NASCAR WCUP: Burton Looks Ahead to Las Vegas With Renewed Confidence
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
March 1, 2001“I am actually looking forward to getting toLas Vegas. It was very difficult toconcentrate last week and I think that most drivers and crew members willagree. I believe that this week peoplewill try to return to their routines and move forward.” -Ward Burton, Caterpillar Dodge
BURTON ON LAS VEGAS…
“Tracks like Las Vegas aredefinitely my favorite to compete at. We have a great new car with the Dodge and we had a really good testthere back in January. That test turnedaround my thinking about the new Dodge. I hadn’t been real confident in the decision to switch manufacturers,but after that test I had a lot of confidence in our new car. The reliability of the new engine had been ahuge question mark for all of us. ScottWimmer, Bill Davis Racing’s new Busch driver, logged several hundred laps withthe new engine and it performed flawlessly. Terry Elledge, the engine builder at Bill Davis Racing, is a veryaggressive – yet conservative – engine builder. We have a lot of confidence in his ability.
“The test session also proved that we had really gooddownforce. I could drive the car deeperinto the turns than I have ever been able to do. That is something that you need to be able to do in order to winraces. The further you can drive intothe corner, the faster you can get off the corner. As you can tell, I am really looking forward to getting to LasVegas. We should run very strong therethis weekend.”
BURTONON SAFETY…
“There are a group ofdrivers that have gotten together and talked about some safety concerns that wefeel need to be addressed. Ultimately,it is our responsibility to make sure we are safe in the car and we need tomake it safer. There are a lot ofthings we’ll be looking at over the next few weeks. There isn’t one answer to making racing safer, so we just need todo our homework and decide what’s best for all of us.”
BURTON ON LAST WEEK’S RACE AT ROCKINGHAM…
“We fought with the car formost of the race. It was rainy and alittle cooler on Sunday and then it rained out. That rain washed all the rubber away from the race track plus thesun was shining and it was much warmer on Monday when the race resumed. That changed the way the Caterpillar Dodgehandled. We had to make up a lot ofground after a mistake in the pits, but we eventually got back to thefront. We got back into the top 10, butwe slipped back when we couldn’t run real strong on the bottom or the top ofthe race track.”
Text Provided By H K Stoddard
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit
The Racing Photo Museum and the
Visions of Speed Art Gallery.