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NASCAR WCUP: Ward Buton ready for 'great racing surface' at Las Vegas

1 March 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

"Las Vegas has a great racing surface. It is wide with more than one groove, so you can pass anywhere on the track - sometimes three abreast. A good track with a smooth racing surface allows you to have side-by-side racing."

- Ward Burton, No. 22 Caterpillar Pontiac

BURTON ON LAS VEGAS

"I really like the track at Las Vegas. It is a great facility. It truly suits my driving style. It has some banking in the turns and that helps you carry momentum through the corners and still be able to pass cars all the way through the turns. Because of that you don't have to run the bottom groove like you do at places like Loudon. You have to just about nudge somebody out of the groove to get by them at those types of tracks. But Vegas has a great track surface and it's just a good track for everybody to run on."

"As for the city of Las Vegas, I wouldn't ever be able to live there. Everything moves way to fast for me. That doesn't mean that I fault anybody else for living there, it's just not my style. I do enjoy going there once a year. I enjoy watching the excitement of the gamblers and the fast pace of life. I like taking my family to see a show and just absorb a different way of life."

BURTON ON THE RACE

"We're going to do whatever we can to get the No. 22 Caterpillar Racing Pontiac into victory lane. But we're not going to let the media or anybody else put pressure on us. We put enough pressure on ourselves to win, so we don't need any added pressure. We came out of Daytona with a top-10 finish and a third-place finish last week. We keep getting closer each week. We have built a great team and we're going to get to victory lane together."

BURTON ON LAST WEEK'S THIRD-PLACE FINISH

"The Caterpillar team did a great job for me last week at Rockingham. If we keep running like that and knocking on the door, a win will come for us. It has been awhile, but we got a top-five finish and I'm happy with that. We adjusted on the car all day. We started out way too tight and then we got real loose on long runs. Right there at the end was actually our better run. We just didn't have the track position we needed, but we did get by Tony Stewart right there at the end. But overall, we're pretty happy with a top-five finish this early in the season."

Text provided by HK Stoddard

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