NASCAR WCUP: Bristol is like 'racing in a fish bowl' for Ward Burton

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

March 22, 2001

“Bristol isn’t like any other short track we race at. It’s a like racing in a fish bowl for 500 laps. You never get a breather from racing the track. You never get to take your hands off the wheel. It is a physically and mentally challenging race track. You have got to survive it for 500 laps.” Ward Burton, driver of the No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge

BURTON ON BRISTOL…

“It is a very different race track. The one thing you worry about is getting caught up in something that you couldn’t control. You can have a really good car and just get collected and have your day is over that fast. You have to attack the track, but still be cautious all at the same time. We’ve had some pretty good runs here in the last couple of years. This race last year, we finished third and had a really good car all day. We’re just hoping we can have that kind of run again this week.

“It will be real important to have a solid qualifying run here this weekend. First of all, you don’t want to have to pit on the backstretch. You also don’t want to have to start in the back because if it goes green for a little while, you could be in jeopardy of going a lap down early. With the track being so small, the field gets lined up single file and it just about wraps around the whole track. We’ll really concentrate on our qualifying run on Friday and then hopefully dial our race set-up in the rest of the weekend.”

BURTON ON THE POINTS RACE…

“It’s been a very strange year. There have been a lot of teams that have had problems that aren’t even close to the top 10 yet, but the season is early and I look for people like Bobby Labonte to recover and get back in the hunt again. We got off to a slow start in the points race. We had a dominating car at Daytona, but got caught up in that wreck and our solid finish went out the window. Then, we had mediocre finishes the next two weeks and we’re just now recovering from that. I believe we’ll be back in the top 10 in a couple more weeks. We’re only 45 points out of 10th place.”

Text provided by H K Stoddard

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