into the 2010 Daytona 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

NASCAR veteran Mike Bliss is more than a little psyched about being back in the Sprint Cup Series, but he knows his first test of the 2010 season might be the most difficult.

This year, Bliss moves up from the NASCAR Nationwide Series to a seat behind the wheel of the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Toyota Camrys. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that since that car finished outside the top 35 in NASCAR Sprint Cup owner points in 2009, Bliss will have to race his way into the first and biggest race of the season, next month’s Daytona 500. He’ll either have to be one of the fastest qualifiers, or, more likely, race his way in during the Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races.

Either way, it’s a daunting challenge for a driver with a new team and a low-budget one at that.

“Daytona … is our Super Bowl,” Bliss said Saturday morning in Nashville, where he was attending the Sprint Speed and Sound Presented by Sun Trust festival. “It's the first race of the year. We have qualifying races on Thursday to get us in the race. Thursday is probably one of the worst races of the whole season as far as drivers that have to get into the race.”

For Bliss, who typically has not raced for upper echelon teams, this year is something of a case of déjà vu all over again.

“I can remember in the years past being in the same situation,” said Bliss. “You're constantly on the radio asking, ‘Who do we need to beat, where do we need to be,’ with the spotter. There's more of that going on than there is spotting. It's a big chess match. You just don't know if something happens, you're involved in a wreck or something, there goes your whole weekend.”

So there’s a lot riding on Daytona for Bliss and the whole team.

“It starts off the year,” he said. “I remember starting off good at Daytona, the whole year just keeps going from there. There's a lot of pressure on Thursday. That's the worst race of the whole year for me.”

Despite the pressure, though, Bliss is glad to be back, and glad to be paired with Baldwin, who won the Daytona 500 as a crew chief for Bill Davis Racing with Ward Burton.

“He's been a crew chief for a long time,” Bliss said of Baldwin. “Won a lot of races. Him and Wave Energy Drink, which will be the sponsor, will be doing the whole year. My hat is off to Tommy because it's a big ordeal to decide to be an owner, not a crew chief. He's really sticking his neck out. I'm excited about being involved with a team that's new. Sophomore year. I like doing that kind of a deal and setup. I like being part of something. It's what I feel like we are.”

Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale: Jan 19th-24th



 Tom Jensen is the Editor-In-Chief for SPEED.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing.
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