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NASCAR WCUP: Ward Burton ready to lead the pack on Dover's 'two groove' track

31 May 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

"Dover is a challenging track. If something happens right in front of you, it's real hard to avoid getting tangled in it. It is a two-groove track, so passing isn't a problem if you've got you're car handling." - Ward Burton, driver of the Caterpillar Racing Pontiac

BALDWIN ON THE COCA-COLA 600

"We were real inconsistent all night. The weather was hot, then cooler and then it rained and that can affect the handling of the car considerably. We were real loose all night and tried getting the car better for Ward. We eventually got it to run lap times that were comparable with the lead cars, but we didn't have the track position to be up front racing with them. We threw a lot at it all night and we hit on something on one run, but then it went away on the next run. So, inconsistency really hurt us. We'll take 13th and move on to Dover."

BALDWIN ON DOVER

"We're bringing back the same car that we ran last fall at Dover. We were running third until we lost a cylinder and wound up 11th. It was a good car, but we felt like we could build a better body so we hung a new body and kept the old chassis.

BALDWIN'S THOUGHTS ON PONTIAC DISADVANTAGE

"We feel like we are at a disadvantage compared to the new Monte Carlo and Taurus. Everybody has seen the numbers and they know that we are at a severe deficit compared to them. If you look at last weekend at Lowe's, Bobby Labonte had three strong runs, Tony Stewart and Ward both had one strong run and after that they fell off the pace a lot. Their runs were so inconsistent that they couldn't compete throughout the race. We have to be right on (set-up) to be able to run with them. NASCAR is reviewing the numbers and we hope to have a change by Michigan."

Text provided by Heidi Stoddard

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