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NASCAR WCUP: Ward Burton hopes to end struggles on road courses this weekend

10 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

"We've struggled a little bit the past few weeks. We've had little things happen that didn't make since until we got back to the shop and got the car torn down. Then we figure out why we had problems. We've just got to continue to work hard, pay a lot of attention and stay positive." - Ward Burton, driver of the Caterpillar Racing Pontiac

BURTON ON WATKINS GLEN

"It's going to be very important to get a good qualifying lap. It seems that track position has gotten to be very important. I'm not sure if the tires have contributed to the importance of track position, but I do know we can't have what happened at Sears Point this week. I'd say this is one of the most important places we go to have a good starting spot. Watkins Glen is a little bit easier to pass then at Sears Point. We need to have a good run and get our momentum back and start having that consistency we had at the beginning of the year. It is a lot of pressure, but we have a great group of guys and we can get it done."

BURTON ON THE TEAM'S TEST AT THE GLEN

"It went pretty good. It'll take a combination of a couple of things to have a good run, obviously, if we can get the racecar better for me and I can getter better in the racecar then we'll be just fine. I'm not an accomplished road racer by any means, but I think we have a good opportunity for a competitive run. I have been to a couple of road racing course, one at Pocono and one at Sears Point.

"I spent a lot of time talking to Boris Said and Ron Fellows while we were testing. I wanted Boris to get in my car, but he couldn't fit in the seat. He did get into Dave's (Blaney) car. He couldn't really get a good run since the seat wasn't fit to him, but he helped both of us with some pointers. I rode around the track a couple of times with Ron and that helped too. I've talked to Boris a couple of times on the phone since we tested and he has been very helpful. I hope he can help us out and we can help him out at some point."

CHASSIS NOTES

The Caterpillar Racing team returns to road course action with the same car they had intended to race at Sears Point Raceway. At Sears Point Raceway, Burton hung his right-rear tire off the track during his qualifying lap and overturned his No. 22 Pontiac. The team was forced to race their back-up car. They returned to their High Point, N.C., shop and hung a new body on the same chassis. They feel it is a better car than the car that competed at Sears Point Raceway.

Text provided by HK Stoddard

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