NASCAR WCUP: Ward Burton has Darlington figured out
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
March 15, 2001
“In the last four races at Darlington, our team has put together a win, a second-place finish and two more top-10’s - that’s the kind of performance that we need to have at all the race tracks. Darlington is one of those tracks that the CAT team has figured out how to run very competitively.” -Ward Burton, driver of the No. 22 Caterpillar Racing Dodge
BURTON ON ATLANTA…
“We fought all day and it paid off for us. With a lot of other cars having problems, we were able to capitalize on those problems and salvage a real good finish. We started out pretty good and then we made some adjustments after a couple of runs and that just got us real loose and we lost a bunch of ground, but the guys kept working on the CAT car and we eventually made up that ground that we lost. Tommy and the guys made a bunch of changes before we started the race because we were not very good during “Happy Hour” and obviously they all worked. We got off to a slow start, but things are starting to come around for us.”
BURTON ON BEING THE DEFENDING RACE WINNER AT DARLINGTON…
“I can’t wait to return to Darlington because I’m sure we’ll have a good car right off the truck and we’ll be able to dial it in from there. We won this race last year and we did it in a big way. We had a great car all day and everything just went perfectly. The guys on pit road did their job, Tommy did a good job calling the race and getting a set-up in the car and all I had to do was make it 400 miles. I am hoping we can have the same kind of day this weekend.”
BURTON ON THE UNIQUENESS OF DARLINGTON…
“Darlington is a very difficult track to get a handle on. It’s very abrasive and that means you have to have a certain finesse and set your car up to handle on long runs. Tire management is also a key factor in having success at Darlington. Darlington is also different in the sense of how you set your car up to run on the high groove. Most tracks it’s important to have a car that can handle at the bottom of the race track. At Darlington, you have to be able to handle on the outside groove, which is just about into the outside wall.”
Text provided by Hiedi Stoddard
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